A divorced, but reconciled wife was capable of being considered a dependant of the husband, despite the intervening failed marriage.
Ind Summary 31-Jul-1995, Times 15-Jun-1995
Fatal Accidents Act 1976 1 (3)(a)
England and Wales
Updated: 21 January 2023; Ref: scu.89219
Employer of Plaintiff entitled to full indemnity from 2nd employer instructing Plaintiff.
Times 15-Jun-1995
England and Wales
Updated: 21 January 2023; Ref: scu.84244
A husband and wife crossed a road. The wife, appreciating that the danger from the traffic, ran across. The husband stood in the middle of the road and then went ahead, but was struck by a vehicle and injured. He was significantly affected by alcohol, and evidence had been led at the trial indicating the effect of alcohol on accident statistics, particularly relating to men. The judge concluded that the husband was 25 per cent to blame for the accident.
Held: The driver’s appeal succeeded to the extent that the plaintiff was 50% responsible for his injuries.
Stuart-Smith LJ considered the correct approach to the fact that the husband had been affected by alcohol in the context of the issue of apportionment. He replied to a submission which sought to equate the approach to a drunken driver to the situation of a drunken pedestrian, as follows: ‘That may be so in the case of a driver who puts himself in the control of an object which is capable of great damage if it is not properly controlled, but I am not persuaded that it makes a significant difference in this case in the case of a pedestrian. It seems to me that the pedestrian’s conduct has to be judged by what he did rather than the explanation as to why he did it.’ Having referred to the statistical information which had been before the judge, he said: ‘The result of that statistical survey is no doubt a matter of expert knowledge not available to a layman. But whether it is of any material assistance in this case is another matter. It is not the fact that a plaintiff has consumed too much alcohol that matters, it is what he does. If he steps in front of a car travelling at 30 mph at a time when the driver has no opportunity to avoid an accident, that is a very dangerous and unwise thing to do. The explanation of his conduct may be that he was drunk: but the fact of drunkenness does not, in my judgment, make the conduct any more or less dangerous and it does not in these circumstances increase the blameworthiness of it.’
As to the test of admissibility laid down in the 1972 Act 1972: ‘But that section in no way extends the principles upon which expert evidence is admissible. An expert is only qualified to give expert evidence on a relevant matter, if his knowledge and expertise relate to a matter which is outside the knowledge and experience of a layman. In the reference to an ‘issue in the proceedings in question’ relates to a factual issue and not to the conclusion of law based upon such fact’.
Stuart-Smith LJ laid down the limits of expert evidence: ‘In such cases the function of the expert is to furnish the Judge with the necessary scientific criteria and assistance based upon his special skill and experience not possessed by ordinary laymen to enable the Judge to interpret the factual evidence of the marks on the road, the damage or whatever it may be. What he is not entitled to do is to say in effect ‘I have considered the statements and special evidence of the eyewitnesses in this case and I conclude from their evidence that the defendant was going at a certain speed, or that he could have seen the plaintiff at a certain point’. These are facts for the trial Judge to find based on the evidence that he accepts and such inferences as he draws from the primary facts found. Still less is the expert entitled to say that in his opinion the defendant should have sounded his horn, seen the plaintiff before he did or taken avoiding action and that in taking some action or failing to take some other action, a party was guilty of negligence. These are matters for the Court, on which the expert’s opinion is wholly irrelevant and therefore inadmissible’.
Stuart-Smith, Peter Gibson and Hutchison LJJ
Times 17-Jul-1995, (1996) PIQR 36
Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act 1945 1(1), Civil Evidence Act 1972
England and Wales
Cited – Bailey v Warre CA 7-Feb-2006
The claimant had been severely injured in a road traffic accident. His claim was compromised and embodied in a court order, but later a question was raised as to whether he had had mental capacity at the time to make the compromise he had.
Cited – Lunt v Khelifa CA 22-May-2002
The claimant pedestrian had been injured when hit by a car driven by the defendant as she stepped into the roadway. Both parties appealed against the assessment of contributory negligence. The claimant had a blood alcohol level three times that . .
Cited – Allen v Cornwall Council QBD 20-May-2015
The claimant was injured riding his bicycle, and alleged failure by the respondent highway authority. The court now considered an application for leave to appeal against an order allowing the production of evidence of an expert in cycling skills and . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 21 January 2023; Ref: scu.83063
Plaintiffs who were claiming damage from the emission of noxious fumes did not need particularise the gases which they thought had caused the damage.
Gazette 14-Jun-1995, Times 18-May-1995
England and Wales
Updated: 21 January 2023; Ref: scu.80740
The plaintiff appealed refusal of her claim for damages for personal injury.
