(Scotland) A second re-trial in order to obtain a jury assessment of damages more in line with that assessed by judges would be wrong. Lord Clyde: ‘In a system in which damages may be assessed in different cases either by a jury or by a judge it is essential, not only for the profession, but also for the court both in the making of awards and in the consideration of awards which have been made, for there to be available a convenient record of awards by juries as well as by judges.’
The House will always be slow to interfere with a decision of the Court of Session on matters of procedure and the Court of Session is far better placed than the House can ever be to assess what changes could appropriately be made in procedure and practice relating to the conduct of civil jury trials in that court.
Lord Clyde, Lord Browne-Wilkinson, Lord Mackay of Clashfern, Lord Slynn of Hadley, Lord Hope of Craighead
Times 15-Dec-1997, [1997] UKHL 47, 1998 SC (HL) 1, 1998 SLT 21, 1998 SCLR 72
House of Lords, Bailii
Court of Session Act 1988
Scotland
Citing:
Appeal from – Girvan v Inverness Farmers Dairy and Another IHCS 1996
The claimant sought damages. One of the heads of claim that were not in dispute was that the pursuer’s injuries had made it impossible for him to continue as a dedicated clay pigeon shot and had as a result lost the very real prospect of winning . .
Cited by:
Cited – McTear v Imperial Tobacco Ltd OHCS 31-May-2005
The pursuer sought damages after her husband’s death from lung cancer. She said that the defenders were negligent in having continued to sell him cigarettes knowing that they would cause this.
Held: The action failed. The plaintiff had not . .
Cited – Somerville v Scottish Ministers HL 24-Oct-2007
The claimants complained of their segregation while in prison. Several preliminary questions were to be decided: whether damages might be payable for breach of a Convention Right; wheher the act of a prison governor was the act of the executive; . .
Cited – Bowden v Poor Sisters of Nazareth and others and similar HL 21-May-2008
The appellants said they had suffered abuse while resident at children’s homes run by the respondents. The respondents denied the allegations and said that they were also out of time. The claims were brought many years after the events.
Held: . .
Cited – Callery v Gray (1) and (2) HL 27-Jun-2002
Success fees and ATE premiums were recoverable
Objection was made to a claimed uplift of 20% sought by the plaintiff’s solicitors. The defendant’s insurers said that there had been little at risk for them.
Held: The system of conditional fees insurance had been introduced to remedy defects . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 22 October 2021; Ref: scu.158923
