News

The HSE has secured court orders permitting the tube feeding and hospital detention of a woman with anorexia nervosa said to be at serious risk of malnutrition and death.

The president of the High Court, Mr Justice Peter Kelly, said he was satisfied the orders are necessary having regard to the serious risk to the woman’s health and life.

An independent medical doctor is to assess the woman in the context of an inquiry as to whether she should be made a ward of court and the judge appointed a guardian at litem to represent her interests in that regard. A date for the inquiry will be fixed later.

The various orders were sought on an ex parte basis on Monday by Patricia Hill SC, for the HSE.

Counsel said the woman, aged in her 50s, has a history of anorexia, schizoid personality traits and other conditions.

She was admitted to hospital in December and readmitted in early January with a weight of 36.2kgs, representing a loss of some 10kgs on her weight on discharge the previous month. She had stopped her medication, severely restricted her dietary intake and increased her exercise.

Ms Hill said the HSE had no information about the woman’s family circumstances but the guardian might be able to establish those.

In an affidavit, her treating psychiatrist said she had refused necessary medications and vitamin supplements following this latest admission and her weight has fallen further, necessitating her transfer to a medical ward.

Although she had shown a very slight weight gain since her transfer to the medical ward, she remained at serious risk of malnutrition, metabolic failure and death, he said.

Naso-gastric feeding, he believed, was necessary, ideally within days, to protect her health and life.

She lacks insight, denying there is any problem with her weight, he added. In his view, she lacked capacity to make decisions about her welfare and requires court protection to ensure her safety.

Granting the orders, Mr Justice Kelly said the medical evidence was, although the woman has shown a slight weight gain since her move to the medical ward, her weight remains inadequate and she is at serious risk of malnutrition and death unless her oral intake can be placed at safe levels.

irishtimes.com

A shopper who told a court she was injured when she slipped on milk in a Lidl supermarket has had her €15,000 compensation claim thrown out.

Cassie McDonagh, St Mary’s Park, Dunsink Lane, Finglas, Dublin 11 was left facing hefty legal bills after she sued Lidl Ireland for damages for personal injuries as well as inconvenience and expenses she suffered.

She claimed the store was negligent and failed to have regard for her safety.

However, her civil action at Dublin District Court was dismissed by Judge John Brennan who was shown CCTV footage of her returning to the spillage a number of times before she fell.

Ms McDonagh claimed she slipped at the supermarket in Glasnevin in Dublin on August 10th, 2016 because of the liquid on the floor near refrigerators and suffered back pain. She was then aged 16.

A medical report stated she had lower back pain for three to four months after the fall and had intermittent back pain since. She made a full recovery, the court heard.

CCTV footage was shown and she was cross-examined by Lidl’s barrister Fred Gilligan. She agreed she did not tell the doctor she had been in two previous traffic incideents over the previous nine-month period.

In the video evidence, she was shown entering the store at about 6.45pm. She appeared to walk past the spill but after speaking to another person, she looked back towards it before she returned.

She appeared to say something to another girl about the liquid on the floor.

On the third time she walked over it and slipped, the court heard.

Questioned by counsel, she could not explain why she went back toward the spillage.

The case was fully contested by Lidl, which had offered her a chance to drop the action but she refused.

Dismissing the case, Judge Brennan noted she had walked past the spillage on a number of occasions prior to the accident and he held she had to have seen it.

Costs were awarded to Lidl.

irishtimes.com

A teenage girl who urgently requires surgery can, if necessary, be administered blood or blood products against the wishes of herself and her parents, all members of the Jehovah’s Witness faith, the president of the High Court has ordered.

Mr Justice Peter Kelly said he was satisfied, notwithstanding the views of the girl and her parents, the orders are necessary for preserving the girl’s life and not to permit them would be “hazardous”.

The orders take immediate effect, he directed.

David Leahy BL, for the HSE, sought the orders in an ex parte application, one side only represented, on Friday afternoon.

