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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.  














Professional Negligence - From: 1993 To: 1993

This page lists 10 cases, and was prepared on 02 April 2018.

 
Taylor v Somerset Health Authority [1993] 4 Med LR 34; [1993] PIQR P262
1993

Auld J
Professional Negligence
The plaintiff's husband had suffered a heart attack at work and soon died at the defendant's hospital. She went to the hospital within an hour and was told of his death by a doctor about 20 minutes after her arrival. She was shocked and distressed. She identified the body at the mortuary. The defendants had been treating him for many months and had negligently failed to diagnose or treat his serious heart disease. It was admitted that she had suffered nervous shock (ie psychiatric illness) as a result of what she had heard and seen at the hospital. Held: The claim failed. It did not fall within the "immediate aftermath" principle as her husband's body bore no signs of violent injury. The death was instead the final consequence of negligence by the defendants many months earlier. The "immediate aftermath" extension had been introduced as an exception to the general principle established in accident cases that a plaintiff could only recover damages for psychiatric injury where the accident and the primary injury or death caused by it occurred within his sight or hearing.
Auld J said: "There are two notions implicit in this exception cautiously introduced and cautiously continued by the House of Lords. They are of:
(i) an external, traumatic, event caused by the defendant's breach of duty which immediately causes some person injury or death; and
(ii) a perception by the plaintiff of the event as it happens, normally by his presence at the scene, or exposure to the scene and/or to the primary victim so shortly afterwards that the shock of the event as well as of its consequence is brought home to him.
There was no such event here other than the final consequence of Mr. Taylor's progressively deteriorating heart condition which the health authority, by its negligence many months before, had failed to arrest. In my judgment, his death at work and the subsequent transference of his body to the hospital where Mrs. Taylor was informed of what had happened and where she saw the body do not constitute such an event."
1 Citers


 
Ricci v Masons [1993] 3 EG LR 159
1993


Landlord and Tenant, Professional Negligence, Damages
The tenant sued his solicitor who had failed to make application to the court in time to secure his right to a new tenancy. As a result, the tenant had had to accept a five year contracted out lease, as opposed to a 10 year lease with a break clause. Held: The damages were to be measured as the difference in value between the two leases, in this case set at £100,000.
Landlord and Tenant Act 1954

 
Berg Sons v Adams [1993] BCLC 1045
1993

Hobhouse J
Professional Negligence
Speaking of the judgments in Caparo, Hobhouse J said: "The speeches of both Lord Bridge and Lord Oliver analysed the criteria necessary for the existence of a duty of care. They both concluded that the criteria included the identification of a transaction which it could be said was the purpose (or, possibly, a purpose) of the giving of the advice or the making of the statement and the foreseeability that the advice or statement would be relied upon (maybe, relied upon without independent enquiry) in relation to that transaction."
1 Cites

1 Citers


 
White and Another v Jones and Another Gazette, 16 June 1993; Times, 09 March 1993; Independent, 05 March 1993
5 Mar 1993
CA

Negligence, Legal Professions, Professional Negligence
A solicitor's liability in negligence extends to potential beneficiary of will, from delay in making a will.
1 Cites

1 Citers



 
 William Sindall Plc v Cambridgeshire County Council; CA 21-May-1993 - Ind Summary, 28 June 1993; Times, 08 June 1993; [1993] NPC 82 CA; [1994] 1 WLR 1016; [1994] 3 All ER 932; [1993] EWCA Civ 14
 
Hemmens v Wilson Browne (A Firm) Gazette, 08 December 1993; Times, 30 June 1993; [1993] 4 All ER 826
30 Jun 1993
ChD
Judge Moseley QC
Professional Negligence, Legal Professions
A solicitor was not liable in negligence, where his mistake might be yet be rectified; this was an inter vivos transaction and the parties could still resolve the position. Though a solicitor had a duty to the beneficiary of a settlement, the settlor could still perfect the deed.
1 Citers



 
 Regina v Investors Compensation Scheme Ltd Ex Parte Weyell and Others; QBD 22-Jul-1993 - Independent, 22 July 1993; Times, 18 August 1993

 
 Broadley and Guy v Chapman and Co; CA 26-Jul-1993 - Ind Summary, 26 July 1993; Times, 06 July 1993; [1993] 4 Med L R 328
 
Arbuthnot and Others v Feltrim and Others; Deeny and Others v Gooda Walker Ltd and Others Independent, 01 October 1993; Times, 20 October 1993
12 Oct 1993
QBD
Saville J
Contract, Insurance, Professional Negligence
Lloyds' names sought damages from their underwriting agents for negligence. The court had to decide as a preliminary issue whether any duty of care arose to the names. Held: Until 1990, names signed an agreement with a member's agent who in turn arranged for them to be served by an underwriting agency, who, and again in turn, wrote insurance business on their behalf. Some members combined these two functions and were known as 'direct' names, and others were known as 'indirect' names. The underwriting agents had absolute discretion as to what business was to be written, and could appoint sub-agents. This very wide discretion and the unlimited liability of names and payments made to underwriters, required the underwriters to exercise a duty to exercise reasonable care and skill. That could only be excluded by the clearest of contracts. Contractual obligations might replace common law duties of care, but in this case these obligations for direct names were identical. For indirect names, the obligation existed in negligence only. This case did not require any extension of the law of negligence. Any delegation to managing agents did not alter the implicit promise to members.
1 Citers


 
Arbuthnott v Feltrim; Deeny v Gooda Walker; Henderson v Merrett Times, 30 December 1993; Independent, 14 December 1993
14 Dec 1993
CA

Agency, Professional Negligence
Underwriters owe a professional duty of care to Lloyds names in underwriting, even though they were acting as agents.
1 Cites

1 Citers


 
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