The claimant was severely injured and claimed for loss of future earnings and future care. The defendant admitted liability. In the statement of case for damages, the claimant contended that, if the court made an order for periodic payments, it should disapply or modify section 2(8) and provide for the amount of such payments to vary by reference to a wage-related index rather than the retail prices index (RPI). To support that case, the claimant sought to adduce expert evidence. The defendants applied to strike out the relevant parts of the statement of case and to exclude the evidence on the grounds that use could only be made of section 2(9) in exceptional circumstances. Sir Michael Turner had refused the defendant’s applications. They now appealed.
Held: The appeal failed. Section 2(8) identified a default position. Section 2(9) allowed the court to make the orders identified therein not simply in exceptional circumstances but whenever it appeared appropriate and fair to do so.
As to the risk that, if exceptionality was not the test, the courts faced the prospect of trials at which a host of expensive witnesses would be called on each side, Brooke LJ said: ‘We are now dealing with a different statutory provision and, if the experience of the past is any useful guide, it is likely that there will be a number of trials at which the expert evidence on each side can be thoroughly tested. A group of appeals will then be brought to this court to enable it to give definitive guidance in the light of the findings of fact made by a number of trial judges. The armies of experts will then be able to strike their tents and return to the offices or academic groves from which they came.’
The Explanatory Notes accompanying an Act are admissible to illuminate the mischief at which the legislation is aimed
Brooke LJ, Sir Mark Potter Moore-Bick LJ
[2006] EWCA Civ 1103, [2007] 1 WLR 482
Bailii
Damages Act 1996 2(8) 2(9)
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – A v B Hospitals NHS Trust Admn 10-Nov-2006
The claimant baby had suffered catastrophic injuries at birth in the defendant’s hospital. Liability having been admitted, the court now considered whether damages should be paid as a lump sum or by periodical payments.
Held: ‘ the form of . .
Cited – Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills v The Interim Executive Board of Al-Hijrah School CA 13-Oct-2017
Single Sex Schooling failed to prepare for life
The Chief Inspector appealed from a decision that it was discriminatory under the 2010 Act to educate girls and boys in the same school but under a system providing effective complete separation of the sexes.
Held: The action was . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Damages, Personal Injury, Litigation Practice
Leading Case
Updated: 01 November 2021; Ref: scu.243993