The High Court awarded Daniel Harty €30,380 in damages after finding that a 2017 road crash aggravated pre-existing changes in his neck and lower back. The court rejected the Motor Insurers’ Bureau of Ireland’s submission that his action should be dismissed under section 26 of the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004.
The judgment was delivered by Mr Justice Barr on 17 February 2022. The accident happened on 14 January 2017, when Harty was a front-seat passenger in a car driven by his neighbour, Mary Nestor. An oncoming vehicle crossed onto their side of the road and hit their car before driving away. Its driver remained untraced. The parties did not dispute that the accident occurred or liability for causing it.
The MIBI argued that Harty had misled doctors about injuries from an earlier 2008 crash, including by understating ongoing back symptoms and failing to disclose a previous neck injury and earlier personal injuries proceedings. Harty denied deliberately misleading doctors and said he had answered their questions to the best of his ability.
The court found that Harty’s back had been significantly symptomatic before the 2017 crash, with GP referrals to a pain clinic and two missed appointments. It also found that the 2008 neck injury had lasted for a relatively short period. The court noted one GP record of acute neck pain in 2015, but found no evidence of ongoing neck complaints during the years covered by the records.
The judge said false information given to doctors did not, by itself, amount to a breach of section 26, which concerned false or misleading evidence given or adduced at trial, or a false affidavit. The court accepted that Harty had disclosed the earlier proceedings and GP records to the defendants. It concluded that, although he had given some untrue information to doctors, he had not tried to conceal relevant matters from the defendants or the court. The action was not dismissed under section 26.
The court found that the 2017 crash exacerbated degenerative changes in Harty’s cervical and lumbar spine. It accepted that he received three neck injections after the crash, but, without evidence from his treating GP or pain specialist, said it could not determine the likely prognosis and would not draw an inference about it. It nevertheless found, based on a defence doctor’s evidence, that Harty would have some symptoms in the future.
The award comprised €20,000 for pain and suffering to date, €10,000 for future pain and suffering, and €380 in agreed special damages. The judgment ordered an overall award of €30,380 against the MIBI.