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These cases are from the lawindexpro database. They are now being transferred to the swarb.co.uk website in a better form. As a case is published there, an entry here will link to it. The swarb.co.uk site includes many later cases.  














Personal Injury - From: 1992 To: 1992

This page lists 15 cases, and was prepared on 02 April 2018.


 
 Cowan v Kitson Insulations Ltd; 1992 - [1992] PIQR Q19

 
 Breslin v Britoil plc; 1992 - 1992 SLT 414.
 
Mills v Barnsley Borough Council [1992] PIQR 291
1992
CA
Steyn LJ
Personal Injury, Road Traffic
The court considered the extent of defect in a highway needed to found a claim that it was dangerous. It emphasised that the duty must not be made too high, balancing the public need against the private interest.
Steyn LJ said: "For my part I find it a sterile exercise to make a comparison between the facts of reported decisions in tripping cases and the facts of the present case. In order for a plaintiff to succeed against a highway authority in a claim for personal injury for failure to maintain or repair the highway, the plaintiff must prove that:
(a) the highway was in such a condition that it was dangerous to traffic or pedestrians in the sense that, in the ordinary course of human affairs, danger may reasonably have been anticipated from its continued use by the public;
(b) the dangerous condition was created by the failure to maintain or repair the highway; and
(c) the injury or damage resulted from such a failure. Only if the plaintiff proves these facta probanda does it become necessary to turn to the highway authority's reliance on the special defence under section 58(1) of the 1980 Act, namely, that the authority had taken such care as in all the circumstances was reasonably required to secure that the particular part of the highway was not dangerous to traffic. On this aspect the burden rests on the highway authority."
Two findings of fact could not be sustained. He continued: "The short point is whether the judge was right in these circumstances in regarding this as a danger to women. Like the judge, I do not consider that it would be right to say that a depression of less than one inch will never be dangerous but one above will always be dangerous. Such mechanical jurisprudence is not to be encouraged. All that one can say is that the test of dangerousness is one of reasonable foresight of harm to users of the highway, and that each case will turn on its own facts. Here the photographs are particularly helpful. In my judgment the photographs reveal a wholly unremarkable scene. Indeed, it could be said that the layout of the slabs and the paving bricks appears to be excellent, and that the missing corner of the brick is less significant than the irregularities and depressions which are a feature of streets in towns and cities up and down the country. In the same way as the public must expect minor obstructions on roads, such as cobblestones, cats eyes and pedestrian crossing studs, and so forth, the public must expect minor depressions. Not surprisingly, there was no evidence of any other tripping accident at this particular place although thousands of pedestrians probably passed along that part of the pavement while the corner of the brick was missing. Nor is there any evidence of any complaint before or after the accident about that part of the pavement. Like Mr Booth, I regard the missing corner of the paving brick as a minor defect. The fact that Mrs Mills fell must either have been caused by her inattention while passing over an uneven surface or by misfortune and for present purposes it does not matter what precisely the cause is.
Finally, I add that, in drawing the inference of dangerousness in this case, the judge impliedly set a standard which, if generally used in the thousands of tripping cases which come before the courts ever year, would impose an unreasonable burden upon highway authorities in respect of minor depressions and holes in streets which in a less than perfect world the public must simply regard as a fact of life. It is important that our tort law should not impose unreasonably high standards, otherwise scarce resources would be diverted from situations where maintenance and repair of the highways is more urgently needed. This branch of the law of tort ought to represent a sensible balance or compromise between private and public interest. The judge's ruling in this case, if allowed to stand, would tilt the balance too far in favour of the woman who was unfortunately injured in this case. The risk was of a low order and the cost of remedying such minor defects all over the country would be enormous. In my judgment the plaintiff's claim fails on this first point.
In view of this conclusion on the first point, it is unnecessary to consider the judge's conclusion on the special defence under section 58 of the Act or the issue of contributory negligence."
Highways Act 1980 41 58(1)
1 Citers


 
James v Preseli District Council [1992] PIQR 114
1992
CA
Lloyd LJ
Personal Injury
In the context of an alleged failure to maintain a highway, the question in each case is whether the particular spot where the claimant tripped or fell was dangerous: "if the particular spot was not dangerous, then it is irrelevant that there were other spots nearby that were dangerous or that the area as a whole was due for resurfacing" and "In one sense it is reasonably foreseeable that any defect in the highway, however slight, may cause an injury but that is not the test of what is meant by dangerous in this context. It must be the sort of danger which an authority may reasonably be expected to guard against."
1 Citers


