The High Court approved a proposed €125,000 settlement of a fatal injuries claim against the Health Service Executive (HSE), but changed how the €35,000 reserved for mental distress would be divided. The court directed that €27,500 go to the deceased’s partner and €7,500 to his mother. The HSE made the settlement without admitting liability, and the judgment made no finding against it.
The claim followed the death of 25-year-old Dualtagh Donnelly in October 2015. He suffered a fatal arm wound at the home he shared with his partner and children. His partner, Lyndsey Cooney, brought proceedings on behalf of herself and the other statutory dependants, including their three children. The claim alleged failures in the ambulance service’s response, including delay in dispatch and deficiencies in treatment.
The settlement was subject to court approval because the dependants included minors and because Mr Donnelly’s mother, Oonagh Donnelly, objected. She told the court that the family were disappointed by the absence of an admission of liability and concerned that reports attributed significant responsibility for the events to her son. She also sought recognition of the grief experienced by her and his adult siblings.
Justice Garrett Simons said there was no realistic prospect of obtaining more at trial. The evidence before the court indicated that the ambulance operation centre had dispatched the nearest available units, and the claim faced serious difficulties on whether negligence caused the death. The judge said the more likely outcome at trial was dismissal. He stressed that the settlement was not an admission of liability and that his judgment should not be read as a finding against the HSE.
The proposed division had allocated €30,000 of the mental-distress sum to the children and €5,000 to the mother and siblings. The judge ruled that no part should go to the children, who were very young when their father died; the youngest was born afterwards. He considered that the mother could receive at most €7,500 of the capped sum at trial, while the partner’s direct witness to the events and relationship with Mr Donnelly supported the larger share. The mother’s €7,500 is to be hers, rather than shared with the adult siblings.
The court also ordered payment of €5,687.50 for funeral expenses and €577 for catering costs incurred by the mother’s family. The HSE is to pay the plaintiff’s legal costs, with those costs to be measured under Part 10 of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 if not agreed. The court said it had not needed to decide whether public policy could bar negligence claims concerning emergency-call response delays; that question remains for a future case where it is necessary to resolve it.