Leggatt LJ, Swinton Thomas LJ, Otton LJ
[1995] EWCA Civ 28, [1995] PIQR 281, [1995] 6 Med LR 108, [1955-95] PNLR 680
England and Wales
Updated: 12 December 2022; Ref: scu.259338
In many cases the trial judge is in a better position than an appellate court to make the correct finding as to inferences from the facts found: ‘It is in my judgment very important to bear in mind that this is an appeal on issues of fact, albeit that it involves, principally, a challenge to inferences. It is important to note the approach that the law requires of an appellant court. Where there has been no misdirection on fact by the trial judge, the presumption is that his conclusion is correct. The appellate court will only reverse it where it is convinced that it is wrong. In such a case, if the appellate court is merely left in doubt as to the correctness of the conclusion, then it will uphold it. For my part, I am satisfied that nowhere in the judgment is there to be found any misdirection by the judge. Indeed, I pay tribute to a careful and balanced judgment. Furthermore, it must be borne in mind that even in relation to inferences from established fact, a trial judge is often in a superior position to the Court of Appeal. This is, in my judgment, such a case. I say that because what we are concerned with is a judge’s interpretation of primary facts, and it is that interpretation which has proved to be the decisive matter in the case.’
Steyn LJ
[1995] PIQR P309
England and Wales
Cited – Kearn-Price v Kent County Council CA 30-Oct-2002
The claimant was injured, being hit in the face by a football in a school playground. It was before school started. There had been accidents, and there were rules which had not been enforced. The school appealed a finding of negligence.
Held: . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 12 December 2022; Ref: scu.214303
A passenger who was effectively involved in a joint enterprise with a drunk driver has no claim against Motor Insurers Bureau under the scheme. The MIB was not liable to a passenger who was aware that the driver had no insurance.
Gazette 05-Jan-1995, Times 23-Nov-1994
England and Wales
Updated: 09 December 2022; Ref: scu.89560
Order 80 is a full scheme for the approval of infant settlements; will protect children’s interests.
Times 28-Dec-1995
England and Wales
Updated: 09 December 2022; Ref: scu.83518
There could be no Fatal Accidents Acts damages for a loss of ‘moonlighting’ earnings dependency.
Independent 02-Jan-1996, Times 28-Dec-1995, [1996] RTR 396
England and Wales
Cited – Hewison v Meridian Shipping Services Pte Ltd, Coflexip Stena Offshore Ltd, Flex Installer Offshore Ltd QBD 30-Nov-2001
The applicant had been severely injured at work. He was an epileptic, and had not disclosed his condition to his employers, who because of the safety aspects of the work on oil rigs could not have employed him if he had disclosed the sickness. The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 09 December 2022; Ref: scu.81547
The Defendant landlord had demanded rent arrears and said that if the Claimant did not do what he wanted he would evict her from her flat. He forcibly raped her and then fought a criminal trial, alleging that sexual relations had been consensual and calling witnesses to blacken the Claimant’s character.
Held: Damages of pounds 50,000 for a rape were correct. Rape is ‘in a quite different category from personal injury cases in general’. The victim had to go through a trial and deal with an allegation of consent. The sum included an element of aggravated damages.
Millett LJ, Rose LJ
Times 24-Nov-1995
England and Wales
Cited – Lawson v Glaves-Smith, Executor of the Estate of Dawes (Deceased) QBD 14-Nov-2006
The claimant sought damages saying that she had been falsely imprisoned, raped and drugged by the defendant who had since died.
Held: The court had only the evidence of the claimant, and must be careful in examining it. On that evidence the . .
Cited – AT and others v Dulghieru and Another QBD 19-Feb-2009
The claimants had been subject to unlawful human trafficking. Their abductors had been imprisoned, and they now sought damages. The court was asked now to assess the damages to be awarded for sexual enslavement. Each claimant suffered chronic post . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 09 December 2022; Ref: scu.81048
The pursuer sought reparation against three former shipbuilders. He had developed extensive bilateral pleural plaques and asbestosis.
Held: Lord Gill felt that it was possible to give the proviso a satisfactory meaning, notwithstanding his conclusion that the 1931 Regulations applied only to the asbestos industry: ‘the Regulations related to those processes by which the raw material was treated in the course of its being manufactured into asbestos products of various kinds’
Lord Gill
[1998] ScotCS 48
Asbestos Industry Regulations 1931 (1931 No 1140)
Scotland
Disapproved – Shell Tankers UK Limited v Jeromson; The Cherry Tree Machine Company Limited, Shell Tankers UK Limited v Dawson CA 2-Feb-2001
The claimant’s husband had been employed as an apprentice fitter in a factory which manufactured dry cleaners’ presses. For two years, it was part of his job to mix asbestos flock with water in a bucket and then apply it to the plattens of a press . .
Cited – McDonald v National Grid Electricity Transmission Plc SC 22-Oct-2014
Contact visiting plants supported asbestos claim
The deceased had worked as a lorry driver regularly collecting pulverized fuel ash from a power station. On his visits he was at areas with asbestos dust. He came to die from mesothelioma. His widow now pursued his claim that the respondent had . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 09 December 2022; Ref: scu.163364
Where a task required common-sense, and no obvious instructions were capable of avoiding a danger, an employer was not required to produce instruction and training. The judge erred in finding liability without finding what would have helped.
