An Irishman who was paralysed following a diving accident in Australia four years ago has lost an action for damages in the Supreme Court of New South Wales.
Mr Garry Mulligan (33) sued a number of local and government authorities in New South Wales for up to €2.7 million in damages, claiming he struck an underwater sandbank in an area where there were signs saying it was safe to swim on January 24th, 1999.
An Australian judge, who travelled to Ireland to hear evidence because Mr Mulligan was physically unable to travel to Australia, found that the former train-driver was responsible for his own injuries.
Justice Anthony Whealy said the danger at the Coffs Harbour resort was, or should have been, obvious to Mr Mulligan and that it was an inherent risk in the plaintiff's swimming activities on that day.
Mr Mulligan's case created legal history when the New South Wales court sat in Dublin last September. During what was the first Australian legal case to be heard in a foreign country, Mr Mulligan said there were no warning signs on the beach. He also claimed in court that a council-approved pier built shortly before his accident had contributed to the sandbank forming.
Mr Mulligan told the court how he had waded into the sea and plunged head first under the water six or seven times before the fateful dive.
"I remember hitting something at the bottom, I felt sand raised, and just something snap in my head. It seemed very painful.
"I came to the surface. I didn't think anything straight away but then I realised that I was not able to get my head above the surface and was unable to move."
Mr Mulligan's Australian counsel, Mr Brian Murray QC, told the court last September of the emotional toll of the accident.
"He has no capacity to move himself from any part of his body from the nipple down. His emotional state, as one can understand, is not good.
"He has come to accept the disability but he is subject to fits of despair and particularly keenly feels his loss of independence and privacy."
The hearing in Dublin opened on the day the first report of negligence law review was released in Australia.
The review recommended people should be unable to sue for injuries from obviously risky activities.
Justice Whealy thanked Ireland's Supreme Court Chief Justice Keane for allowing the trial, which included solicitors, barristers and court officials from Sydney, to be held in Dublin under a statute dating back to the 1880s.
Mr Mulligan has been ordered to pay all court costs, estimated to be over €500,000.
