161 / 462
g a z e t t e
april 1 9 91
the labour market.
Both
these risks are incidental to
any employment
of a
working man and if one
were to accept the actuarial
figures it would amount to
insuring the Plaintiff against
either risk for the rest of his
probable working life. This
would place him in a position
of security which he could
never have obtained if he
had not been injured by
accident.
Consequently
i
consider that the actuarial
evidence cannot be availed
of as an established loss, but
merely as a guide-line which
must be discounted to allow
for the risks to which / have
referred."
In his judgment in the
Reddy
-v- Bates
[1983] IR 141, [1984]
ILRM 197 appeal Mr. Justice
Griffin said
"in calcuating the [loss] the
actuary allowed for the
possibility of death, using
standard mortality
tables,
having regard to the sex of
the plaintiff, and allowing for
changing interest rates... .
This figure does not take
into account the marriage
prospects-f of the plaintiff;
nor does it take into account
any risk of unemployment,
redundancy, illness, accident
or the like, it assumes that
the plaintiff, if uninjured,
would have continued to
work, week in and week out,
until retirement . . . would
have [in effect] guaranteed
employment at a constantly
increasing annual rate of
wages, until retirement or
prior death" a
1983] IR 141,
146, [1984] ILRM 197,
201).
It seems that the taking
account of these risks, while
they might have been recog-
nised, was not put into
practice until after the
Supreme Court judgment in
the
Reddy -v- Bates
case. This
is usually referred to nowadays
as the
Reddy and Bates
discount.
We see therefore that in
certain circumstances actu-
arial evidence must be
provided but it is to be used
only as a guide-line.
Haberman and Bloomfield in
their paper put forward a
theoretical approach to the
quantification of contingency
discounts. They point out that
there is difficulty in obtaining
«' . • . the taking into
account of [the risks of
unemployment, redund-
ancy, illness, accident or the
like] . . . was not put into
practice until after . . .
Reddy -v- Bates
the necessary data so that the
theory can be put to practical
use. I suggest similar dif-
ficulties exist in obtaining
the necessary data in this
country. This is an area where,
perhaps, research could be
undertaken.
^Editor's Note:
see now
Fitzsimons
-v-
Electricity
Supply
Board and
Bord
Telecom Eireann,
High Court
(Barron J), 31 July 1990, The
Irish Times Law Report, 12
November 1990.
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