Sir Stephen Brown Lord Justice Swinton Thomas
Times 02-Apr-1999, Gazette 24-Mar-1999, [1999] EWCA Civ 849
England and Wales
Updated: 05 December 2022; Ref: scu.145764
Claim for damages arising from alleged want of care of child in the womb, leading to a stillbirth. The claimant father suffered psychiatric damage after being told of the death of his wife’s baby in utero as a result of negligent treatment by clinicians working for the defendant hospital. He argued that Taylor v A. Novo could not preclude a claim ‘in a case where the first manifestation of the injuries sustained by the primary victim occurs in front of (or within sight or hearing of) the secondary victim (or where he comes across the primary victim in the immediate aftermath of this injury) but is separated in time from the act or omission constituting negligence’. In a clinical negligence case where the first manifestation of the negligent act or omission was a shocking event seen, heard or otherwise directly experienced by the secondary victim, a claim would lie. It was argued that it could be seen from the reference to Walters that the Court of Appeal in Taylor v A. Novo had not intended to state any new principle.
Held: The argument failed.
Michael Kent QC, expressed ‘difficulty’ with the proposition because of Lord Dyson’s approval of Auld J’s observation in Taylor v Somerset and his observation that Peter Gibson LJ’s remarks in Walters were obiter. The term ‘external event’ was ‘explained by the context of these claims which is that they are all made by those who are not directly participating in the events which have been engulfed the primary victims and which are in that sense external to the claimant’. It was ‘arguably going too far’ to argue, as the defendant had, that Lord Wilberforce’s reference to the ‘fact and consequence of the negligence’ meant that the negligence must itself be synchronous with the sustaining of shock by the secondary victim. It was ‘a little unlikely’ that the Court of Appeal in Walters had overlooked the fact that the fit was a result of the earlier negligent treatment, so that the cause of action had already accrued prior to the start of the relevant ‘event’. Ultimately, however, it was not necessary to resolve any of these points, because the claimant learned of the death after it had happened and witnessed no shocking event. This was fatal to the claim:
Michael Kent QC
[2014] EWHC 4053 (QB), [2016] PIQR P3
England and Wales
Cited – Liverpool Women’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust v Ronayne CA 17-Jun-2015
The respondent was an experienced ambulance driver. His wife underwent emergency treatment at the appellant’s hospital. He had claimed as a secondary victim for the distress he suffered witnessing her suffering.
Held: The hospital’s appeal . .
Cited – Paul and Another v The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust QBD 4-Jun-2020
Nervous shock – liability to third parties
The claimants witnessed the death of their father from a heart attack. They said that the defendant’s negligent treatment allowed the attack to take place. Difficult point of law about the circumstances in which a defendant who owes a duty of care . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 30 November 2022; Ref: scu.539569
An amendment to pleadings was allowed after the limitation period had expired in order to add a claim based on the same facts. The claim was brought by the father of a young man injured in a motor cycle accident. For fourteen days the father stayed at his son’s bedside, watching him deteriorate in health and fall into a coma and then die. The father now appealed against an order striking out his claim.
Held: Appeal dismissed, finding that there was no trace in the medical report of ‘shock’ no sudden appreciation by sight or sound of a horrifying event. The report described a process continuing for some time, from first arrival at the hospital to the appreciation of medical negligence after the inquest. In particular the son’s death when it occurred was not surprising but expected. There was no reason in logic why a breach of duty causing an incident involving no violence or suddenness, such as where the wrong medicine is negligently given to a hospital patient, could not lead to a claim for damages for nervous shock, for example where the negligence has fatal results and a visiting close relative, wholly unprepared for what has occurred, finds the body and thereby sustains a sudden and unexpected shock to the nervous system.
Peter Gibson LJ, Staughton LJ, Waite LJ
Times 10-Jun-1994, [1994] 5 Med LR 170, [1994] EWCA Civ 26
England and Wales
Cited – North Glamorgan NHS Trust v Walters CA 6-Dec-2002
A new mother woke in hospital to see her baby (E) fitting. E suffered a major epileptic seizure leading to coma and irreparable brain damage. E was transferred to a London hospital and the following day the claimant was told by a consultant that E’s . .
Cited – Taylor v A Novo (UK) Ltd CA 18-Mar-2013
The deceased had suffered a head injury at work from the defendant’s admitted negligence. She had been making a good recovery but then collapsed and died at home from pulmonary emboli, and thrombosis which were a consequence of the injury. The . .
Cited – Paul and Another v The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust QBD 4-Jun-2020
Nervous shock – liability to third parties
The claimants witnessed the death of their father from a heart attack. They said that the defendant’s negligent treatment allowed the attack to take place. Difficult point of law about the circumstances in which a defendant who owes a duty of care . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 30 November 2022; Ref: scu.89280
Lord Boyd of Duncansby
[2015] ScotCS CSOH – 64
Scotland
Updated: 30 November 2022; Ref: scu.547655
‘This case concerns an accident at the defenders’ racing stables on 25 March 2011. The pursuer was employed there by the defenders as trainer or assistant trainer. He was exercising a horse (‘Psalm 23′) on the training gallop. At the far end of the gallop, just before the third or final bend, his horse fell and landed on him. He was badly hurt. His left arm was injured and he has been left with a permanent impairment to his left side. He sues the defenders on the basis, in short, that the gallop was unsafe and that that was the cause of the fall.’
