The High Court has awarded €335,174 to a woman injured in a 2007 Cork road crash, finding that the collision caused chronic neck pain and made a previously asymptomatic congenital Chiari malformation symptomatic.
The judgment, delivered by Mr Justice Paul Coffey on 18 June 2024, dealt with the assessment of damages only. The defendant had admitted negligently driving onto a roundabout in Farranree and into the path of the plaintiff’s car. The amount of damages was contested.
The plaintiff said the crash caused severe pressure headaches as well as chronic pain in her neck and chest. She underwent decompression surgery in August 2020, which the judge found relieved the pressure headaches. She continued to experience neck and chest pain, with unpredictable flare-ups that could prevent her functioning.
The judge accepted the plaintiff’s evidence that the crash had triggered symptoms from her Chiari malformation. He also found that the collision damaged cervical facet joints, causing chronic left-sided neck pain likely to continue indefinitely, and caused her chronic anterior chest wall pain. He found no evidential basis to link the crash to the later symptoms in her lower limbs.
The court rejected the defendant’s contention that the plaintiff’s injuries were an aggravation of injuries from an earlier crash. It accepted that she had been due to return to part-time cleaning work on 20 February 2017. The judge found that flare-ups left her uncompetitive for sedentary work unless her symptoms were better controlled. He accepted that a spinal cord stimulator was likely to improve control of the flare-ups and that, after the procedure and an office administration course, she could compete for sedentary employment from June 2025.
The judge also found that the plaintiff had developed an adjustment disorder in response to chronic pain, and did not consider anxiety and insomnia reported after the earlier crash a material contributing factor.
The award comprised €85,000 for past pain and suffering and €25,000 for future pain and suffering. Special damages included €20,009 in agreed past outlays, €92,869 for past loss of earnings, €14,196 for one year of future loss of earnings, and €98,100 for a spinal cord stimulator and replacements. The resulting judgment was for €335,174.