The Supreme Court upheld a €15,000 award for general damages to Conor O’Connor for injuries sustained in a 1996 road traffic collision, but changed the costs order against him. It directed that he pay Dublin Bus the difference between the relevant High Court and Circuit Court costs under section 17(5) of the Courts of Justice Act 1981, as amended.
Mr O’Connor was driving a stationary car on the Malahide Road on 19 November 1996 when a Dublin Bus vehicle struck it from behind. The company did not contest liability in the High Court; the dispute concerned damages. The High Court awarded €15,000 general damages and €5,431 special damages. It found that Mr O’Connor had grossly exaggerated his symptoms but had not deliberately lied, and awarded no damages for future pain and suffering or loss of earnings.
Dublin Bus appealed the damages and argued that the claim should be dismissed as an abuse of process because of alleged deliberate falsehoods. The Supreme Court, in a judgment delivered by Murray J on 18 December 2003, dismissed that part of the appeal. It held that the trial judge had evidence on which to find that Mr O’Connor suffered some injury and was entitled to compensation. Applying the appellate approach to trial findings, it concluded that the judge’s credibility assessment and damages award should stand.
The court said the alleged abuse-of-process issue did not arise on the findings in this case. Murray J discussed the limits of that argument, but did not decide whether deliberate false evidence could constitute abuse of process in an appropriate case. The court also upheld the damages assessment as proportionate to the trial judge’s findings.
The costs appeal succeeded. The High Court had awarded costs on the Circuit Court scale but declined to make an order under section 17(5), reasoning that the earnings claim was misguided rather than fraudulent. The Supreme Court held that the judge had not given sufficient weight to all relevant circumstances, including the substantial continuing earnings claim maintained until the hearing and abandoned during Mr O’Connor’s evidence, its complete rejection, and the award’s level below Circuit Court jurisdiction.
The Supreme Court substituted an order requiring Mr O’Connor to pay Dublin Bus an amount equal to the difference between the costs calculated under the two scales specified by the statute. The damages appeal was otherwise dismissed.