Lord Glennie
[2015] ScotCS CSOH – 70
Work at Height Regulations 2005, Workplace (Health, Safety & Welfare) Regulations 1992
Scotland
Updated: 30 November 2022; Ref: scu.547657
Criminal Injuries Compensation : Claims
[2015] UKUT 196 (AAC)
England and Wales
Updated: 30 November 2022; Ref: scu.547621
Two chimney sweeps were overcome by fumes, and died in the basement of the Manchester Assembly Rooms. Whilst occupied working in flues (against advice), a boiler had been lit.
Held: (Majority – Pearson LJ dissenting) The land-owner’s appeal succeeded.
Lord Denning MR said: ‘the warnings which were given to the sweeps were enough to enable them to be reasonably safe. The sweeps would have been quite safe if they had heeded these warnings. They should not have come back that evening and attempted to seal up the sweep-hole while the fire was still alight. They ought to have waited till next morning, and then they should have seen that the fire was out before they attempted to seal up the sweep-hole. In any case they should not have stayed too long in the sweep-hole. In short, it was entirely their own fault. The Judge held that it was contributory negligence. I would go further and say that under the Act the occupier has, by the warnings, discharged his duty.’
Harman LJ said: ‘the sweeps had been warned by the occupier through his agent, Collingwood, of the danger which killed them. That, however, as the section says does not without more absolve the occupier from liability. The crucial question is whether, in all the circumstances, the warning was ‘enough to enable the visitors’ ( that is, the sweeps )’to be reasonably safe’. In my judgment,it was. The occupier did not request or even authorise the sweeps to close the sweep hole while the fire was alight. Mr Corney did not expect the return of the sweeps on Friday night; they told him they were coming back in the morning. He had arranged that they should do the work on Saturday morning. He said also that he anticipated that the fire burning on Friday night would be out by Saturday morning, thus making the work safe. It is true that the caretaker apparently did not let the fire out, and it is said that Corney failed in his duty because he did not expressly order the caretaker to do so, nor did he expressly forbid the sweeps to attempt the work with the fire on. Nevertheless, these sweeps knew as much about the danger as he did. There was no obligation on than to proceed without drawing the fire, they were free to do so, and they deliberately chose to assume the risk notwithstanding the advice given.’
Lord Denning MR, Harman, Pearson LJJ
[1963] EWCA Civ 6, [1963] 1 WLR 1117, [1963] 2 All ER 908
England and Wales
Cited – London Graving Dock Co Ltd v Horton HL 1951
An experienced welder had for a month been carrying out work on a ship as an employee of sub-contractors engaged by ship-repairers in occupation of the ship. He was injured, without negligence on his part, owing to the inadequacy of certain staging, . .
Cited – Christmas v Caledonian Club 1952
A window cleaner. employed by independent contractors, came to clean the windows of a club. One window was defective, falling onto and trapping his hand, causing him to fall.
Held: He had no cause of action against the club. The landowner was . .
Cited – Greene v Chelsea Borough Council CA 1954
Lord Denning MR said: ‘Knowledge or notice of the danger is only a defence when the plaintiff is free to act upon that knowledge or notice so as to avoid the danger’. . .
Cited – White v Blackmore CA 15-Jun-1972
The plaintiff attended a jalopy car race and was injured. It was a condition of his entry that he agreed that motor racing was dangerous and that he would not hold the organisers or others responsible if injured. He was injured when a safety rope, . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 26 November 2022; Ref: scu.262804
When considering claims for damages for shock, the court only recognised the action lying where the injury by shock was sustained ‘through the medium of the eye or the ear without direct contact.’ Wright L said: ‘No doubt, it has long ago been stated and often restated that if the wrong is established the wrongdoer must take the victim as he finds him. That, however, is only true . . on the condition that the wrong has been established or admitted. The question of liability is anterior to the question of the measure of the consequences which go with the liability.’
Lord Russell of Killowen: ‘In considering whether a person owes to another a duty a breach of which will render him liable to that other in damages for negligence, it is material to consider what the defendant ought to have contemplated as a reasonable man. This consideration may play a double role. It is relevant in cases of admitted negligence (where the duty and breach are admitted) to the question of remoteness of damage, ie, to the question of compensation not to culpability, but it is also relevant in testing the existence of a duty as the foundation of the alleged negligence, ie, to the question of culpability not to compensation.’
Lord MacMillan, Lord Wright, Lord Russell of Killowen
[1943] AC 92, [1943] SC (HL) 78, 1943 SLT 105, [1942] UKHL 5
Scotland
Disapproved – Owens v Liverpool Corporation CA 1938
Four family mourners at a funeral appealed against rejection of their claims for damages for distress caused by witnessing a collision between a negligently driven tramcar and the hearse.The incident had involved no apprehension, or sight, or sound . .
Cited – Alcock and Others v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police HL 28-Nov-1991
The plaintiffs sought damages for nervous shock. They had watched on television, as their relatives and friends, 96 in all, died at a football match, for the safety of which the defendants were responsible. The defendant police service had not . .
