A Supreme Court judge concluded that Patrick Rogers had not proved that an unidentified or untraced driver caused his injuries, and said he would allow the Motor Insurers’ Bureau of Ireland’s appeal. The judgment does not state the court’s formal order.
Rogers had sued the Bureau over injuries sustained in May 1996, alleging they resulted from the negligent driving of an unidentified driver. The High Court found for him in December 2003 and awarded €120,700 in damages, plus costs. The Bureau appealed the finding on liability.
Rogers was found injured near a service station on the Newry Road in Dundalk after a night out. He had skull fractures, a bruised hip and a cut to his hand. His account of seeing lights coming towards him emerged as a recovered memory years later. Witnesses gave differing accounts of where he was found and how he was moved. There was no forensic evidence of a collision.
The Supreme Court judgment reviewed the evidence and the trial judge’s findings under the civil standard of proof. It said Rogers had to establish both that a vehicle caused his injuries and that its owner or user was negligent. The Bureau did not have to prove that no vehicle was involved.
The judge found weaknesses in several inferences made at trial. The evidence did not establish that Rogers continued along the footpath from the bridge to the service station, or that he was struck there and thrown over a low wall. Medical evidence did not show that a vehicle collision was more likely than a fall. The judge said either a vehicle-related fall or a fall without a vehicle could explain the injuries, and the evidence left unanswered where, how and when the injury occurred.
The judgment said the rule known as res ipsa loquitur could not fill that evidential gap. Because causation had not been proved on the balance of probabilities, the judge concluded that the claim must fail and said he would allow the appeal. The source ends with that judge’s conclusion; it does not record a formal order by the full court.