The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by the first defendant against a High Court award of €302,445.48 to a woman injured in a road traffic collision in Cork in 2016. The court upheld the damages assessment and proposed that the plaintiff receive her costs, subject to either party seeking a different costs order within 21 days.
The appeal concerned the High Court’s assessment of damages after liability for the collision had been admitted. The first defendant argued that the High Court should have dismissed the claim or sanctioned the plaintiff over her evidence about future loss of income. She also challenged the assessment of general and special damages and the calculation of past and future earnings losses.
The Court of Appeal judgment, delivered by Ms Justice Faherty on 14 July 2022, reviewed the High Court’s findings about the plaintiff’s pre-existing condition and subsequent symptoms. She had undergone surgery in June 2016 for a Chiari 1 malformation. The High Court found that she was making progress before the collision on 27 August 2016, but that the accident worsened her neck and shoulder pain and headaches and caused additional back and knee complaints.
The first defendant disputed the extent to which the collision caused the plaintiff’s continuing symptoms, particularly her headaches. The Court of Appeal held that the trial judge had engaged with the competing medical evidence and was entitled to prefer the plaintiff’s treating doctors and physiotherapist. It found sufficient evidence to support the High Court’s conclusion that the accident caused 50 per cent of her headaches, as well as an aggravation of her pre-existing neck and shoulder pain and injuries to her back and knee. The court also upheld the trial judge’s findings concerning depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The High Court had awarded €96,000 for pain and suffering to the date of trial and €50,000 for future pain and suffering. It also awarded €17,648.98 for expenses, €105,480.54 for past loss of earnings and €33,315.96 for future loss of earnings. The Court of Appeal found no basis to disturb those assessments, including the trial judge’s view that the Book of Quantum offered little assistance in a case involving multiple injuries and a neck weakened by recent surgery.
The court dismissed the appeal, including the challenge to the income-loss calculation. The proposed costs order is for the plaintiff’s costs; a different order may be considered if either party gives notice within 21 days of receiving the electronic judgment.