Cited – British Railways Board v Herrington HL 16-Feb-1972
Land-owner’s Possible Duty to Trespassers
The plaintiff, a child had gone through a fence onto the railway line, and been badly injured. The Board knew of the broken fence, but argued that they owed no duty to a trespasser.
Held: Whilst a land-owner owes no general duty of care to a . .
Cited – Giullietta Galli-Atkinson v Seghal CA 21-Mar-2003
The claimant’s daughter was fatally injured in car accident, dying shortly after. The mother came upon the scene, witnessed a police cordon at the scene of the accident and was told of her death. She later saw the injuries at the mortuary and . .
Cited – King v Phillips CA 1952
Denning LJ said: ‘there can be no doubt since Bourhill v. Young that the test of liability for shock is foreseeability of injury by shock.’ A person ‘who suffers shock on being told of an accident to a loved one cannot recover damages from the . .
Cited – Salter v UB Frozen Chilled Foods OHCS 25-Jul-2003
The pursuer was involved in an accident at work, where his co-worker died. He suffered only psychiatric injury.
Held: Being directly involved, the pursuer was a primary victim, and accordingly not subject to the limits on claiming for . .
Cited – Smith v Littlewoods Organisation Limited (Chief Constable, Fife Constabulary, third party); Maloco v Littlewoods Organisation Ltd HL 1987
The defendant acquired a semi derelict cinema with a view to later development of the site. A fire started by others spread to the pursuer’s adjoining property.
Held: The defendants were not liable in negligence. The intervention of a third . .
Cited – AB and others v Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust, Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust QBD 26-Mar-2004
Representative claims were made against the respondents, hospitals, pathologists etc with regard to the removal of organs from deceased children without the informed consent of the parents. They claimed under the tort of wrongful interference.
Cited – Steel v Glasgow Iron and Steel Co Ltd 1944
The question was whether the actions of the deceased had broken the chain of causation when he intervened in an attempt to save property. ‘This rule of the ‘reasonable and probable consequence’ is a key that opens several locks; for it not only . .
Cited – Simmons v British Steel plc HL 29-Apr-2004
The claimant was injured at work as a consequence of the defender’s negligence. His injuries became more severe, and he came to suffer a disabling depression.
Held: the Inner House had been wrong to characterise the Outer House decision as . .
Cited – Overseas Tankship (UK) Ltd v Morts Dock and Engineering Co Ltd (The Wagon Mound No 1) PC 18-Jan-1961
Foreseeability Standard to Establish Negligence
Complaint was made that oil had been discharged into Sydney Harbour causing damage. The court differentiated damage by fire from other types of physical damage to property for the purposes of liability in tort, saying ‘We have come back to the plain . .
Cited – McKillen v Barclay Curle and Co Ltd 1967
The Lord Ordinary had awarded the pursuer damages for tuberculosis, on the basis that in the accident he had fractured a rib and this had reactivated his pre-existing tuberculosis.
Held: The pursuer had failed to prove the causal connexion . .
Cited – Islington London Borough Council v University College London Hospital NHS Trust CA 16-Jun-2005
The local authority sought repayment from a negligent hospital of the cost of services it had had to provide to an injured patient. They said that the hospital had failed to advise the patient to resume taking warfarin when her operation was . .
Cited – Corr v IBC Vehicles Ltd CA 31-Mar-2006
The deceased had suffered a head injury whilst working for the defendant. In addition to severe physical consequences he suffered post-traumatic stress, became more and more depressed, and then committed suicide six years later. The claimant . .
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 . .
Cited – Alcock and Others v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police QBD 31-Jul-1990
Overcrowding at a football match lead to the deaths of 95 people. The defendant’s employees had charge of safety at the match, and admitted negligence vis-a-vis those who had died and been injured. The plaintiffs sought damages, some of them for . .
Cited – Alcock and Others v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police CA 31-May-1991
The defendant policed a football match at which many people died. The plaintiffs, being relatives and friends of the deceased, inter alia suffered nervous shock having seen the events either from within the ground, or from outside or at home on . .
Rejected – McLoughlin v O’Brian HL 6-May-1982
The plaintiff was the mother of a child who died in an horrific accident, in which her husband and two other children were also injured. She was at home at the time of the accident, but went to the hospital immediately when she had heard what had . .
Cited – Liverpool Women’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust v Ronayne CA 17-Jun-2015
The respondent was an experienced ambulance driver. His wife underwent emergency treatment at the appellant’s hospital. He had claimed as a secondary victim for the distress he suffered witnessing her suffering.
Held: The hospital’s appeal . .
Cited – Wooldridge v Sumner and Another CA 4-Jun-1962
The plaintiff photographer was injured when attending a show jumping competition at the White City Stadium. A horse caught him as it passed.
Held: The defendant’s appeal against the finding of negligence succeeded: ‘a competitor or player . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 25 November 2022; Ref: scu.180104
The claimant said that whilst he was a passenger on a flight, he ingested broken glass in a drink. The trial of his case took place in his absence and he successfully set aside judgment against him in default when he failed to appear. The defendant now sought to re-instate the default judgment.
