Johnson and Johnson appeals award of €944k to former Limerick hurler injured while rescuing co-worker

Ann O'Loughlin

Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson has appealed an award of €944,000 to former Limerick senior hurler Mark Keane over a 2018 workplace incident.

Mr Keane was injured while freeing a colleague who was trapped in a machine at Johnson & Johnson Vision Care's plant in Plassey, Co Limerick.

Last April, the High Court made the award to Mr Keane for injuries to his right hand, arm and shoulder. He told the court that since the injury he was "not the man he was, nor the one he hoped to become" and felt "let down" by the famed multinational bluechip company.

An accomplished hurler, Mr Keane won three consecutive All-Irelands with Limerick under 21s between 2000 and 2002 and played senior from 2000 to 2006.

Johnson & Johnson had said the company "absolutely" accepted responsibility for the injury Mr Keane suffered in the form of the nerve damage and injury to his right hand but did not accept responsibility for his claim of injury to his right shoulder.

Johnson & Johnson claims the trial judge erred in law and fact, arguing that the judge's findings were unsupported and "contrary to the evidence" in finding there was a causal connection between the accident and the emergence of symptoms in Mr Keane's shoulder.

Johnson & Johnson submits that no substantial complaint about the shoulder was made during the course of his treatment for his injuries from the incident according to medical records.

The company claims that the first mention of the shoulder injury was in November 2014, six years after the incident, which was the first time they had heard of it.

Johnson & Johnson also claims that Mr Keane gave "evidence that he had not cycled a bicycle in years, which he subsequently accepted was untruthful in cross examination". This reversal, they claim, goes towards the credibility of the evidence put before the trial judge.

In his cross examination of Mr Keane, Murray Johnson SC, for Johnson & Johnson, said the plaintiff had gone on 10-12 cycles of between 27km and 105km in the summer of 2019, despite the plaintiff’s claim that he had been in pain since the incident and could not raise his arm above his head.

Mr Keane accepted he had gone cycling socially with friends to get out of the house for his mental health after the injury, but that he did not enter any races. He said he cycled in June 2019 but has not done so since.

The company also claims that the awards regarding pension, health insurance and loss of future earnings were "excessive".

Mr Keane's side submits that the "fundamental finding of fact" by the trial judge that Mr Keane had injured his hand and his shoulder from the accident was "not reviewable".

Michael McMahon SC, instructed by HOMS Assist solicitors, for Mr Keane, today submitted that the judge's findings were based on "cogent evidence". Counsel said the judge "engaged with the issues, set out the arguments and evidence for and against the shoulder and preferred the plaintiffs arguments".

"It is not open to this court to reverse in whole or in part the decision of the trial Judge by adverting to other evidence capable of being portrayed as inconsistent with the trial Judge's finding of primary fact," submitted Mr McMahon.

It is submitted that the company "never established any other trauma after the significant incident the plaintiff was involved in" and that the injury to the right shoulder was apparent from an MRI dated December 20th, 2021.

The trial judge "cogently elucidated on why he was making a finding that the right shoulder injuries had been caused as a consequence of the incident on September 10, 2018," submitted Mr McMahon.

Mr Keane took his case against Johnson & Johnson Vision care (Ireland). The 44-year-old alleged Johnson & Johnson were negligent and breached their duty of care towards him on September 10th, 2018, while he was working as a technician making contact lenses.

Mr Keane alleged the company failed to provide him with a safe place of work and a safe system of work.

In his April judgment, trial judge Mr Justice Paul Coffey said he preferred the evidence of the plaintiff that there had been a causal connection between the trauma of the accident and the emergence of symptoms in the plaintiff's right shoulder, which had no previous symptoms before the incident.