Edenderry livestock mart in Co. Offaly has been found negligent by the high court in relation to an incident in 2017, and has been ordered to pay Fergus Malone €75,000 in general damages.
Justice Ferriter announced the decision on Thursday (September 29), more than five years after the incident which occurred on August 5, 2017.
According to a court document, on that day, Malone was attacked by a young bull inside the mart, and was left with five broken ribs, an injury to his left shoulder and psychological damage, including ongoing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms.
The €75,000 award was broken down into compensation for pain and suffering to date of €45,000 and compensation for pain and suffering into the future of €30,000, due to the fact that the limitations in Malone’s shoulder will impact his ability to work as a farmer, as outlined in numerous medical reports.
Malone alleged negligence on the part of the defendant Edenderry Livestock Mart Ltd., which fully denied liability and made the case that the bull attacked him after he provoked the bull by hitting him on the head with a stick.
This act was strongly denied by Malone, who laid the blame for the accident squarely on the mart for bringing about a situation whereby animals were being funneled back into the pen he was standing in when he had been asked to steer bulls out of the pen.
His case laid out that the steering of animals back into this pen resulted in the bull that attacked Malone becoming “spooked” and charging.
Justice Ferriter concluded that Malone’s account of the event “is the most accurate and reliable”, and said that in his view, the mart did act negligently. He said:
“In my view, the defendant was negligent in its operation of its system for getting animals from the arrival pen to the crush or chute where they would be checked and stamped before being led on to the sales ring.”
Malone, who was 53 at the time of the accident, was handling his brother’s animals at the mart on the day in question. Malone’s agricultural consultant James Kirwan expressed the view that Edenderry Mart was short staffed at the time of the incident.
He said that in his view, there would normally be two to three staff members allocated to the purpose of bringing animals from the holding pen through the runway and chute process.
However, at the time in question, only one staff member, Liam Byrne, was available.
Justice Ferriter stated that he accepts the view that the mart assumes the responsibility of the animals from the point of their discharge by their owner into the arrival and holding pen area.
“In my view, the defendant was negligent in driving young bulls back into the pen which the plaintiff was driving animals out of (at the plaintiff’s request) at the same time,” he added.
“The defendant should rather have closed the gate into the pen after the logjam occurred in the chute, and circled the animals, who were not still in the pen, in the runway area until they had settled with a view to then driving them safely back into the chute.”