John Joyce, a 45-year-old resident of The Maples, Flemington, Balrath, Co Meath, has filed a lawsuit in the High Court concerning injuries that he claims to have sustained in an automobile accident. In the incident, Mr Joyce was a passenger in a vehicle that was found to contain several half-drunk and empty wine bottles.
The lawsuit is aimed at the driver of the car, Bernard Joyce, the vehicle’s owner, James Joyce, residing at Dunsink Lane, Finglas, Dublin, and the Motor Insurers Bureau of Ireland (MIBI). The car crashed at the entrance to the Clearwater Shopping Centre, Finglas Road, Dublin, on 30th July 2015.
The driver, who was underage at 16 and a half years old, had no insurance. The court entered a judgement against him and vehicle owner James Joyce as they failed to make an appearance.
The case moved forward against the MIBI, a body that provides compensation to victims of uninsured or unidentified drivers. However, they refuse to accept responsibility for the claim.
Following the crash, Mr Joyce was reportedly unconscious and was unable to recall any details about the incident until being informed about it at the hospital. He had no recollection of the presence of wine bottles or the driver vacating the vehicle after it collided with a barrier at Clearwater’s entrance, running to the nearby Tesco and opening and consuming a bottle of wine.
Durring the court proceedings, Mr Joyce, an unemployed father of three, disclosed to his senior counsel, Richard McDonnell of Spellman Callaghan Solicitors, that he was engaged in a card game at his cousin’s house in Finglas the previous night. He consumed approximately 12 beer bottles and vodka shots.
The card game lasted till about 3 a.m., he said. Subsequently, he had about four to five hours of sleep, after which he tried to stop a taxi on the Ratoath Road to return home. During this, Bernard Joyce arrived in a car and offered to give him a lift part of the way. He only regained consciousness in the hospital, the first memory he had following the events.
The subject was acquainted with Bernard Joyce as they both belonged to the Traveller community and resided in Finglas before relocating to Meath. In front of Rónán Dolan SC, who was instructed by Joe Mackenzie, the MIBI’s lawyer, he refuted claims that he was in the vehicle with Bernard from around 3am till the accident occurred at roughly 8.30am. He maintained that there was no alcohol consumed in the vehicle and couldn’t recall any wine bottles, which were discovered in the car by the police.
During the inquest into a nun’s car veering onto the wrong side of the road causing a fatal accident, he stated there was no memory of the drive or Bernard rushing into Tesco to get wine prior to their arrest for refusing to provide a sample. He attributed his impaired memory to heavy medication taken in 2018 during his interview for the MIBI case, where he claimed to have hitched a ride with an unknown driver he only described as “a lad.”
In answer to the question about his lack of concern regarding Bernard’s uninsured status due to his age of 16.5, the defendant adopted a nonchalant attitude, claiming Bernard “seemed alright” to him, citing Bernard’s beard as some sort of evidence. Furthermore, he admitted to having 74 prior convictions, mostly for motor-related infractions and petty theft.
Evidence presented at the trial included a police officer who responded to the crash scene recalling an earlier report of a car erratically driving on Finglas Road. He told the court that CCTV footage from a Tesco in Clearwater showed Bernard taking a bottle of wine and changing his top. The officer noted that despite having no beard, he looked young. The police officer also described the state of the crash car, where the passenger was unconscious and there were perhaps six or seven full or partially consumed bottles of wine.
Judge Denise Brett is set to deliver her verdict on Friday.