The High Court awarded Barbara Phillips €56,600.52 after finding that a road traffic collision significantly aggravated her pre-existing back condition and caused psychiatric injuries. Liability for the collision was not in dispute; the case concerned the extent and duration of the aggravation and the damages due.
Ms Phillips was a passenger in a car driven by her husband when it was struck on Brackenstown Road, Swords, on 22 May 2015. The couple’s car was stationary while waiting to turn into their driveway. Ms Phillips already had rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis and a history of neck and back pain treated with injections.
The defendant argued that the plaintiff’s pre-existing neck and back problems were significant and that any aggravation had ended before the October 2017 hearing. The defendant’s medical experts considered the ongoing symptoms largely attributable to underlying conditions. The plaintiff’s treating doctors considered that her back symptoms remained aggravated and could continue until January 2018 or January 2019. No medical witnesses gave oral evidence; the parties submitted medical reports instead.
Justice Barr preferred the opinions of the treating doctors, who had seen Ms Phillips both before and after the collision. He accepted her and her daughter’s evidence that she continued to have severe daily back pain, disturbed sleep and difficulty with housework, walking and standing. She had hired home help and could no longer garden. The court found that her neck symptoms had largely returned to their pre-accident level by January 2017, but that her back condition remained significantly aggravated, potentially until January 2019.
The court also accepted psychiatrist Dr Elizabeth Cryan’s unchallenged diagnosis of depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and a conversion disorder linked to an episode of amnesia. The court considered recovery likely by January 2019 or within the following six to twelve months, assuming Ms Phillips continued Cymbalta, undertook cognitive behavioural therapy and her physical symptoms subsided.
The court awarded €37,500 for pain and suffering and loss of amenity to the date of judgment, and €15,000 for future pain and suffering. It added €4,100.52 in special damages for medical treatment up to April 2016, allowing the amount in full. Judgment was entered for €56,600.52.