Overwork led to breakdowns, court told

A medical sales representative with a pharmaceutical company, who is a Vietnam war veteran, claimed at the High Court yesterday…

A medical sales representative with a pharmaceutical company, who is a Vietnam war veteran, claimed at the High Court yesterday he was "run ragged" calling on doctors in the Wicklow mountains and suffered two nervous breakdowns because of overwork.

Mr William Quinn (53), of Morehampton Road, Donnybrook, Dublin, is suing his former employer, Servier Laboratories Ireland Ltd, with registered offices at AMEV House, Blackrock, Co Dublin.

He claims he suffered two nervous breakdowns in 1994 because he was required to perform work which was excessively demanding. He alleges this workload led to his suffering inordinate stress and pressure.

He claimed his employers knew or ought to have known there was a risk that he would suffer psychiatric illness and a nervous breakdown if he was exposed to a similar workload to that given him in August 1994, when he returned after his first absence from work. Nonetheless, his workload was increased.

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Mr Quinn is seeking damages for personal injuries, loss and damage sustained because of the alleged negligence, breach of duty and breach of contract by the defendant.

In its defence, Servier pleads that if the plaintiff did suffer a nervous breakdown, personal injuries or loss, they did not arise out of his employment with the company. It also denies any breach of duty or breach of contract.

Mr Quinn, a former US navy serviceman who served in Vietnam for a period, said he joined Servier in 1979. He called on teaching and county hospitals in Ireland selling a cardio-vascular drug for patients with angina. Later he was given a second drug to sell and was asked to call to all the teaching hospitals in the State, of which there were 17, and on 250 to 280 general practitioners in south Dublin and Co Wicklow.

His work regarding consultants, registrars and pharmacists in teaching hospitals suffered because he was "run ragged" trying to call on doctors in the Wicklow mountains. When he complained to the then sales manager, Mr Paul Flanagan, and to the managing director, Mr Brian Mooney, he said Mr Flanagan observed: "Here we go, whinge again".

He said Mr Flanagan had later told him: "You've got to get Mooney off my back." He felt he could not get through to his managers about the pressure he was under. At a company meeting in Athlone, he said, Mr Mooney asked him who gave him permission to buy the briefcase he was carrying, although he had purchased it himself in the US where he had been on holiday.

After being absent from work from April to July 1994 he returned to find he had been given a new brief to call on more than 440 GPs and 116 hospital doctors in the north-east, an area of the country with which he was not familiar.

Mr Quinn said he found the task "overwhelming". His sales manager at this time, Mr Noel Mannion, told him he knew the job was difficult but to do the best he could.

In November 1994 he was admitted to St Patrick's Psychiatric Hospital in Dublin where he was detained for a month. Mr Quinn said he was still on medication and had not gone back to work with the company.

A consultant psychiatrist, Dr David Shanley. said he diagnosed Mr Quinn as suffering from severe depression in April 1994 and believed this was a reaction to his difficulties at work. When Mr Quinn did return to work, his job description and area were changed, contrary to what Dr Shanley had recommended in a letter to the company. This led to his condition deteriorating, as the doctor expected.

Dr Shanley said Mr Quinn felt resentful of the company, then and now, about his treatment.

The hearing resumes next Tuesday.