The High Court awarded a total of €460,084.67 in a dependency claim brought after Thomas Paul Hayes was killed in a road traffic accident. The judgment was delivered by Mr Justice de Valera on 15 April 2005.
Kevin Patrick Hayes, Mr Hayes’s father and personal representative, brought the action under section 47 of the Civil Liability Act 1961 on his own behalf and for the other dependants: Mr Hayes’s mother, Jane; his children, Jennifer and Scott; and his sister, Helen. The judgment says the father, mother and sister waived their dependency claims in favour of Scott and Jennifer.
The court heard evidence from Kevin Patrick Hayes and Scott Hayes, as well as actuary Brendan Lynch, who gave evidence for the plaintiff. Jennifer did not give evidence. Mr Hayes had been paralysed in an earlier road traffic accident. He later married, adopted two children with his wife, and raised them after she died. He was killed in a later road traffic accident that was the subject of the proceedings.
The plaintiff argued that the children would have suffered financial losses for the rest of their father’s life. The judge accepted that, in the circumstances of this case, Mr Hayes would have continued contributing to both children. He accepted in particular that Scott would have continued living with his father at the family home. Although Jennifer did not testify, the judge found on the balance of probabilities that her father would also have continued contributing to her, but to a lesser extent than to Scott.
Accepting Lynch’s evidence and report except for an adjustment, the judge set dependency loss at €400,000. He deducted about €71,000 from the actuary’s calculations to reflect the difference in expected dependency between Scott and Jennifer, describing the damages calculation as not an exact science.
The court added agreed special damages of €34,684.67 and €25,400 for mental distress, making a total award of €460,084.67. The judgment does not specify a separate allocation of the total between the dependants.