The High Court has ordered a two-stage trial in a personal injury claim arising from a 2017 cycling accident in the grounds of Killarney National Park. Liability will be heard first. A separate assessment of damages will take place only if the plaintiff succeeds on liability.
The plaintiff, Ian O’Connell, is a minor suing through his father and next friend, Michael O’Connell. He claims damages for catastrophic injuries that left him tetraplegic and in need of lifelong treatment. The defendants are the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the Commissioner of Public Works in Ireland, the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, the Minister for Finance, Ireland, and the Attorney General.
The defendants deny that the plaintiff was a “visitor” under the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1995. They contend he was a recreational user and cannot show reckless disregard for his safety. Whether the accident location was an allurement is also in dispute. The judgment did not decide liability or determine the underlying allegations.
The defendants sought separate trial modules, estimating that liability would take about a week and that a damages assessment, if needed, could take three to four weeks. The plaintiff disputed aspects of the time estimate and argued that splitting a personal injury claim could cause delay and prejudice, including by requiring him to give evidence at separate hearings.
Mr Justice Cian Ferriter said modular trials may be appropriate in exceptional personal injury cases where the issues divide cleanly, the damages stage is likely to be substantially longer, and evidence does not materially overlap. He found those conditions were met here: causation was not in issue, liability and damages involved distinct evidence, and the damages phase was expected to be at least twice as long as liability. He found no material prejudice, while recognising there could be inconvenience and some additional delay if the plaintiff succeeded.
The court ordered a liability module followed, if warranted, by a damages assessment. To reduce delay from a possible appeal after the liability stage, the trial judge is to refrain from drawing up an order on liability until the damages hearing concludes. Any appeal time limits would then run from the final order, and an appeal could address both liability and damages. The defendants will not argue against that mechanism before the trial judge. The judge proposed that the costs of the application be costs in the cause, subject to hearing from the parties.