The High Court refused to dismiss a personal injuries action under section 26 of the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004, after a plaintiff admitted lying about how long he could cycle following a road collision. The court found that he had sworn an affidavit verifying replies he knew were false, but concluded that dismissing the claim would cause injustice.
The case arose from a collision on 27 April 2010, when the plaintiff was knocked from his bicycle by a vehicle driven by the first defendant. Liability for the accident was not in issue.
In replies to the defendants’ request for particulars, the plaintiff said he was largely confined to cycling on flat routes for a maximum of one and a half hours. He repeated that limit to his GP and to a careers consultant. At trial, he admitted that by autumn 2012 he could cycle for up to five hours, and said he had lied to increase the value of his claim. He also admitted swearing an affidavit verifying the replies as true.
The judge held that section 26(1) did not apply because neither the plaintiff nor his doctor gave false or misleading evidence at trial. But the plaintiff’s affidavit breached section 26(2): it verified a materially false account that he knew was untrue. The section required dismissal unless that would result in injustice.
In declining to dismiss the action, the judge said the cycling lies were not central to the claim and had little clinical significance. The GP said there was not much difference from a clinical perspective between cycling for one and a half hours and four hours, and the court found that the doctor did not appear to have been misled in diagnosis or treatment. The plaintiff had an objectively verifiable L1 vertebra fracture, treated with a back brace for three months. The judge said he had made a fairly complete functional recovery by late 2012.
The court awarded €45,000 in general damages for pain and suffering to date, with no award for future pain and suffering. It also allowed €5,744 for the loss of a four-month general operative job with Clonmel Borough Council, which the plaintiff could not take up while wearing the brace. The judge declined to assume he would have been kept on permanently. The total award was €50,744.