Personal Injury
Andaloc, Sheila v Iarnrod Eireann/Irish Rail, Federal Securities Ltd (in receivership), Caraher and Ward Ltd
High Court, 10/12/2014, Hunt J, [2014] IEHC 637, 2010 No 1114P
The Plaintiff in these proceedings was recently awarded damages in the sum of €60,000 by the High Court for loss of consortium and servitium suffered by reason of negligence and breach of duty of the defendants in causing serious personal injury to her husband.
The Plaintiff`s husband suffered serious physical injury as well as a traumatic brain injury through the course of his employment which resulted in him developing a significant change in personality.
His wife (the plaintiff) suffered loss of consortium and servitium as a result. As a consequence of the permanent brain damage and associated change of personality suffered by her husband, the plaintiff’s marriage to her husband came to an end and he ultimately moved out of the family home in February 2008 and thereafter he was made a Ward of Court.
The question for the court to decide was whether a valid, real and subsisting marriage existed at the time of accident.
Justice Hunt in the High Court held, that the accident was a highly probable proximate cause of the marriage breakdown, it was legally foreseeable that such consequences would flow from the extensive injuries of the type inflicted on the Plaintiff’s husband by the negligence of the defendants. Damages in the sum of €60,000 were awarded to the Plaintiff.
