A judge has told a taxi driver there was a fair bit of spoofing going on about minimal impact collisions before throwing out his €60,000 damages claim for alleged severe personal injury.
Judge James O'Donohoe said he was not really impressed with Barry Griffin’s claim regarding what was a most minor impact similar to what was happening in traffic every day of the week.
Mr Griffin, 37, of Raheen Park, Ballyfermot, Dublin, had sued Annette Moran, Errigal Road, Drimnagh, Dublin, owner of a car being driven by her daughter Deborah Moran, following a collision on Kylemore Road, Dublin, on 2 February 2019.
Deborah Moran told the Circuit Civil Court she accepted that her car had run into the back of Mr Griffin’s car in traffic but there had been no damage to either vehicle and she had not heard a bang or anything like it. There had not been any injuries and Mr Griffin had told her he was fine.
Her sister Karen, a passenger in Moran's car, said she was unaware of an accident until her sister had switched off the engine and they had been approached by Mr Griffin who had told them he had never been involved "in anything like this before".
She told barrister Karl Finnegan, who appeared with Fergal White of Coughlan White Solicitors for Annette Moran and Liberty Insurance, that Mr Griffin had said at the scene he was not injured.
The court heard that Mr Griffin, who had been involved in another accident in 2018, less than a year before the incident with the Morans, had claimed to have been fully recovered prior to the 2019 accident.
Judge O’Donohoe said it transpired in evidence he was still attending his GP about the 2018 accident when the second one had occurred.
"I accept the evidence of Ms Moran that Mr Griffin had said at the scene he hadn’t been injured and had added he wasn’t used to this kind of thing when he clearly was," Judge O’Donohoe said.
He dismissed the claim by Mr Griffin who had alleged he had been shocked following the accident and had experienced pain the full length of his spine with back and neck pain radiating to his scalp.
Eight months after the accident he claimed to have been making progress but still experiencing flare ups of neck and lower back pain after driving and prolonged sitting.
Mr Griffin told Mr Finnegan when questioned about having allegedly been thrown back and forward in the collision that "I did feel it" and later that he had physiotherapy because "I was sore".
Judge O’Donohoe, dismissing Mr Griffin’s claim with an order for costs against him, said the Moran sisters had been very surprised about the personal injuries claim and usually when a defendant turns up to give evidence they obviously feel very strongly about it.
