Garda seeks €1m for injuries from crash

A FORMER garda, allegedly forced to retire by injury, is seeking in the region of €1 million special damages from the State.

Noel Kevane, of Roscarbery, Co Cork, claims he was forced to give up his career after being injured in May 1999 in a car chase during which a garda car was rammed.

Anne Rowland, for the Minister for Justice, told Ms Justice Mary Irvine, who deals with garda compensation claims in the High Court, that Mr Kevane would be seeking in the region of €1 million special damages for loss of career earnings.

She said, however, that if the Minister for Justice could prove Mr Kevane’s stress disorder and retirement from the force was partly or wholly due to a pre-existing degenerative spinal condition, he would not be entitled to such a special damages award.

Ms Rowland said Mr Kevane’s records revealed that he took two days’ sick leave as a result of certified back pain in 1997. She sought discovery of his medical and psychiatric records back to January 1994.

Alan Keating, for Mr Kevane, said the Minister was attempting to trawl his client’s medical history in a bid to prove his retirement in November 2009, 10 years after the ramming, was because of a pre-existing degenerative condition.

Judge Irvine said she felt justice would be met by ordering Mr Kevane to disclose his records from January 1996 up to his retirement.