Held: The judge did not have a sufficient evidential basis for concluding that the claimant had voluntarily not attended. There had been evidence before the court to suggest a medical condition justifying his absence. The case was remitted for retrial before a different judge.
Lord Bingham of Cornhill, Judge LJ, Robert Walker LJ
[1998] EWCA Civ 146
England and Wales
Cited – Shocked and Another v Goldschmidt and Another CA 4-Nov-1994
A party’s failure to appear at the trial implied that he had made certain choices which he was not to be allowed to go back on when seeking to set aside any judgment made. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 14 November 2022; Ref: scu.143624
Brooke LJ stated the following principles: ‘From this line of authority I derive the following principles in the context of the present case: (1) In certain circumstances a court may be entitled to draw adverse inferences from the absence or silence of a witness who might be expected to have material evidence to give on an issue in an action.
(2) If a court is willing to draw such inferences, they may go to strengthen the evidence adduced on that issue by the other party or to weaken the evidence, if any, adduced by the party who might reasonably have been expected to call the witness.
(3) There must, however, have been some evidence, however weak, adduced by the former on the matter in question before the court is entitled to draw the desired inference: in other words, there must be a case to answer on that issue.
(4) If the reason for the witness’s absence or silence satisfies the court, then no such adverse inference may be drawn. If, on the other hand, there is some credible explanation given, even if it is not wholly satisfactory, the potentially detrimental effect of his/her absence or silence may be reduced or nullified.’
Brooke LJ
[1998] PIQR 324
England and Wales
Cited – Cox v Ministry of Justice CA 19-Feb-2014
Appeal against rejection of claim for personal injury. While working as the catering manager at HM Prison Swansea, the Claimant was injured in an accident caused by the negligence of a prisoner carrying out paid work under her supervision. The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 14 November 2022; Ref: scu.550894
[2008] ScotSC 41, 2010 GWD 2-25, 2010 Rep LR 3
Scotland
Updated: 14 November 2022; Ref: scu.471196
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).’
Morland J
Times 20-Dec-1997, [1997] EWCA Civ 2749, [2000] Lloyds Law Rep (Medical) 161
England and Wales
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.
Updated: 13 November 2022; Ref: scu.79626
Accident – diving into swimming pool
[2012] EWHC B27 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 13 November 2022; Ref: scu.470153
Application for approval of settlement
[2012] EWHC B28 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 13 November 2022; Ref: scu.470152
Loss of unrecoupable benefits was a proper subject of claim as special damages.
Gazette 10-Sep-1997
Social Security Administration Act 1992 82
England and Wales
Updated: 09 November 2022; Ref: scu.84237
Where damages reduced by benefits clawback, special damages claim for lost non-recoupable benefits payable are recoverable.
Times 24-Jul-1997
Social Security Administration Act 1992 82
England and Wales
Updated: 09 November 2022; Ref: scu.84236
Awards of damages for loss of earnings must distinguish between past and future losses; the court is unable otherwise to calculate interest on damages.
Times 22-Aug-1997
England and Wales
Updated: 09 November 2022; Ref: scu.79248
The passenger injured himself as he fell from an aeroplane chair because of pre-existing injury.
Held: He had no claim under the Convention. The falling of a semi-paralysed person whilst he was trying to get to his feet to go to the lavatory did not constitute an accident. It had not been an ‘accident causing injury’ within the Convention. Leggatt LJ said: ”accident’ is not to be construed as including any injuries caused by the passenger’s particular, personal and peculiar reaction to the normal operation of the aircraft’ and ‘what befell Mr Chaudhari was not caused by any unexpected or unusual event external to him but, but by his own personal, particular and peculiar reaction to the normal operation of the aircraft. As the judge said, he fell as the result of his pre-existing medical condition’.
Leggatt LJ
Times 07-May-1997, [1997] EWCA Civ 1413, CCRTI 96/0229/G
England and Wales
Cited – Air France v Saks 1985
(United States Supreme Court) The claimant suffered damage to and become permanently deaf in one ear as a result of pressurisation changes while the aircraft descended to land. The pressure system had worked normally. The airline said that the . .
Cited – Deep Vein Thrombosis and Air Travel Group Litigation HL 8-Dec-2005
The appellants had suffered deep vein thrombosis whilst travelling on long haul air flights. The defendants said that their liability was limited because the injuries were not accidents.
Held: The claimants’ appeal failed. The definition of . .
Cited – Barclay v British Airways plc CC 27-Feb-2008
(Oxford County Court) The claimant slipped as she boarded an aircraft and sought damages for injuries to her knee. Her claim was brought under the Convention. The defendant denied that the injury occurred as the result of an accident, saying that an . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 05 November 2022; Ref: scu.78998
Appeal with leave of the single judge against a decision where the issue was as to liability only in relation to a tragic and very serious road accident between a motor cycle and a motor car.
Moses LJ
[2012] EWCA Civ 1354
England and Wales
Updated: 05 November 2022; Ref: scu.465100
The court was asked whether the non-freezing cold injury suffered by the claimant was a disease, with consequent effects as to costs.
