The High Court has allowed an appeal by a woman whose personal injury proceedings had been struck out as statute-barred, finding that her case against both defendants was issued within time under the limitation rules then in force.
The appeal concerned a road traffic collision on 12 February 2014. The plaintiff’s stationary vehicle was struck by a vehicle owned by Frank Kearns and driven by Caroline Kearns. The judgment says she gave the plaintiff her name and insurance details at the scene. The plaintiff later experienced soft tissue injuries to the neck and back.
The plaintiff applied to the Personal Injuries Assessment Board (PIAB) on 28 April 2015, naming Frank Kearns and AXA Insurance Ltd as respondents. PIAB authorised proceedings against those respondents on 21 October 2015. In September 2016, the plaintiff made a supplemental application under section 46(3) of the PIAB Act to add Caroline Kearns, citing a genuine oversight. PIAB issued a further authorisation on 25 October 2016 under the same claim number. The plaintiff issued proceedings against both defendants on 29 March 2017.
The defendants argued that the claim was out of time. The Circuit Court struck it out on 15 December 2020, and the plaintiff appealed. The High Court considered whether the later authorisation affected the limitation period for claims against either defendant. The court noted that the 2019 amendment to the PIAB Act, which provides separately for respondents named in an original application and those added later, did not apply to this case.
The High Court held that the proceedings against Caroline Kearns were not statute-barred. It found no statutory basis for restricting a section 46(3) application to the six-month period after the original authorisation, and said the added defendant’s claim did not depend on whether proceedings against Frank Kearns were in time.
The court also found that proceedings against Frank Kearns were issued within time. It treated the initial PIAB application as the start of the period to be disregarded and the later section 46 authorisation as setting the end point six months after its issue, on 24 April 2017. The proceedings were filed before that date, on 29 March 2017.
The High Court allowed the appeal and set aside the Circuit Court’s 15 December 2020 order. The judgment was delivered by Ms Justice Butler on 16 June 2021.