FOUR MEMBERS of a family have failed in a Dublin Circuit Civil Court bid to obtain more than €150,000 in damages from the insurers of a car rented by a relative for a trip to Killarney.
Judge Rory MacCabe said it was hard to avoid the conclusion that an incident in the Co Kerry town had been a deliberate attempt by the driver and four passengers to defraud Enterprise Rent-A-Car Ltd, of Naas Road, Dublin.
He said while it had not been explicitly stated in court, it was clear the rental firm viewed the claims as a “ready-up” to extract compensation from the company.
Barrister Paul O’Neill, for the car hire firm, said the four passengers who claimed to have been injured in the car and the driver and co-defendant, Michael McDonagh, were all related.
Michael Dooley and his wife Josephine, of Arden View, Tullamore, Co Offaly; Helen Keenan, Dunsink Lane, Finglas, Dublin, and Evelyn McDonagh, Kilcruttin, Tullamore, had sued Michael McDonagh, Dunsink Lane, and Enterprise Rent-A-Car for damages of €38,000 each.
The court heard Mr McDonagh rented the car in Dublin in March 2003 to attend a family function in Killarney and do some sight-seeing. The car had crashed into the back of a lorry at Lewis Road, Killarney.
The four plaintiffs gave evidence of having been thrown forward by the impact, and of each having developed neck and lower back pain the following day.
Mr O’Neill told the court he had subpoenaed the co-defendant, Mr McDonagh, against whom the plaintiffs had already obtained judgment for default of appearance.
Mr McDonagh told the court he had hired the car from Enterprise after his wife’s car was stolen. It had been found by gardaí, but in an unusable condition. Gardaí gave evidence of no report ever having been made of the theft of Ms McDonagh’s car.
Judge MacCabe said he had difficulty with the remarkable similarity between the conduct of all the parties. The pattern and progression of injuries and the uncertainty of treatment of them was remarkably similar.
While no case could be decided on suspicion, he did not believe the incident had taken place in the manner the plaintiffs had said it had and dismissed the claims against Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
Awarding the company its legal costs against the plaintiffs, he said there had been no merit in their claims and he considered they had not been telling the truth.