Injury Compensation News

The Health Service Executive (HSE) has apologised to the family of John McNeive of County Mayo and made a settlement of €102,000 after a two-year delay in diagnosing cancer. The settlement was for the metal stress to the family caused by the delayed diagnosis.

John McNeive was first referred for testing to University College Hospital in Galway in April 2003 by his GP, who continued to be concerned with McNeive’s condition during the diagnosis delay.  McNeive was also tested in Beaumont Hospital in Dublin. A malignant tumour was identified in August 2004 using CT scan at Beaumont Hospital.  For some unexplained reason, follow-up appointments were not provided and the recommended biopsy was not conducted.  Cancer of the neck was eventually diagnosed in April 2005.

The HSE apologised to the family for the delay, hurt, and distress caused by the delayed diagnosis.

The Injuries Board Ireland figures for 2009 reveal that 25,919 new injury claims were made, an increase of 5% on 2008.  There were 8,645 claims settled in 2009 for the amount offered by Injuries Board Ireland.  The difference between the high volume of applications and and the comparatively small number of settlements is normal because only about 20% of claims are settled for the amount offered by the Injuries Board (the rest are settled before an offer is made, go directly to Court, or are rejected as too low).

The total value of the award offers that were accepted was over €200 million, averaging €23,163 per award.

Nearly three quarters of awards offers that were accepted were road traffic accident claims, with 11% were for injuries at work, and the rest were for accidents in public places (like pubs or shops).

The offers that were accepted for injuries at work tended to about 50% higher than road traffic accident claims.

Emma Dempsey, now aged 11, suffered shoulder injuries during her birth  will have limited function in her right arm and shoulder for the rest of her life. As with all childen’s injury claims, the case was brought by her mother, Carol Dempsey, who acted as ‘next friend’ in the case.

The case was taken against the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street, and against a consultant obstetrician, Dr Peter Lenehan, Blackrock Clinic, Dublin. The defendants denied any medical negligence. Despite advances in medical care, there are still a small percentage of births that will have complications due to natural causes and complications.  The infant mortality rate in Ireland is less than 5 per 1,000 live births, which is one of the lowest rates in the world. However, this still means about 200 birth deaths every year.

High Court has approved a settlement of €500,000, which as made without any admission of liability.

In a rare example of a workplace injury claim not involving an actual physical injuries, a Securicor driver has been awarded €25,000 in damages for robbery of his van that included the “Tiger” kidnapping of a colleague’s wife. The security van driver, James Eakins, had sued Securicor Security Services Limited, his former employer, for post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.  While not personally threatened, Eakins claimed that he was stressed by an incident when he handed over over €1 million to a work colleague whose wife had been taken hostage.  The 2007 incident happened while delivering cash to an ATM at a service station in County Carlow.   The president of the High Court, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns,  ruled James Eakins was entitled to compensation.

Gardaí have a particularly dangerous job, and injuries at work are always going to occur.  There has been a significant increase in claims over the last 5 years. Some 430 claims have been settled in the past two years and more than 800 claims are outstanding. The total cost of the awards and legal costs was almost €30 million over the past two years. The numbers appear to indicate that about 5% of the members of the Garda Síochána are claiming compensation for work-related injuries every year.

Garda injury compensation claims are not handled by Injuries Board Ireland. The Garda Compensation Act specifies that all Garda injury claims must be handled by the High Court. There has been a significant increase in compensation for the stress caused by exposure to people that are possibly infected with diseases like hepatitis or HIV.  Some examples include:

• A garda was awarded €25,000 in compensation for stress after an encounter with a HIV-positive drug addict.

• A garda was awarded €30,000 after an injury became infected and he was afraid he might contract a disease.

• A garda was awarded €8,000 for physical and psychological suffering after being bitten during the arrest of a drug user.

Gardaí are exposed to other forms of workplace stress that other workers rarely experience.  For example, a garda who had a gun pointed at her and hid under a dashboard was awarded €30,000.  The gun was an imitation firearm, although there was no way for the garda to know that at the time.

Two young children who witnessed a savage dog attack on their mother, Mrs. Bernadette O’Leary, are to receive €75,000 between them for trauma and shock as part of the overal settlement.   Mrs. O’Leary was staying in a relative’s house in Waterfall, Co Cork. Another relative was responsible for looking after three collie dogs in the back garden.

It was alleged that Mrs. O’Leary was attacked by the three dogs in the back garden, although the house owners claimed that O’Leary had been told to not use the back garden and was therefore tresspassing at the time.  It was claimed that the attack resulted in lip and arm injuries that were witnessed by two young children.  One of the children kept a part of Mrs. O’Leary’s lip on ice in the hope that it could be stitched back on.  The children were not injured in the incident but are to receive €75,000 between them for the trauma and shock of seeing their mother attacked.

There was no admission of liability with the settlement.

A sad story in the Irish Times today, Conrad’s story: How in two years he went from full-time work to the streets,  points out an often overlooked issue with injuries at work.  “Conrad”, who was working a window fitter, injured his hand at work but did not report it.  The story explains the problem in two lines:

He says the injury to his hand occurred while he was working but at the time he did not disclose it for fear he would be sacked.

This failure to disclose a workplace injury created major problems for him when he later went to claim social welfare.

So when Conrad eventually lost his job, he did had no documentation available to support his claim that he was injured at work, and therefore did not qualify for disability benefit or disability allowance.

The lesson is to report all workplace injuries and have them recorded in an Accident Report Boook, even when you have no intention of making a personal injury claim.

A civil servant called Orla Fitzpatrick was injured while working in Leinster House.  The case was taken against the leas-cheann comhairle, the finance minister and the attorney general. As with so many personal injury cases, the matter was settled before it went to court, for 150,000 euro.  As is the normal practice, the legal costs of the victim were paid.  The information was released under the Freedom of Information Act, although the exact details of the injuries were not released.

Another recent personal injury case at Leinster House involved Mona Hanafin, the mother of the social welfare minister Mary Hanafin.  Mona Hanafin had the bad luck of breaking a bone in her arm in a fall at Leinster House and received €33,280 in a damages.