A solicitor for the HSE told the court he had informed the girl and her parents of the court application and the parents had indicated they were not attending court to oppose it.

The solicitor said the parents were not objecting to surgery but, should a situation arise where the medical team wanted to administer blood or blood products, they could not agree to that and wanted the team to explore all other alternatives.

They had also said they wanted the best for their daughter and would not stand in the way of a court order.

Mr Justice Kelly said court applications for leave to administer blood or blood products against the wishes of members of the Jehovah’s Witness faith, while not a regular occurrence, are not unusual.

He referred to a number of decisions permitting that to be done in “exceptional” circumstances.

On the medical evidence, including that antibiotic therapy had not reduced the infection and the serous risk of sepsis if surgery is not carried out, he was satisfied she needed the surgery.

Life threatening
He also noted doctors had said a blood transfusion may be necessary.

He was satisfied, if all the orders sought were not granted, there was a “serious and imminent” threat to the girl’s life and this case raised the exceptional circumstances identified.

The right to life trumps the entitlement of the girl and her parents to their religious views, he said.

The doctor involved had been “perfectly respectful” of the wishes of the parents and girl and had considered alternative means consistent with the Jehovah’s Witness faith but none of those were, in the doctor’s view, satisfactory, he noted.

He directed a guardian be appointed to represent the girl’s interests and returned the matter to next week.

Earlier, Mr Leahy said the girl had been admitted to a hospital some days ago with fever and pain and a MRI scan had indicated a blockage which required either drainage or surgical intervention.

The application for administering of blood or blood products was being made in terms of a contingency which might not arise, he said.

There is an urgency and a risk which “could be as high as life endangering”, he stressed.

In evidence, the HSE solicitor said the parents had said they could not agree to the administration of blood/blood products and wanted all alternatives to that to be explored and exhausted. They had also indicated they would not stand in the way of a court order to that end.

The girl’s mother had also expressed criticism concerning what happened when there was an earlier admission of the girl with the same problem, the solicitor said.

The mother had indicated, had that earlier admission been followed up differently, the girl would not be in this situation now. The mother considered sufficient investigations were not carried out at the time of the earlier admission.

irishtimes.com

Judge Jacqueline Linnane says Mohammed Noman Khan’s cases were ‘waste of time’

A former taxi driver’s personal injury claims for up to €120,000 have been thrown out by a judge, who told him his case had been a waste of court time.

Judge Jacqueline Linnane heard that Mohammed Noman Khan kept a 77-year-old distressed woman driver waiting for an hour on the Goatstown Road until gardaí­ arrived at the scene of what had been a “one mile an hour” rear ending of his taxi.

Barrister Conor Kearney told Mr Khan in cross-examination that Pauline O’Grady, now aged 81, would tell the Circuit Civil Court her automatic car had accidentally rolled forward in traffic, causing no damage to either vehicle.

“You insisted on the gardaí ­ being called and wouldn’t even allow her to move her car before they arrived,” Mr Kearney told him.

Mr Khan (37), of Belarmine Plaza, Stepaside, Dublin, was told that an FBD Insurance investigator would give evidence of his having signed a statement in which he had stated he had not been injured.

Despite Mr Khan having denied that he had made such an admission, his legal team told Judge Linnane they had received instructions to withdraw his claim against Ms O’Grady, as well as a second claim he had made against another female driver for an incident two months later. Both incidents occurred in 2016.

Mr Kearney, who appeared with Stephen MacKenzie Solicitors for FBD and Ms O’Grady, was awarded full legal costs against Mr Khan.

Judge Linnane said Mr Khan’s credibility had gone completely and told him it had been a total waste of time in both his cases having been brought to court.

Mr Khan also withdrew his claim against Pauline Treanor for another low-impact collision that had occurred while he drove towards the airport on the Drumcondra Road.

Adrianne Fields, who appeared with Delahunty O’Connor Solicitors for Ms Treanor, was also awarded full legal costs against Mr Khan.

In both incidents Mr Khan told the court he had suffered whiplash injuries.

