The High Court allowed appeals by Mark Fegan and Lee Fegan against Circuit Court orders dismissing their road accident claims, finding that an unidentified van driver caused the collision. It assessed damages at €20,625 for Mark and €26,725 for Lee, including agreed special damages.
The claims arose from a collision alleged to have happened at about 8.30pm on 13 January 2016, at a junction near Roskeagh, County Louth. The brothers were passengers in a Ford Focus driven by Aiden Rice when, they said, a commercial van struck the car from behind as it waited at the junction.
The Motor Insurers’ Bureau of Ireland contested the claims and put the plaintiffs to proof. The van’s owner, Jason Warde, did not appear. The appeals were heard together de novo, meaning the High Court considered the evidence afresh. The judge said the Bureau’s cross-examination challenged whether the collision happened as described, but it did not plead fraud and called no evidence of its own.
Photographs showed the van in contact with the rear of the car after the crash, although the witnesses described only one impact. The plaintiffs’ engineer, Robert Burke, explained that the road’s downward gradient and the vehicles’ differing weights, including the load in the van, could have caused the van to roll forward after the initial impact and close a gap. The judge accepted that as the most probable explanation for the vehicles’ final positions.
The court also accepted the witnesses’ account of the journey and the crash. It found no cogent evidence that the plaintiffs were involved in unlawful activity, and concluded that the collision was a regular road traffic accident. The judge found that the van driver failed to keep a proper lookout, slow down or stop, and that this failure was the sole cause of the crash. The driver was deemed to have been driving with Warde’s consent under section 118 of the Road Traffic Act 1961, as amended; the court had no evidence to the contrary.
The court found that both plaintiffs had fully recovered. It awarded €20,000 to Mark and €25,000 to Lee for pain and suffering, plus agreed special damages of €625 and €1,725 respectively. The judgment says the appeals would be allowed and damages awarded on those terms. The judge said the final form of the orders would be discussed with counsel.