High Court allows labourer to take case against Cork County Council over crash in 2011
The judge said the delay in the case between 2016 and 2019 was excusable.
The High Court has rejected an application by Cork County Council and the owner and operator of a filling station in West Cork to strike out proceedings against them by a motorist involved in an accident outside the premises due to what they claim was an inordinate and inexcusable delay in prosecuting the case.
Samuel Field (40), a labourer, initiated legal proceedings over an incident outside Cronin’s Filling Station, Reindessert, Ballylickey, Co Cork on August 3, 2011, against businesswoman, Anne Cronin, and a related company which operated the filling station, as well as Cork County Council.
Mr Field claims he lost control of his vehicle suddenly and without warning after it came in contact with an unknown contaminant on the road surface which caused him to crash into another vehicle parked in the forecourt of the filling station.
Mr Field suffered multiple traumas including a collapsed lung, multiple broken ribs, internal bleeding and fractures of his jaw and eye socket. He claims the accident and the consequent personal injury, loss and damage that he suffered was due to the negligence and breach of duty of the various defendants.
Similar proceedings by Mr Field against two other parties — COH Transport and Great Gas Petroleum (Ireland) — which had respectively transported and supplied fuel to the garage, were struck out by the High Court in May 2018 for want of prosecution and inordinate and inexcusable delay.
Counsel for the three defendants claimed they would suffer significant inherent prejudice in trying to defend the action if the case was allowed to proceed given the accident took place 11 years ago. They argued the case should be struck out in the balance of justice.
They rejected claims that delay in the proceedings was excusable and noted the High Court had struck out proceedings against two other defendants four years ago.
However, counsel for Mr Field argued the case should be allowed to proceed as there was medical evidence that the plaintiff had suffered very serious injuries as a result of the accident.
They noted Mr Field’s solicitor had diligently progressed the case against multiple defendants until his relationship with his client broke down and he came off record in 2016.
Counsel for Mr Field did accept that there had been a delay on his part between 2016 and 2019 but noted he had been involved in a separate legal matter while any delay after 2019 was due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Rejecting the claim to have the case dismissed, Mr Justice Anthony Barr observed that the case was “not a simple action to bring to trial” as the cause of the accident was likely to be hotly disputed.
The judge said Mr Field faced a formidable hurdle in establishing “on the balance of probabilities” that there was a contaminant on the road surface that caused him to lose control of his vehicle and in establishing which defendant was responsible.
He observed that the evidence of gardaí who examined the scene would be crucial in relation to the issue of liability and it was unlikely to be adversely affected by any delay in the case.
Mr Justice Barr said he was satisfied the action was progressed diligently by the plaintiff’s former solicitor given the complexity of the case.
The judge said he accepted that Mr Field was unable to work for a very prolonged period due to his injuries and that he would not have had the funds to engage an alternative solicitor as well as being involved in a separate legal matter. For that reason, he said the delay in the case between 2016 and 2019 was excusable.
Mr Justice Barr said he was not satisfied the balance of justice would lie in favour of dismissing Mr Field’s action and he noted several relevant witnesses remained employees of Cork County Council.
He said the ability of the council to give evidence that it never received any report of a contaminant being on the road was also unaffected by any delay.
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