Former Limerick hurler’s near €1m payout cut by €58,000

Mark Keane told the court that since the injury he was not the man he was, nor the one he hoped to become and felt 'let down'. File picture: Collins Courts

Pharma giant Johnson & Johnson has secured a €58,000 reduction against a High Court award of almost €1m made to a former Limerick senior hurler.

Mark Keane was injured while freeing a work colleague trapped in a machine at their plant in Plassey, Co Limerick, in 2018 and brought a case to the High Court.

Last April, the High Court made a €944,000 award to Mr Keane for injuries to his right hand, arm, and shoulder arising from the incident.

He told the court that since the injury he was not the man he was, nor the one he hoped to become and felt "let down".

An accomplished hurler, Mr Keane won three consecutive All-Irelands with Limerick U21s between 2000 and 2002 and played senior from 2000 to 2006.

Johnson & Johnson had "absolutely" accepted responsibility for the injury Mr Keane suffered in the form of the nerve damage and injury to his right hand. However, the company did not accept responsibility for his claim of injury to his right shoulder.

Johnson & Johnson appealed the award, saying the judge's findings were unsupported in law.

In a judgment published on Tuesday, the Court of Appeal reduced the payout to Mr Keane to €886,000. 

The court said the reduction reflected that Mr Keane had already been awarded €42,000 in 2019 for a road traffic incident in 2014. 

The reduction also reflected an adjustment in Mr Keane's expected future earnings after the court considered previous case law on how that should be calculated.

The Court of Appeal noted that Johnson & Johnson had argued that any loss of earnings was partially due to that accident and therefore the award made by the lower court amounted to a double counting.

Johnson & Johnson, at the High Court, claimed that Mr Keane gave "evidence that he had not cycled a bicycle in years, which he subsequently accepted was untruthful in cross examination".

Mr Keane accepted he had gone cycling socially with friends to get out of the house for his mental health after the injury, but that he did not enter any races. He said he cycled in June 2019 but has not done so since.

Mr Keane took his High Court case against Johnson & Johnson Vision care (Ireland). 

The 45-year-old alleged Johnson & Johnson was negligent and breached their duty of care towards him on September 10, 2018, while he was working as a technician making contact lenses. 

Mr Keane alleged the company failed to provide him with a safe place of work and a safe system of work.