The claimants had been negligently injected as children with Hartree HGH, a human growth hormone that exposed them to the risk of contracting CJD. One issue was whether this rendered the defendants liable for psychiatric illness caused by the shock of learning of the risk to which they had been exposed.
Held: Litigation for Creutzfeld Jacob Disease cut off date for litigation; those receiving treatment before and after must show would have stopped. ‘I can see no logical reason why foreseeability of or responsibility for shock and psychiatric injury should be limited to an area of time contemporaneous or almost contemporaneous to the negligent physical event i.e. the injection of Hartree HGH. If the psychiatric injury was reasonably foreseeable it should be untrammelled by spatial physical or temporal limits (see per Lord Scarman in McLoughlin at page 414A).’
Judges:
Morland J
Citations:
Times 20-Dec-1997, [1997] EWCA Civ 2749, [2000] Lloyds Law Rep (Medical) 161
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Rothwell v Chemical and Insulating Co Ltd and Another CA 26-Jan-2006
Each claimant sought damages after being exposed to asbestos dust. The defendants resisted saying that the injury alleged, the development of pleural plaques, was yet insufficient as damage to found a claim.
Held: (Smith LJ dissenting) The . .
Cited – Johnston v NEI International Combustion Ltd; Rothwell v Chemical and Insulating Co Ltd; similar HL 17-Oct-2007
The claimant sought damages for the development of neural plaques, having been exposed to asbestos while working for the defendant. The presence of such plaques were symptomless, and would not themselves cause other asbestos related disease, but . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Personal Injury
Updated: 13 November 2022; Ref: scu.79626