The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Dundee driver loses six-figure damages claim
Motorist instead receives £7,321 in compensation for city shunt
A motorist whose car was reversed into at about four miles per hour has lost a six-figure damages claim but was awarded £7,321 compensation yesterday.
Grant Grubb was in a stationary Subaru Impreza at a petrol pump at a Tesco service station in Kingsway, Dundee, when John Finlay’s Peugeot 409 collided with the vehicle.
Mr Grubb raised a damages action against the other driver claiming pounds £500,000 but following a hearing his senior counsel, Dorothy Bain QC, sought an award of £182,880.
Lawyers for the other motorist sought to be absolved from the action at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.
A judge said he was satisfied that Mr Grubb, 34, of Springhill Gardens, Dundee, suffered a soft tissue injury as a result of the accident and that the effects lasted for about a year and he should receive £7,321 for pain and suffering.
Lord Kinclaven said: “Those acting for the defender clearly formed a view at a fairly early stage that the pursuer (Mr Grubb) had fabricated his whole claim and that the claim was fundamentally dishonest. However, having heard all the evidence, I reject those extreme conclusions.”
“I did not share the defender’s considerable antipathy towards the pursuer.
“The pursuer was a poor historian but his character failings and flaws and lack of candour were not enough to warrant depriving him of an entitlement to damages,” said the judge.
At the time of the incident on May 22 2011 Mr Grubb was sitting in the driver’s seat leaning over to pull a petrol cap lever when he felt the force of the collision in his left arm which was on the steering wheel.
A sharp, shooting pain went up his arm into his neck and his head moved forward and back and struck the headrest.
The pain got worse as the day went on and went down his left arm to his hand and little finger and radiated into his neck and shoulder, said the judge.
The judge said he was not satisfied the effects of the accident on Mr Grubb continued beyond a 12-month period.
He said: “I do not go so far as to say there is no substance in the pursuer’s complaints after that date – simply that they can’t be attributed to the accident. The same applies to neuropathic pain and psychological complications.”
Lord Kinclaven said he accepted Mr Grubb continued to have symptoms but, in the light of evidence led, was unable to hold they were caused by the accident.
In the action against Mr Finlay, of Kinloch Street, Carnoustie, it was maintained in the pleadings that Mr Grubb suffered a whiplash injury and developed chronic pain syndrome.