The High Court has allowed Jamie Connolly’s appeal against the dismissal of his personal injury claim, ruling that the claim was not statute barred. The court dismissed the Motor Insurers Bureau of Ireland’s application on the preliminary limitation issue; it did not determine the underlying claim for damages.
Connolly alleges that he was injured on 21 February 2014 while travelling as a passenger in a vehicle that collided with another motor vehicle. The owner and user of the other vehicle were unidentified or untraced.
His solicitors sent claim notification forms to the Personal Injuries Assessment Board (PIAB) on 7 March 2014 and a Form A application with the required €180 fee on 10 March. PIAB acknowledged receipt on 12 March but said it could not accept the application as complete until it received a treating doctor’s medical report. PIAB repeated that requirement in later letters. The report was sent on 21 August 2017, when PIAB confirmed the application was complete, and PIAB issued an authorisation to bring proceedings on 28 September 2017. The personal injuries summons was issued on 7 March 2018.
The Bureau argued that the PIAB application was made only when it became complete on 21 August 2017, after the limitation period had expired. Connolly argued that the application was made on 10 March 2014, so the period that section 50 of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board Act 2003 excludes from the limitation calculation began then.
Mr Justice Noonan concluded that the Act and the applicable rules distinguish the application form and information from documents that must accompany it. He held that PIAB’s written acknowledgement of the prescribed form on 12 March 2014 was sufficient to mark when the application was made for this purpose. He added that section 50 itself does not make written acknowledgement a prerequisite if the application date can otherwise be established.
The judge preferred the reasoning in *O’Callaghan v Hannon* over a conflicting view in *Forde v J. Manning & Son (Dublin) Ltd*. He found that Connolly’s claim was not statute barred, allowed the appeal and dismissed the Bureau’s application.