JUDGE BRANDS CAR INSURANCE CLAIMANTS AS TIME-WASTERS
Four personal injury claimants - two of whom had medical reports written by a former GAA doctor who has since been struck off - have had their cases dismissed.
The claimants, all from Dundalk, said they were injured in a rear-ending accident on February 1, 2015.
Judge Mary O’Malley Costello slammed the plaintiffs’ cases as a ‘waste of everyone’s time’ after hearing inconsistent evidence and also queried why the claimants went to doctors who were not their own GPs.
The court was told the plaintiffs went to a solicitors’ firm and two of them later attended a medical appointment with a Dr James Cassidy, who at the time was working as a GP in Dundalk.
Celine Murphy and Ciara Toner said they attended medical appointments with Mr Cassidy because they could not get an appointment with their own GP.
Mr Cassidy, a former doctor for the senior Tyrone football team, was struck off the medical register by the High Court in 2018 over failing to comply with conditions attached to his registration, including completing an alcohol-awareness programme.
He was also previously convicted at Newry Crown Court for two forgery offences.
In June 2014, he was found guilty in Newry of conspiring with others to attempt to doctor the will of a woman who left €1.9m.
Catherine Haughey, who was a widow and childless, died in 2004 at the age of 81. Concerns about her will were raised shortly after her death.
Mr Cassidy got an 18-month prison sentence with three years suspended.
A subsequent Medical Council inquiry found the former GP guilty of two counts of professional misconduct after he failed to declare to the council in May 2009 that he was convicted of drunken driving in Northern Ireland.
Dundalk Circuit Court was told how Peter Corbett, Christine Bradley, Ms Murphy and Ms Toner brought personal injury claims after they were rear-ended by a Gerard Bradley, who was travelling with a number of other passengers. The claimants said they were suffering from neck and shoulder pain.
Two of the claimants - Ms Murphy and Ms Toner - attended medical appointments with Mr Cassidy to have medico-legal reports prepared for their personal injury cases.
The two other claimants, Mr Corbett and Ms Bradley, were referred by their solicitors’ firm, P Tiernan and Company, to a Dr Jeremy Johnson to have medico-legal reports prepared. A total of nine personal injury claims were pursued by people in both vehicles, with four being heard in Dundalk Circuit Court.
It transpired during crossexamination that some of the parties in the two vehicles were known to one another.
A number of previous accidents involving the claimants were also disclosed during cross-examination.
Three of the claimants involved were unable to describe the third-party vehicle including the make, model or colour.
Judge O’Malley Costello said that never in all of her days as a judge or a practitioner had she seen such a collective set of amnesia.
She also noted how none of the claimants had attended appointments with their own GPs. She dismissed all four claims and awarded costs to Aviva, who insured the defendant, and were represented by Ennis and Associates solicitors.
Rob Smyth, head of Aviva’s investigations unit, said the company will take all necessary steps to recover its costs.
‘We fully agree with Judge O Malley’s comments indicating that this hearing was ’a waste of everyone’s time’. Furthermore, it was also a costly waste of money and resources,’ he said.
‘ This could be avoided if all key stakeholders carried out some basic due diligence enquiries to help determine on the veracity of the information being supplied by the claimants.’