Males J
[2012] EWHC 2767 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 05 November 2022; Ref: scu.464878
[2012] ScotCS CSOH – 162
Scotland
See Also – Tortolano v Ogilvie Construction Ltd SCS 21-Feb-2013
. .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 05 November 2022; Ref: scu.464824
The plaintiff was driving his car at 30 miles an hour when the defendant turned right immediately into his path. In the accident both cars suffered damage but the occupants all escaped physical injury. The Plaintiff, however, had suffered for 20 years from chronic fatigue syndrome, which manifested itself from time to time. The judge held that the shock of the accident reactivated this condition which was now in all probability permanent and that it was unlikely that the plaintiff would be able to return to full-time employment, and he awarded damages of pounds 162,153.
Held: Allowing the defendants’ appeal on the ground that psychiatric injury was not a foreseeable consequence of the accident. A claim for damages for pure nervous shock requires that the psychiatric injury should be a foreseeable result.
Times 04-May-1994
England and Wales
Applied – King v Phillips CA 1952
Denning LJ said: ‘there can be no doubt since Bourhill v. Young that the test of liability for shock is foreseeability of injury by shock.’ A person ‘who suffers shock on being told of an accident to a loved one cannot recover damages from the . .
Appeal from – Page v Smith HL 12-May-1995
The plaintiff was driving his car when the defendant turned into his path. Both cars suffered considerable damage but the drivers escaped physical injury. The Plaintiff had a pre-existing chronic fatigue syndrome, which manifested itself from time . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 05 November 2022; Ref: scu.84537
Griffith William J
[2012] EWHC 2287 (QB)
Updated: 04 November 2022; Ref: scu.463504
The claimant child was substantially injured at the negligence of the defendant. A pre-action offer of settlement was later made and, two years later, accepted. The parties now disputed liability for costs.
Pill, Arden, Black LJJ
[2012] EWCA Civ 1053
England and Wales
Updated: 04 November 2022; Ref: scu.463426
Maurice Kay VP CA, Moore-Bick, Sullivan LJJ
[2012] EWCA Civ 1048
England and Wales
Updated: 04 November 2022; Ref: scu.463272
The claimant sought damages after being attacked at work.
Thorpe, Rimer LJJ, Dame Janet Smith
[2012] EWCA Civ 979, [2012] WLR(D) 231
England and Wales
Updated: 03 November 2022; Ref: scu.462950
Liability for vibration white finger damage was foreseeable from 1973, but liability began in 1975 when precautions became available against the consequences and so the employer was able to protect his employees.
Times 06-Dec-1996, [1996] EWCA Civ 1049
England and Wales
Cited – Baker v Quantum Clothing Group Ltd and Others SC 13-Apr-2011
The court was asked as to the liability of employers in the knitting industry for hearing losses suffered by employees before the 1989 Regulations came into effect. The claimant had worked in a factory between 1971 and 2001, sustaining noise induced . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 03 November 2022; Ref: scu.140916
No damages were to be awarded for a tenant’s injury suffered whilst climbing the stairs when the lift had not been repaired.
Times 18-Dec-1996, [1996] EWCA Civ 1001
England and Wales
Updated: 03 November 2022; Ref: scu.78369
The distinction normally made between primary and secondary victims claiming damages for shock in witnessing a terrible event does not apply to employees who were obliged by their contract to be present.
Times 06-Nov-1996, [1996] EWHC CA 173
England and Wales
Appeal from – Frost and Others v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire QBD 3-Jul-1995
Trained rescuers have to be assumed to have a higher distress threshold because of their training and experience, and if a claim for psychiatric injury is to be made out, they must show some exceptional and particular situation to justify the claim. . .
Appeal from – White, Frost and others v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire and others HL 3-Dec-1998
No damages for Psychiatric Harm Alone
The House considered claims by police officers who had suffered psychiatric injury after tending the victims of the Hillsborough tragedy.
Held: The general rules restricting the recovery of damages for pure psychiatric harm applied to the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 01 November 2022; Ref: scu.80695
Criminal Injuries Compensation Board need not allow applicant to give evidence in person where there was a character issue.
Times 19-Jul-1996
England and Wales
Appeal from – Regina v Criminal Injuries Compensation Board Ex Parte Dickson QBD 20-Dec-1995
A disputed refusal of a claim by the board on the ground of the applicant’s character gave the right to an oral hearing. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 31 October 2022; Ref: scu.86472
The court considered the difficulty of quantifying damages in cases involving multiple injuries.
Kennedy LJ said: ‘Help is to be obtained from any source where it happens to be available. To a limited extent, in a case where there are multiple injuries, the figures in the Judicial Studies Board table can help but I accept Mr Murphy’s criticism of them that, where one has a multiplicity of injuries, it is necessary to take an overall view. The off setting process may mean it is not possible to derive a great deal of benefit from that particular source. One then looks to see if anything can be gained from looking at a comparable award, if one is to be found, in another case. Even that may not prove to be a particularly fruitful source of enquiry. It may be necessary, if it be possible, to select what may be the most serious head of injury to see if a comparable award can be found in relation to that and, if so, build on it to allow for the other heads of injury which have been sustained by the plaintiff in the instant case.’