He also told Judge Linnane he had settled a High Court case in 2011 for €12,500 for an incident at work but later conceded in cross-examination that he got nothing out of it as the settlement was used to defray legal costs.

Mr Khan said he had also settled a December 2014 road traffic claim for €7,000 and was currently considering whether or not he should take out a personal injury claim for an incident in April 2018.

irishtimes.com

The Court of Appeal has overturned an award of €158,864 damages to a woman who tripped and fell while crossing a courtyard beside her workplace in Co Sligo.

Giving the three-judge COA judgment yesterday, Mr Justice Brian McGovern said there was “no credible evidence” to support the liability finding of the trial judge.

Geraldine McHugh (66) – now retired from her job as a clerical officer with the Revenue – sued the Office of the Revenue Commissioners, the minister for social protection and the State over the accident at Cranmore, Co Sligo, on September 1, 2014.

She alleged concrete pavers in the courtyard were in a dangerous and defective condition and she was caused to trip and fall as a result of that.

Independent.ie for full story

A Limerick belly dance tutor has failed in her unfair dismissal action against retail giant, Dunnes Stores.

This follows the Labour Court throwing out belly dancer, Ms Kati Kipli’s claim that she was unfair dismissed by the retailer on June 2nd 2016.

The ruling by the Labour Court after a two day hearing in Limerick affirms an earlier ruling by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) that Ms Kipli was not unfairly dismissed.

Ms Kipli was employed as a part time sales assistant by Dunnes Stores from December 2007 to June 2016.

The retailer sacked Ms Kipli after mounting a one person ‘snoop operation’ that found that Ms Kipli was giving a belly dance class at a local hotel after she called in sick complaining of a kidney infection earlier that day.

On May 17th 2016, Ms Kipli was rostered to work from 5pm to 9pm.

However, Ms Kipli contacted the Human Resources (HR) Manager at Dunnes Stores’s Harvey’s Quay outlet on Henry Street by telephone at 1pm that day to let her know that she felt unwell with a kidney infection and to advise she would be unable to work her shift.

Ms Kipli telephoned again at 4pm and advised that her condition had not improved and that she was going to bed for the night.

The HR Manager was aware that Ms Kipli was scheduled to run a belly dance class that evening.

The HR Manager telephoned the Strand hotel and and was told that the belly dance class was proceeding that night.

The HR Manager asked a colleague, the store’s Check Out Manager to attend to see if Ms Kipli was present at the hotel and the Check Out Manager witnessed Ms Kipli at the hotel wearing a “a purply-pink outfit” where the belly dance class was to take place at 8.30 pm, along with a group of ladies attending the class.

The following day when Ms Kipli reported for work she was quizzed about the belly dancing class.

Ms Kipli initially denied that she had attended her dance class at the hotel but then admitted that she had been there after the HR Manager stated that that she had been observed in the room immediately prior to the commencement of the class.

As a result, the store’s Grocery Store Manager conducted two meetings to investigate the events of May 16th.

Arising from the meetings, Dunnes Stores fired Ms Kipli on June 2nd 2016.

The dismissal letter told Ms Kipli that she admitted to engaging in other paid employment whilst on sick leave from the company.

The letter stated: “This constitutes misconduct which is a serious breach of the Company Code of Conduct.”

Dunnes told her that it has made the decision “to terminate your contract with immediate effect. We have considered other sanctions but after taking everything into account dismissal is the only appropriate sanction to be taken”.

The Grocery Store Manager told the Labour Court: “The reason she was dismissed was because she attended her belly-dancing class while she should have been at work”.

Dunnes stated that Ms Kipli conducted the class knowing that she would get paid under the company’s sick leave scheme.

Ms Kipli’s solicitor submitted that the entire process – beginning with the back-to-work meeting of May 18th 2016 – that culminated in Ms Kipli’s summary dismissal was unfair and that the decision to dismiss her pre-determined.

The Labour Court found that the deficiencies in Dunnes’s procedures were not of such gravity as to imperil the fairness of the process to dismiss Ms Kipli.

