€240k for family of woman killed in garda smash
THE family of a mother-ofthree who was killed in a crash involving an off-duty garda has settled a claim for damages.
High Court judge Garrett Simons said they had accepted an offer of some €240,000, plus legal costs, following the tragic smash in February 2016.
And he said he did not believe the courts should be required to approve settlements in fatal injury cases when the claimants were all adults, with no disabilities.
Defendant Patrick McDonnell, from Corofin, Co. Galway, has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentence for dangerous driving causing the death of 51-year-old Jacqueline Wolohan
Ms Wolohan, a widow, was returning to her home in Kilmore, Coolock, Dublin, from Longford, when the crash involving her blue Nissan Micra and the defendant’s Opel Astra occurred on the M4 at Rossan, Kinnegad, Co. Westmeath.
Her three passengers, including her then 14-year-old son Andrew, were injured. It was reported that the family’s pet dog had also been in the car, and that it was found dead near the scene. Ms Wolohan’s devastated family paid tribute to her at the time, saying heaven had gained ‘one funny, special and beautiful character’.
Judge Simons said that at the time of her death, Ms Wolohan’s two younger children, Sarah and Andrew, were both financially dependent on her, and that she had given them accommodation, care and support.
She had also provided care for her elderly father.
The judge said that to her great credit, Ms Wolohan’s eldest daughter, Alison, took over the responsibility for the care and financial support of her younger siblings and her grandfather.
He said Alison Wolohan took the claim for damages against the defendant for the wrongful death of her mother on behalf of all the statutory dependants, who were all over 18.
He added that the Personal Injuries Assessment Board had put the sum of damages due to them as €216,000, including €176,000 for loss of dependency, a sum for funeral expenses and the €35,000 capped by law for mental distress.
Judge Simons said this was rejected by the family, but the defendant’s insurers, Allianz, then offered €241,000 to settle the case. This was accepted, and came before the court for approval.
Judge Simons noted that one of the peculiarities of the current legal system was that the court had to approve the division of the €35,000 sum for mental distress, but did not have to consider the balance of the settlement which, as in Ms
Provided care for her father
Wolohan’s case, can run to a sixfigure sum. He said he did not believe that the relevant laws required court approval in the case of an agreed settlement between adult statutory dependants.
He added that court approval would always be needed in a case of a fatal injuries claim where one or more of the statutory dependants was an infant, and unable to make legal decisions themselves.
helen.bruce@dailymail.ie