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Personal Injury – a baffling case

By November 21, 2013 No Comments

8 years ago Sr Helen Ugbome of the Nigeria based Holy Sisters of the Needy consulted a solicitor and said she had been rear ended and had suffered injuries to her

neck, right shoulder and lower back. In court she gave evidence that a car being driven by Edel Macklin had hit her from behind when she was stopped at traffic lights near Hart’s Corner, Glasnevin. She said the incident occurred on the 28th of January 2005 at 11 o’clock in the morning.

Ms Macklin in her evidence said she was stopped at traffic lights when Sr Ugbome approached her with pen and paper. Ms Macklin said that there had been no accident but gave her details to the nun so that she could move on. She said that there was

 “…no bang, no crash, no impact and no accident”

There were no other witnesses to the accident and Judge Linnane had to decide on the direct conflict of evidence and in this regard she preferred the evidence of Ms Macklin and dismissed the case with costs. Judge Linnane did refer to other evidence that was presented in court to the effect that Sr Ugbome had obtained a garage estimate for repairs to the back of her car arising from a previous rear-end she had been involved in a month previous.