The High Court has awarded €50,000 in general damages to a man injured in three road collisions, while dismissing his claim for past and future loss of earnings. The defendants’ liability for the collisions was not disputed. The court also declined to dismiss the actions under section 26 of the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004, finding the defendants had not established that the plaintiff knowingly gave false or misleading evidence.
The claims arose from collisions in September 2014, April 2016 and March 2017. The court heard that the first car was rear-ended, the second collision involved a low-speed impact, and the third followed a sequence in which the plaintiff’s car struck a vehicle ahead before being rear-ended. The plaintiff attributed neck, back and other symptoms to the crashes.
In a judgment delivered electronically on 16 October 2024, Mr Justice Tony O’Connor said the section 26 question concerned the plaintiff’s evidence about his prospects of running a boat repair business and the earnings claims added as the trial progressed. The judge described the plaintiff’s expectations as objectively unreasonable, but said the court was not satisfied to the required high-probability standard that he acted fraudulently or dishonestly. The court therefore did not dismiss the actions under section 26.
The judge rejected the earnings claim, finding it had no basis beyond the plaintiff’s hopes and dreams. The plaintiff had not called anyone else to give evidence about the availability or loss of work opportunities since 2014. The court also rejected a claim for a future spinal cord stimulator, describing it as speculative and noting that the plaintiff himself had discounted its use in his evidence.
On injury and causation, the court attributed some past cervical symptoms to the collisions, while finding that future neck symptoms had not been shown to result from them. It found the medical evidence did not attribute past or continuing lumbar symptoms to the crashes. The plaintiff also failed to establish that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as described by one of his medical witnesses.
The remaining special damages were agreed at €3,050. The court assessed the injuries as moderately severe whiplash-type soft-tissue injuries and awarded €50,000 in general damages, payable on behalf of all defendants. It directed the parties to prepare proposed orders and related costs material. A hearing to finalise the terms of the orders was listed for 10 December 2024; the judgment did not settle the allocation of the award or the costs issues.