GEORGE CARDWELL V MICHAEL LARGE TREE SERVICES LTD
Belfast County Court04 June 2004
Judge Wells
The Plaintiff claimed that as he drove along a public road, a chute of a wood chipping machine swung out into the road and covered his windscreen with wood chips. This caused him to veer to the opposite side of the road and then back across his own lane where he mounted the kerb and came to an abrupt halt.
He alleged that he got out of the car and came back and spoke to two of the operatives who were working with the wood chipping machine. He said in evidence that he brought these operatives to his car and showed them a cracked windscreen and the fact that his bonnet and wiper well were covered in woodchips.
It was the Defendant's case that this was incorrect. All that they were shown was a small crack in the windscreen. In the Plaintiff's medical evidence there were a number of inconsistencies which, the Judge said gave rise to concern. The Judge found he was satisfied that debris did emanate from the wood chipping machine and on to his car, but that this was not sufficient to cause a crack to the windscreen, nor would it have obscured his view. This is despite the fact that the Plaintiff's father also gave evidence and said that he too saw wood chippings in the wiper well of the car.
The Judge felt that he could not accept the Plaintiff's evidence and due to the variety of inconsistencies and he also accepted the conclusion reached by Mr Macafee, Orthopaedic Surgeon when he said that he found it difficult to reconcile the severity of symptoms with the history of the accident.
The Judge after hearing the evidence of the Defendant's witness rejected the Plaintiff's claim and ruled that the Plaintiff pay the Defendant's costs.