WILL litigitis continue to spread through Ireland in 1997 as it did in 1996? The most recent case I have heard of concerns a young lady who attended a five a side football match somewhere in Ireland last summer. She was there as a volunteer spectator, standing in the crowd close to the footballers, when she was hit in the head by a football.
Eight days later, a solicitor's letter arrived at the local urban district council offices, the local football club and the local newspaper - presumably because it sponsored the football match - looking for an admission of liability and an offer of compensation for the young footerloving damsel on account of injuries suffered, loss, damage, expense and inconvenience. And so on and so Firth of.
Falling Down
I wish the young lady well in her pursuit of justice; I hope justice is properly served by being served out properly in that case, as it has been in the completely unreported case of Patrick Lonergan, who began a legal action against Tipperary South Riding following a fall in his local authority owned house in Clonmel in 1990.
Something about the fall and the injuries he said he had suffered troubled the good sleuths of South Riding. They investigated the case rather more closely.
Patrick Lonergan alleged, in his High Court case in Dublin, that he had participated in a darts competition, during which he had consumed "five to six pints". He had returned with his wife to their home, where Patrick Lonergan's brother was babysitting.
Even by Patrick Lonergan's account, a disagreement broke out between himself and his wife, Anne, during which he pulled some hair out of her head. As Patrick told the court: "I pulled her hair like this (DEMONSTRATING) and I just said, `Look, would you give it over . . .' `As I said earlier on, what hair came out wasn't worth talking about.'"
Shortly after this disagreement, Patrick went into the kitchen where, he alleged, he slipped on rainwater which had been admitted through a door which the Lonergan family had repeatedly complained about to the South Riding (owners of the house). In falling, he put his arm through the glass door, doing extensive and permanent damage to his hand.
Well and good. According to Lonergan's account, essentially substantiated by Anne Lonergan, there were two distinct episodes - one in the living room, where hair not worth talking about was forcibly extracted from her skull, and then the entirely unrelated incident in the kitchen, where Mr Lonergan fell and put his arm through the window, solely because of the pool of water on the floor.
Complicated Life
Alas for the Lonergans, life and even litigation are not that simple. Two neighbours, the Brownes, testified that after Anne Lonergan ran to their house saying her husband had fallen and cut himself, dear, lovable Patrick followed and had stood outside the house crying: "If I live through the night, I'll fucking kill you tomorrow.
Patrick Lonergan was taken to hospital, where the court heard that he told Prof Brady that he had drunk seven to eight pints, although he himself told the court he had had between five or six. Ah well, I know the feeling, though I am not sure I would have the temerity to blame anyone for what happened to me afterwards - Patrick Lonergan, however, is made of sterner stuff.
Honest Witnesses
Of pretty stern stuff, too, is the (now former) girlfriend of his brother Martin, a Catherine Glavin, who was finally tracked down by lawyers for the South Riding, although without, it seems, a great deal of assistance from the Lonergan family. This sterling young woman testified that she had been in the kitchen in her bare fret before the accident had happened, and there was no water in the floor. She said that though there had been rain that morning, there had been none that evening, and the floor was dry.
Later she cleared up the floor after Patrick Lonergan - he who had just had a row with his wife, had removed some hair from her head without her consent, and had already consumed five to six or seven to eight pints had fallen through the glass door, and she still found no sign of water on the floor.
Other damning evidence came from the neighbour Mr Browne, who told the court that in Kaddigan's pub, Patrick Lonergan had said to him: "I will give you £5,000, and my solicitor will give you another one tomorrow, if you don't turn up [at the trial]."
How much did two honest witnesses save Tipperary South Riding, and thereby us all, by their honesty and courage? This is how Mr Justice Lavan delivered his judgment last June.
Where the Buck Stopped
"I do not accept the evidence of the plaintiff, I do not accept the evidence of his wife or his brother. I am satisfied that this was the clearest case of collusion that I have listened to, distastefully, I might add, for a long, long time.
"I therefore find as a fact that there was no water on the floor when whatever occurred, occurred. That is all I have to determine for the purposes of dismissing the plaintiff's action in this case.
"I am satisfied that I accept Mr Browne's evidence as to what took place in Kaddigan's public house in Clonmel on Sunday last. I am satisfied that that constitutes an interference "with the administration of justice, and that was the plaintiff's intention. I am satisfied that the plaintiff, Anne Lonergan and Martin Lonergan have committed perjury before me in court. "Consequently I am directing the registrar of this court to direct the papers to be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions with a view to obtaining a conviction of perjury against all three and against the Plaintiff for interfering with the administration of justice."
A day to remember, perhaps, and savour, when the freeloading at public expense finally came to a halt; let us raise our glasses at the start of this new year, to Christopher Browne, Catherine Glavin and Mr Justice Lavan. The buck stopped.