 
Mills v British Rail Engineering Ltd [1992] 1 PIQR Q130
1992
CA
Dillon and Staughton LJJ, Neill LJ
Personal Injury, Damages
Defendants appealed an award of £8,000 to the widow of a man who died of lung cancer, for her caring for him in his last months. She claimed two hours' services each day for the first two months of his illness, increasing to three hours, and then to four hours a day during the next two months up to the time his cancer was diagnosed. For the next six months the claim was elevated to what in essence represented ten hours' services each day. For the last three months a claim was made for 14 hours' services each day. Except for this final period, the claim was based on a rate of £3 per hour. For the last three months the rate was £3.25 per hour, the charging rates for carers who were not qualified nurses with caring skills, and the award of £8,000 was based on two-thirds of the full commercial rate for such services, without any extra allowances for agency charges. Held: "there can be no justification in principle for differentiating between full-time care needing really a trained nurse and full-time care needing a carer giving love and affection to the patient, the dying person, to a degree far more than would be expected in any ordinary way of life. In principle it must be, in my judgment, a matter for an award only in recompense for care by the relative well beyond the ordinary call of duty for the special needs of the sufferer. "
1 Cites

1 Citers


 
Hayden v Hayden [1992] 1 WLR 986; Times, 08 April 1992; [1992] CLY 1528
1992
CA

Personal Injury, Damages
The claimant's mother died in a car accident caused by the father. The father then took over the mother's role in caring for the claimant. Held: Those services, and compensation awarded to provide for them, were not a benefit accruing as a result of the death for the purposes of section 4, and the plaintiff could not recover them as damages.
Fatal Accidents Act 1976 4
1 Citers


 
Wood v Bentall Simplex Ltd [1992] PIQR 332
1992
CA
Beldam LJ
Personal Injury, Damages
No aspect of the law of damages has been found in practice to be more dependent on the facts of each particular case than the assessment of loss of pecuniary benefit to dependants under the Fatal Accidents Act
1 Citers


 
Stubbings v Webb [1992] QB 197
1992
CA

Personal Injury, Limitation
The claimant sought damages for having been raped. The defendant said the claim was out of time.
Limitation Act 1980 2
1 Citers



 
 Hicks v Chief Constable of the South Yorkshire Police; HL 5-Mar-1992 - [1991] UKHL 9; [1992] 2 All ER 65; [1992] PIQR P433
 
Practice Direction: Structured Settlements Gazette, 18 March 1992
18 Mar 1992
CA

Personal Injury
Practice for speeding up the courts approval of structured settlement proposals for damages.

 
Hayden v Hayden [1992] EWCA Civ 13; [1992] 1 WLR 986
24 Mar 1992
CA
Parker, McCowan LJJ, Sir David Croom-Johnson
Damages, Personal Injury
Appeal by the defendant driver against the level of an award of damages to a minor suing by her next friend The plaintiff cross-appeals to argue that it was not large enough. The action resulted from a motor accident on 30th August 1983. The defendant was driving a motor car towing a caravan. His wife was a passenger in the car when the car and caravan overturned and his wife was killed. Liability was not disputed.
[ Bailii ]
 
Re Workvale Ltd (In Liquidation) Gazette, 08 April 1992; [1992] 1 WLR 416
8 Apr 1992
CA

Insolvency, Limitation, Personal Injury
A limited company was correctly restored to the register from dissolution so that its insurers could face an arguable claim. Where a first writ issued within the primary limitation period was ineffective (although not a nullity) through having been issued against a company which had been struck off the register, the Walkley principle does not defeat a second action in limine, despite the defect being curable, by having the company restored to the register.
Limitation Act 1980
1 Cites

1 Citers


 
Steadman v Scholfield and Another Gazette, 06 May 1992
6 May 1992
QBD

Personal Injury, Damages, Transport
A jet ski is neither a boat nor a vessel. The maritime limitation rules did not therefore apply to an accident involving a jet ski. The applicant could therefore claim full damages.
Marine Conventions Act 1911

 
Practice: Myodil Actions Gazette, 20 May 1992
20 May 1992
QBD

Personal Injury
J May to oversee all Myodil claims and other provisions for conduct of claims.

 
Larby v Thurgood Gazette, 28 October 1992
28 Oct 1992
QBD

Personal Injury
Evidence of 'employment consultant' was inadmissible as to Plaintiff's ability to work.

 
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