The Labour Court found that Ms Kipli had admitted that she had both attended and taught the dance class having first denied that she had done so.

Online Editors

MIBI believes uninsured drivers accounted for more than 90% of claims received in 2019

An Garda Síochána has begun the roll-out of 2,000 devices that will allow for the detection of cars being driven without tax, insurance or a valid NCT cert.

The Motor Insurers’ Bureau of Ireland (MIBI) is among those bodies that has been seeking the introduction of the technology, stating that uninsured drivers accounted for more than 90 per cent of claims received last year.

After a successful piloting of the new system in Limerick, the Naas Roads Policing Unit was last month one of the first to receive the new Mobile Data Stations, the Garda Press Office said.

“The mobile solution provides a Traffic App containing Driver Lookup and Vehicle Lookup functionality which has been utilised on traffic stops and general policing inquiries by frontline members,” the spokesman said.

“This has improved operational efficiency and effectiveness generally, as it allows gardaí to provide real time updates and access information on the roadside without having to interact with other Garda personnel via radio.”

During the pilot operation, the app “greatly assisted” in the detection of disqualified drivers as well as vehicles that did not have valid tax, insurance or the required NCT approval.

General release
Two thousand gardaí are to receive the device as part of a general release programme, with 544 being allocated in the Dublin region, 484 in the Eastern region, 452 in the North West, and 520 in the South West, the spokesman said.

He was unable to say when it was envisaged that the roll-out would be completed.

Earlier this month MIBI said the high number of claims relating to uninsured drivers they received during 2019 underlined the importance of the automatic number plate recognition system.

The MIBI is a not for profit organisation established to compensate victims of road traffic accidents caused by uninsured and unidentified vehicles.

In 2019 the bureau received 2,540 insurance claims, down 12 from 2,552 in 2018. This represents a change of less than 0.01 per cent.

The number of uninsured claims also remained static with MIBI receiving 1,787 claims relating to uninsured vehicles in 2019, compared to 1,788 in 2018.

The bureau’s chief executive, David Fitzgerald, said the figures indicated that there continues to be a substantial number of uninsured vehicles driving on Irish roads.

“The MIBI hopes that the rollout of the new automatic number plate recognition system will make it easier and more simple for the gardaí to identify uninsured drivers. “

The new app, he said, will make it very difficult for uninsured vehicles to be driven without being detected.

irishtimes.com

The State’s top judge has said he “feels strongly” that the Irish system of civil legal aid needs to be “significantly improved”.

Chief Justice Frank Clarke said there was a “very powerful argument” in favour of significantly reviewing the income thresholds that apply for people seeking assistance from the Legal Aid Board.

He made his remarks at an event in Dublin held to mark the 40th anniversary of the board, which supplies people on low incomes with civil legal representation.

The chairman of the state body, Philip O’Leary, also called for a review of the entitlement threshold which, he said, has not changed substantially since 2006.

The service is separate to criminal legal aid and is only available to those whose disposable income is below €18,000.

The figure is arrived at after certain allowances are applied to a person’s after tax income.

Given how rent and other costs have increased over recent years, Mr O’Leary said, some people whose income is so low they qualify for an income supplement, are still found not to qualify for civil legal aid.

“Our service is a vital bridge in the access to justice journey and without that bridge a lot of people just can’t get across into the system,” he told The Irish Times.

Mr Justice Clarke said many involved in the legal system, “myself included”, feel strongly that the legal aid system needs significant improvement.

Legal aid, he said, is unlikely to be at the top of any political agenda and is not considered one of the great issues for the electorate in the general election.

“When faced with trolley numbers and homelessness, those priorities are entirely understandable.”

However, he said, the fact was that litigation has grown more complex and it was probable there were rights which were not being vindicated “at all because litigation in certain areas is very difficult to mount without legal aid.”

Higher costs
The increasing complexity of litigation meant higher costs for those who had to pay for it.

