O'Haran and Others v Divine

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1966
• Date: 01 January 1966
• Court: Supreme Court

(S.C.)

O'Haran and Others

and

Divine

Whether damages excessive - Claim by husband for loss of consortium - Measure of damages.

A husband and wife suffered personal injuries by the negligence of the defendant. The husband's injuries were slight. The wife sustained injuries to her face, which had healed with some disfigurement in that they tended to become blue in colour in cold weather and there was a slight pull on one nostril. She suffered also fractures of her right femur and humerus and injury to her back all of which necessitated four operations. Subsequently, and while still in hospital she began to pass stones accompanied by attacks of renal colic and to show symptoms of trouble in her left kidney, which was later removed. The wife was separated from her husband for twenty-nine weeks during her treatment in hospitals in Naas and in Dublin and for thirteen weeks during her necessary convalescence in Guernsey, a total of forty-two weeks. She was awarded £9,000 damages for her personal injuries and an award of £350 was made to the husband for loss of consortium. On appeal bythe defendant to the Supreme Court against the award to the wife on the grounds that the damages awarded were excessive and against the award to the husband on the ground that the damages awarded to him were excessive and also on the ground that the loss of consortium was only partial and that no damages should be awarded to him it was:—Held by the Supreme Court ( Ó Dálaigh C.J., Kingsmill Moore, Haugh and Walsh JJ., Lavery J. agreeing subject to a slight qualification) dismissing the appeal. 1. That the award to the wife could not be set aside as unreasonably excessive. Per Kingsmill Moore J.:—"Taking together the prolonged periods of severe pain, the disfigurements involved in the various scars on face and body, the mental...