Crash victim settles action for €11m
The settlement is the largest ever approved in a personal injury case in the history of the state.
Cullen Kennedy of Corheen, Loughrea, Co Galway, suffered devastating injuries when, due to what the court heard was a “momentary lapse of concentration” by his mother, Margaret, when distracted by her son while driving him to school in June 2008, her car veered onto the wrong side of the road and collided head on with another car. Ms Kennedy was uninsured at the time.
The other driver suffered minor injuries, Ms Kennedy suffered some injuries but Cullen, then aged six and restrained in a booster seat in the back of the car, suffered severe injuries when his head hit the front windscreen. As a result, he is quadriplegic, wheelchair-bound and will require 24-hour care for life.
Cullen, suing through his grandmother Monica Kennedy, brought proceedings against his mother and the Motor Insurance Bureau of Ireland. Under the agreed settlement, the MIBI will pay the €11.5m judgment sum, plus costs.
Conor Maguire SC said Cullen was six at the time of the accident. He was top of his class at school and an active normal boy. On Thursday, June 5, 2008, he was in the rear passenger seat of his mother’s car restrained in a booster seat for the journey to school.
There was, counsel said, a “momentary lapse of concentration” by his mother. She was distracted by the child and the car crossed in to the other side of the road. The Kennedys’ car hit another car in a head-on collision. Counsel said Cullen suffered catastrophic injuries.
At the time, Cullen’s mother, Margaret, was uninsured. Cullen hit his head on the front windscreen and was unconscious at the scene. He was transferred to Beaumont Hospital and a scan afterwards at Temple St Children’s Hospital offered no hope for a spinal recovery.
Cullen, counsel said, is quadriplegic and will need to be ventilated for the rest of his life. He requires 24-hour nursing care. His mother and grandmother, Monica Kennedy, counsel said, provide full-time care at their home and his grandmother had given up her job to care for him. Two people are required to be with him all the time. At school, counsel said a nurse and special needs assistant attend to Cullen as he takes part in the school day.
Cullen, he said, is a bright inquisitive boy who is fully aware and alert. All of his equipment including his ventilator has to be brought with him to school.
In recommending the lump sum, his side had considered all possible outcomes and the sum went towards the higher end of Cullen’s life expectancy.
Ms Justice Mary Irvine said she has no doubt it was an excellent settlement and will provide for Cullen’s care and future needs.
The courts are “gambling” daily with the welfare and security of those who suffer catastrophic injuries because of the failure to legislate to ensure life-long care needs will be met, a High Court judge said yesterday.
Ms Justice Mary Irvine, while stressing the case before her involved an “excellent” settlement, called for “urgent and prompt” attention to the need for laws providing for periodic payments in catastrophic injury cases.
“The reality is the courts don’t know when people are going to die. We are gambling every day.” It was an “absolute tragedy” and, in certain cases where lump payments had been made, the money to meet care needs was running out.
A lesser injustice, due to the absence of legislation, was that some catastrophically injured persons would die earlier than expected, resulting in a “windfall” for their next of kin.
The judge noted that a working group on periodic payment orders was set up by the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, three-and-a-half years ago, chaired by Mr Justice John Quirke and including herself. She said it had reported unanimously in Oct 2010 that legislation was required to allow cases be settled on the basis of periodic payment orders.