“I suggest that this gives a very powerful argument for a significant review of the income thresholds which are applied to determine entitlement to legal aid.”

While someone with a middle range income might be able to afford some types of litigation, he said, that person might not be able to pay for more complex, and therefore more costly, legal actions.

While some argued that the “no foal, no fee” system fed a compensation culture, any reform of the system would have to confront the fact that a great deal of litigation where rights are vindicated and established, could only be brought with the benefit of such an arrangement.

Mr Justice Clarke also noted that the no foal, no fee system only worked in cases where there was a party involved who, if they lost, would be in a position to pay the costs. That was not always the case.

The Bar Council, in an election statement, has also called for increased resources to be allocated to civil legal aid.

irishtimes.com

The family of a brain-dead pregnant woman who was kept on life support for almost four weeks owing to concerns about the Eighth Amendment are seeking some €3.3m damages from the HSE over her death.

The State Claims Agency, which is managing the case for the HSE, disputes the level of damages sought. More than €3.1m is for future costs of care and appropriate accommodation for 26-year-old Natasha Perie’s two young children, now aged 11 and nine, including the cost of full-time live-in nannies for both until they reach the age of 23, as well as education and counselling.

The remainder is for some €184,000 for Ms Perie’s father, Peter Perie, for loss of dependency. At the time of their mother’s death in late 2014, both children were living with her and widower Mr Perie (67), in his four-bedroom home where they were described as “happy and content”.

The children have different fathers and, after Ms Perie’s death, the children went to live with their respective fathers in accommodation not owned by the fathers. A hearing opened before Ms Justice Deirdre Murphy yesterday for assessment of damages after a mediation failed to secure agreement.

The family had last November received an apology from the Midland Regional Hospital, Mullingar, and the HSE over failings in Ms Perie’s care at the hospital in late 2014.

She was pronounced brain-dead days after her admission there on November 27, 2014 but was afterwards kept on life support, against the family’s wishes, because of doctors’ concerns about the implications of the Eighth Amendment, which has since been repealed.

independent.ie for full story

Soldiers’ €60,000 claim over 2kmh crash thrown out

Two soldiers who said they suffered neck injuries after a vehicle rear-ended them while travelling at an estimated speed of 2kmh have had their €60,000 claims dismissed.

John Lynch and Eamonn Fitzgerald were involved in an incident on the Old Dublin Road in Galway in October 2014. The pair were in an Army SUV which was stopped at traffic lights when a car behind them accidentally rolled forward.

Mr Lynch and Mr Fitzgerald were doing a cash escort at the time and initially claimed they thought there had been an attack on the SUV.

Peadar Harvey, driver of the Seat Ibiza car, said he didn’t feel an impact.

The two claimants said they felt a “big thud” and were shunted forwards.

Their Army colleague Charles O’Leary, who was a back-seat passenger, gave evidence he felt a very light impact, the SUV was not shunted forwards and he did not move in his seat at all. He said he did not feel any discomfort.

Mr Lynch gave evidence that his neck and shoulder injuries have not really improved and said he was told he “would never be the same again”.

Mr Fitzgerald told the court he had underplayed his injuries so as to secure an overseas assignment.

He was asked why he did not disclose to his doctor and solicitor a previous traffic accident in 2012, in which he sustained a neck injury, and an accident in 1999.

Giving evidence in Galway Circuit Civil Court, engineer Tony Kelly estimated the change of speed as less than 2kmh where at least 8kmh would be required for occupancy movement.

Dr Martin Neary gave evidence that he assessed Mr Fitzgerald on February 26, 2015, around three months after the accident, for the purposes of an overseas assignment to Lebanon.

He noted that Mr Fitzgerald had completed fitness tests on February 16 and 17 which included sit-ups and press-ups and a 10km march with a 14kg weight.

Dismissing the claims, Judge Rory McCabe said he found it very difficult to understand how what he saw as a very minor tip could give rise to any injury.

Rob Smyth, head of Aviva’s investigations unit, welcomed the judge’s decision.

Irish Independent