€10,000 for ‘Accident-Prone Man’ in Ninth Personal Injury Claim

A man described as an “unfortunate, accident-prone” has secured a €10,000 settlement with legal costs in his ninth personal injury claim before Limerick Circuit Court.

Anthony Lynch claimed general damages as a consequence of a road traffic incident near Thomond Bridge in Limerick.

He informed Judge James O’Donohue that while he was stationary at a junction in his work van, a car allegedly “came out of nowhere” and hit his vehicle from behind, resulting in a “significant impact”.

His van was written off as a result of the incident. When he phoned his boss to inform him of what had happened, he was told to stay in the van. The accused allegedly sped away from the scene, mounting the nearby footpath kerb and hitting the wall of Thomond Bridge as he fled the scene.

Mr Lynch was on disability benefit for a prior back injury and was only permitted to work for a limited number of hours. He went to his GP the following day and had to endure six months of neck, shoulder and lower back pain.

There were also “psychological issues” and he was still receiving pain management injections as result.

During cross-examination by counsel for Liberty Insurance, Emmett O’Brien BL, the court heard specifics of Mr Lynch’s eight previous claims spanning 15 years.

The Plaintiff had many prior personal injury cases, such as an incident where Mr Lynch swallowed a chicken bone while eating a chicken nugget, a “trip and fall accident” where he successfully sued Eircom and was awarded €12,000 plus legal cost, an award of €7,500 in suit against Silvercrest Foods in which he claimed he ate horse meat on the day the related scandal broke in Ireland, he sued a woman with whom he was involved in a road traffic incident. Mr Lynch was awarded €20,000 plus legal costs and he also initiated proceedings against Homebase House and Garden Centre Limerick after an incident involving a defective toilet seat. He was awarded €20,000.

The court found in favour of Mr. Lynch, however in his ruling, Judge O’Donohue said that Mr Lynch was a “very unfortunate, accident-prone individual” and “he has been well compensated in the past”, ultimately awarding the Plaintiff €10,000 in damages and an order for costs.