BM –V- NORTHSTONE (NI) LIMITED
The Defendant was carrying out street works in College Street, Belfast in March 2008. The Plaintiff maintained that while those works were taking place she was walking along College Street when a JCB digger vehicle hit a fence which in turn hit her shoulder knocking her to the ground causing her injuries to her neck and shoulder. We carried out investigations with the Defendant and with their sub-contractors. No report of any such incident had been made to the sub-contractors of the Defendant in or around March 2008. The Plaintiff was quite clear in her history that she had reported this incident to the driver of the digger driver moments after it occurred.
Fortunately we were able to persuade the Plaintiff’s Solicitors that because of the conflict in evidence between the Plaintiff and our client’s sub-contractor that credibility in this case was of paramount importance.
As part of the Plaintiff’s preparation of this case for trial she was examined by a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon in May 2008. Through a Cache search we were also able to ascertain that one week prior to her medical examination by the Orthopaedic Surgeon she had been involved in a road traffic accident. However the Plaintiff chose not to inform the Orthopaedic Surgeon about her involvement in this road traffic accident. We were further able to ascertain from this Cache search that the Plaintiff had instructed a different firm of Solicitors in respect of a claim that she was pursuing arising out of the road traffic accident. Through this information we were able to illustrate some dishonesty on her part.
When we confronted with these facts the Plaintiff’s Solicitors in our case were persuaded to withdraw her case against Northstone and the matter did not proceed to trial. A Notice of Discontinuance was then served.