A widow has been awarded £200,000 in an approved settlement by the High Court in Cork. Her husband was killed when he collided with a slurry tanker which she claimed was improperly lit while on the main Cork-Dublin road.
Ms Brenda O'Leary, of Ballygibbon, Blarney, Co Cork, had sued both the slurry tanker owner, Mr Patrick Crotty of Skeheen, Mitchelstown, and tractor driver, Mr Cyril Clancy of Coolenave, Mitchelstown, for damages arising from the death of her husband, Jerry. A father of three who had his own motor car sales business, Mr O'Leary (36) was killed in the collision on November 14th 1995 outside Mitchelstown as he returned from Dublin after collecting a car. Mrs O'Leary alleged the lights on the slurry tanker were either not working or were caked with mud.
The defendants had contested the claim and pleaded contributory negligence on Mr O'Leary's part.
On the third day of hearing yesterday, Mr Justice O'Higgins approved a settlement which awarded £163,000 to Mrs O'Leary and £12,000 to each of her 9-year-old twins, Alan and Amy; and £13,000 to her six-year-old daughter, Zoe.
Mr Justice O'Higgins said he appreciated the inadequacy of compensation in such a sad case but noted there were difficulties with Mrs O'Leary's case, particularly regarding the condition of the tanker's lights.
"If I believed the lights were on and reasonably clean, that would seem to put an end to the plaintiff's case," he noted after hearing contradictory evidence. Mrs O'Leary's counsel, Mr Henry Hickey SC, said the value of the case was about £350,000 based on the loss of income to the O'Learys resulting from Mr O'Leary's death. But he pointed out that there were "certain imponderables".