“I AM sick and tired of dealing with opportunistic small accident claims that are “blown out of all proportion,” a Limerick court has heard.
That was the comment of Judge James O’Donoghue at Limerick Circuit Court last week when he rebuked a taxi driver who sought personal injury damages in for “nothing more than a fender bender”.
Henry Duruji, a Nigerian man who has been living in Limerick for past 15 years, claimed he suffered a serious back injury when his Ford Mondeo was hit by a car driven by Sandra Hickey.
They had been driving their cars in a stop-start manner during heavy traffic near Old Crescent Rugby Club on March 28 last year.
Mr Duruji, of Lissanalta Grove, Dooradoyle, said he was driving his taxi when Ms Hickey of Hilcroft, St Patrick’s Road, “tipped” the his car.
Mr Duruji stopped the car and put his hazard lights on. Ms Hickey, who was unaware of any impact, got out of her car and asked what was wrong. Mr Duruji said his back was hurt, but Ms Hickey said she could not see any damage to the cars.
On closer inspection, a “2cm scratch” was found on Mr Duruji’s car and a screw mark type indentation on the number plate of Ms Hickey’s car. Ms Hickey said that she had difficulty noticing anything at all.
Mr Duruji said he was contacting the Gardaí while Ms Hickey phoned her husband and told him that the taxi driver was claiming his back was hurt and that he was making a “big deal” out of the incident.
A patrol car from Castleconnell arrived 45 minutes later as traffic was held to a standstill.
Gardaí ordered Mr Duruji to move his car and asked why they had been called to such a minimal impact collision.
Ms Hickey told Mr Duruji that she would give him her details and that she would offer to pay for the “slight” damage but he refused to engage with her.
Mr Duruji said the accident was “nine times worse” than an accident he was involved in less than four weeks earlier.
Although less that €500 worth of damage was caused to his car, Mr Duruji sought personal injury, loss, damage, expense, stress and inconvenience.
He claimed that he had neck and back pain and required daily medication and that the accident aggravated previous injuries.
Counsel for Ms Hickey, Henry Downey BL put it to Mr Duruji that the accident was nothing more than a “minimal impact fender bender” and couldn’t have caused the injuries as claimed.
Mr Duruji denied that suggestion and said that there was a “loud bang” and was “nine times worse than the previous accident”. The court heard that the taxi driver had settled the first case out of court.
Dismissing the personal injury claim, Judge O’Donohue said “I am sick and tired of dealing with this sort of opportunistic small accident claims that are brought and blown out of all proportion.
Addressing Mr Duruji, he said that, as a taxi driver, he should that his insurance premium would skyrocket when a claim of this nature was made.
“It effects people’s livelihoods, its effecting society and it is in the papers every day of the week. I am quite satisfied that he is making hay out of an opportunistic situation and expressions like it is nine times worse than the previous accident and where he got that type of choreography I don’t know.
“It is the sort of thing that might have happened in a school yard car park, hospital car park or supermarket car park and is really causing problems in our society and it is about time that this type of racketeering stops”.
“Something has to be done about it and if it is not done at a higher level, then the courts will have to do something about it,” Judge O’Donohue warned.
He dismissed Mr Duruji’s personal injury claim and ordered that he pay Ms Hickey’s legal costs.
