The Court of Appeal reduced damages awarded to the dependants of Michael Davoren from €1,591,957.70 to €1,003,112.04 in a claim arising from his death following medical and surgical treatment in 2003. The court allowed the defendants’ appeal in part and said it would hear counsel on whether to apportion the remaining balance itself or send that issue back to the High Court.
Liability was not contested in the High Court: the defendants did not dispute that their negligence or breach of duty caused Davoren’s death. The dispute concerned damages under Part IV of the Civil Liability Act 1961, which provides for compensation for dependants. Grace Davoren, his widow, brought the claim on behalf of all dependants.
The High Court had awarded €44,975.79 for solatium and funeral expenses, €275,000 for loss of support, and sums for losses connected to Ballyalben, a farm near Ballyvaughan in County Clare. Those farm-related sums included €184,271 for lost income, €50,436 for rental income from the family home, and €1,312,275 for the capital value of the farm, discounted to account for the dependants receiving it earlier than they otherwise might have.
The Court of Appeal upheld the dependants’ entitlement to damages for the lost expectation of inheriting Ballyalben. It accepted the trial judge’s conclusion that Michael Davoren would probably have inherited the farm from his mother. But it found the capital inheritance was not certain: he might not have kept the farm intact throughout his lifetime, and the evidence did not make it certain that his wife and children would later inherit the whole farm. The court therefore applied a 25% discount to the capital value, reducing that component to €984,206.25.
The court also held that the value of benefits the dependants received from Davoren’s estate had to be deducted from the dependency damages. It used the trial judge’s figure of €535,777 for the accelerated receipt of the estate, principally the Ballycahill farm. The court upheld the trial judge’s approach to valuing the use and enjoyment of that land between Davoren’s death and the trial, rejecting the defendants’ appeal on that point.
The resulting award was €1,003,112.04, including the agreed solatium and funeral expenses. The court noted that the High Court had previously ordered a €750,000 payment on account, apportioned among the dependants. The appeal judgment did not determine how the balance should be apportioned; it reserved that question for submissions.