Pothole issue deepening as claim costs rise

Claims against Cavan County Council for damage to vehicles caused by potholes on roads have increased massively over past three years, The Anglo-Celt can reveal.
A total of 53 registered claims were submitted to Cavan County Council by vehicle owners throughout 2018, 10 times more than in the previous 24 months. This amounts to just three pothole claims in 2016, and only two in 2017.
The details are contained in what are known as Claims Quarterly Reports, which are issued by IPB Insurance on behalf of local authorities, and copies of which the Celt obtained on foot of a Freedom of Information application to the Council.
The claim figures for Cavan County Council show a dramatic year-on-year increase in the number of claims submitted against the local authority right across the board, with public liability claims (trips, slips and falls) making up the largest proportion. It also reveals that the largest individual payout in 2018 was over €150,000 for a trip/slip on a footpath.

Settlements

It has led to settlements totalling more than €1.5 million over the past three years - €552,624 in 2018, €571,159 in 2017, and €416,607 in 2016.
By the end of last year, the council had 114 active claims still outstanding, with a potential gross value against the insurer of just over €5 million.
Not only has the number of claims almost doubled since 2016 (59), but the level of payout has also increased, up from €3.6m.
The vast majority of claims still active by the end of 2018, 100 in fact, were for public liability.
At the end of 2017 it was 63, and, in 2016, the figure was 55.
The total value of the 100 Public Liability (PL) claims ending 2018 was put at over €4.3m alone, or just under 75% of the total overall considered claim value against the Council.
At least two of the claims faced by the Council coming into 2019 are for in excess of €250,000 each, the documents further reveal.
Four more claims are for sums between €150,000 and €250,000.
Not included in the reports is a breakdown of the number of claims that went to court and the outcome of those cases.
The reports do not provide any indication in terms of the make-up of associated claim costs, including legal fees.
The remaining claims, aside from PL, are for motor (7), three Employer Liability (EL), three property, and one ‘Other’.
Within that, claims for which settlements are outstanding include those listed as ‘Manhole’, ‘Defective Practice’, ‘Criminal Defence Costs’ inadequate system of work, and one simply noted as ‘Explosion’.
Cavan County Council started 2018 with 111 claims against the authority.
The reports list the top five claim categories across the last three years, as well as the top five finalised claims categories, in terms of costs.
In 2018, the Council settled a total of 76 claims. Again, the figure is up on previous years, and double the number settled by the end of 2016 (36).

Largest claim

The largest single claim last year was settled for €157,803, listed under Employer’s Liability (EL) and is connected to the ‘Footpath & Slip/Trip’. In all, seven footpath injury claims were settled last year, to the tune of €416,844.
The council paid out sums in excess of €100,000 in each of the four quarter periods of last year.
Of the 76 claims settled in 2018, 55 were for PL. More than half were for PL in 2017, and again almost two-thirds in 2016.
In 2017, €149 was paid out under the category ‘Unknown Circumstances’, and in 2016, €62,989 compensated by the authority due to ‘Stress’.
There were 13 ‘Zero Cost’ claims finalised in 2018, nine of which were attributed to footpath & slip/ trip, seven each concerning potholes and roads, five for amenities or ground defects, and two arising from theft.
The lowest sum settled for across the three years, 2016-18, was for €86 under ‘Roads’.