Damages can be awarded under the Fatal Accidents Acts only in respect of pecuniary loss and not as a solatium for injured feelings. The House set down the test that award of damages in fatal accident action is compensation for the reasonable expectation of pecuniary benefit by the deceased’s family. The purpose of award of compensation is to put the dependants of the deceased, who had been bread-winner of the family, in the same position financially as if he had lived his natural span of life; it is not designed to put the claimants in a better financial position in which they would otherwise have been if the accident had not occurred.
Judges:
Lord Haldane
Citations:
[1913] AC 1, [1911-13] All ER 160
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Damages
Updated: 04 May 2022; Ref: scu.519670
