Cieran Marshall

Personal injury lawyer Cieran Marshall of JMK Solicitors represented the Gaelic football and Hurling player, who missed a season and an opportunity to play for his county panel as a result of an injury while working casually as a labourer for a construction company during his university holidays.

A co-worker had tried to lift and throw the sports player in a form of playful banter, but inadvertently dislocated his knee, requiring surgery.

The employer’s insurers initially accepted responsibility but High Court proceedings were issued when a suitable settlement offer could not be reached.

The employer’s lawyer took a contrasting view and withdrew their acceptance of responsibility on the basis that the employer was not responsible for the acts of their employees as they were not carried out in the course of his employment.

Further, the defendant’s lawyer insisted that the employee was acting on a “frolic of his own”.

The issues in the case were whether the employer should be held responsible for the negligent actions of their employee.

Mr Marshall said: “It’s a case that if brought perhaps ten years ago would not have enjoyed the same prospects. Traditionally, an employer was held to be responsible for the wrongful act committed by an employee, so long as that act was during the course of their employment.”

It would have once been held that if the employee had strayed outside the express and/or implied duties and the scope of their work, the employer would not be held responsible.

“However, recent case law has increased scope to the extent that it must be proved to be a ‘sufficiently close connection’ between what an employee was employed to do and the wrongdoing,” Mr Marshall said.

“Based on the recent case law and speaking to the client, we formed the view the employer would indeed be responsible.”

During the adjournment of the case due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the defendant offered a five-figure settlement sum which the client accepted.