Man who attended GP three months after car accident fails in €60k damages claim

A restaurant owner, who did not go to his doctor for more than three months after a car accident, has had a €60,000 damages claim for personal injuries thrown out by a judge in the Circuit Civil Court.

The case had been taken by Loris Luccato, of Anna Livia, James Street, Dublin, and Judge Pauline Codd said he would have had lower-back pain symptoms within 24 to 48 hours of the collision.

Barrister Grainne Berkery, counsel for a client of FBD Insurance, Alan Harmon, of Oak Tree Green, Castleknock, Dublin, told the court that in a medical report from his GP the doctor had stated she was unsure if Mr Luccato's back pain was related to the three-month-old accident.

Ms Berkery, who appeared with Ambrose O'Sullivan Solicitors, told the court that Aidan Gleeson, consultant in emergency medicine at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, who examined the 60-year-old Mr Luccato, said there was no evidence his injuries were related to the accident.

‘No complaints’

“He had no complaints in the aftermath of the accident and it was not until months later that he began to experience a pattern of intermittent low back ache,” Mr Gleeson said. “The likelihood is that his pain is due to degenerative change in his lower spine.”

The judge said she was satisfied Mr Luccato had given honest evidence about the road traffic accident and his pain which he did not complain of for a considerable number of months.

Dismissing his claim, with costs in favour of FBD, the judge said the court had to have regard to the medical evidence and his own doctor had an uncertainty as to causation.

The judge said Mr Luccato, who had claimed just more than €14,000 for loss of earnings, had failed to convince the court his injuries arose from the January 2018 accident.