The High Court awarded Sheila Andaloc €60,000 after finding that injuries caused to her husband in a 2005 accident led to the breakdown of their marriage and her loss of consortium.
In a judgment delivered on 10 December 2014, Mr Justice Tony Hunt found that the marriage was real and subsisting when the accident occurred. He held that the defendants’ negligence caused the injuries and that the injuries were the primary and proximate cause of the marital breakdown in 2008. The court rejected the argument that earlier strains in the marriage or later judicial separation proceedings prevented the claim from succeeding.
The claim was brought against Iarnrod Eireann/Irish Rail, Federal Security Services Limited (in receivership), and Caraher and Ward Limited. It sought damages for loss of consortium and servitium—loss of a spouse’s companionship and services—following serious injuries to Mr Andaloc. The judgment records that he sustained grave brain injuries, was unable to live independently and later used sheltered accommodation.
The court heard evidence from Mrs Andaloc and the couple’s daughter. The judgment describes the marriage as having faced difficulties before the accident, including an earlier separation proposal and other strains. But the judge found no evidence that it was likely to end in 2005 or soon afterwards without the accident. He accepted that the injuries substantially changed Mr Andaloc’s physical and mental capacities, behaviour and personality, and found that the couple’s marital breakdown followed from those changes.
Mrs Andaloc began judicial separation proceedings in 2009; they remained unresolved as of November 2014. The judge said those proceedings did not remove her entitlement to damages in this action. He distinguished the case from an English decision concerning a claim for financial losses arising from matrimonial orders: Mrs Andaloc’s claim was for loss of consortium and servitium, not those financial losses.
On damages, the court declined to calculate the award by capitalising weekly amounts for care and household services. It set a starting point of €80,000, taking account of the circumstances of the marriage and the likely prospects it had at the time of the accident. The judge applied a 25% discount for general and specific contingencies, resulting in a decree for €60,000. The judgment does not state any further order.