Kennedy LJ
[1996] PIQR Q18
England and Wales
Cited – Clarke v South Yorkshire Transport Ltd CA 19-Mar-1998
. .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 27 October 2022; Ref: scu.235352
Claimants sought damages for personal injuries incurred when, in Pristina, Kosovo and during a riot, British soldiers on a UN peacekeeping expedition fired on a car.
Held: The incidents occurred in the course of peace-keeping duties. It was not argued that they occurred in combat, and it was established that in cases of riot, soldiers would be liable in tort. In civil law a belief that a defendant was under threat had to be reasonable to avoid liability. Even so, soldiers were in a particularly difficult position. Soldiers owe the same duties as ordinary citizens, and the latter clearly owe a duty of care in the circumstances. No contributory negligence could be supported. The court applied English law when giving the judgment. Elias J: ‘In trespass, any unlawful interference with the bodily integrity of the claimant will not be unlawful if it is justified and it will be justified if the defendant can establish that the claimant’s conduct was such that the defendant reasonably apprehended that he would be imminently attacked and used reasonable force to protect himself.’
Mr Justice Elias
[2004] EWHC 786(QB), Times 11-Jun-2004
England and Wales
Cited – Palmer v The Queen PC 23-Nov-1970
It is a defence in criminal law to a charge of assault if the defendant had an honest belief that he was going to be attacked and reacted with proportionate force: ‘If there has been an attack so that defence is reasonably necessary, it should be . .
Cited – In re H and R (Minors) (Child Sexual Abuse: Standard of Proof) HL 14-Dec-1995
Evidence allowed – Care Application after Abuse
Children had made allegations of serious sexual abuse against their step-father. He was acquitted at trial, but the local authority went ahead with care proceedings. The parents appealed against a finding that a likely risk to the children had still . .
Cited – Attorney General for Northern Ireland’s Reference no 1 of 1975 HL 1975
Often a soldier has to act intuitively, and, in assessing his conduct and judging the action of the reasonable soldier, it is important to recognise that his action ‘is not undertaken in the calm analytical atmosphere of the court room after counsel . .
Cited – James v Campbell 1832
The defendant was involved in a fight at a parish dinner and it was suggested that he had hit the claimant by mistake, giving him two black eyes. The jury were that even on that premise he would be liable. . .
Cited – Ball v Axten 1866
A defendant who was aiming to hit a farmer’s dog and by mistake hit the farmer’s wife who was trying to protect it was liable in assault. . .
Cited – Page v Smith HL 12-May-1995
The plaintiff was driving his car when the defendant turned into his path. Both cars suffered considerable damage but the drivers escaped physical injury. The Plaintiff had a pre-existing chronic fatigue syndrome, which manifested itself from time . .
Cited – Livingstone v Ministry of Defence CANI 1984
The plaintiff was injured when a soldier fired a baton round after some soldiers were attacked by rioters. The round had been deliberately fired, but not to strike the plaintiff. The claim was in negligence and assault and battery. The trial judge . .
Cited – F v West Berkshire Health Authority HL 17-Jul-1990
The parties considered the propriety of a sterilisation of a woman who was, through mental incapacity, unable to give her consent.
Held: The appeal succeeded, and the operation would be lawful if the doctor considered it to be in the best . .
Cited – Letang v Cooper CA 15-Jun-1964
The plaintiff, injured in an accident, pleaded trespass to the person, which was not a breach of duty within the proviso to the section, in order to achieve the advantages of a six-year limitation period.
Held: Trespass is strictly speaking . .
Cited – Regina v Burstow, Regina v Ireland HL 24-Jul-1997
The defendant was accused of assault occasioning actual bodily harm when he had made silent phone calls which were taken as threatening.
Held: An assault might consist of the making of a silent telephone call in circumstances where it causes . .
No part in current law – Wilkinson v Downton 8-May-1997
Thomas Wilkinson, the landlord of a public house, went off by train, leaving his wife Lavinia behind the bar. A customer of the pub, Downton played a practical joke on her. He told her, falsely, that her husband had been involved in an accident and . .
Cited – Regina v Savage; Director of Public Prosecutions v Parmenter HL 7-Nov-1991
The first defendant had been convicted of wounding. She had intended to throw beer over her victim, but her glass slipped from her hand, and cut the victim. The second defendant threw his three year old child in the air and caught him, not realising . .
Cited – Entick v Carrington KBD 1765
The Property of Every Man is Sacred
The King’s Messengers entered the plaintiff’s house and seized his papers under a warrant issued by the Secretary of State, a government minister.
Held: The common law does not recognise interests of state as a justification for allowing what . .
Cited – Mulcahy v Ministry of Defence CA 21-Feb-1996
A soldier in the Artillery Regiment was serving in Saudi Arabia in the course of the Gulf war. He was injured when he was part of a team managing a Howitzer, which was firing live rounds into Iraq, and he was standing in front of the gun when it was . .
Cited – Nissan v The Attorney General HL 11-Feb-1969
The plaintiff was a British subject with a hotel in Cyprus taken over by British troops on a peace-keeping mission. At first the men were there by agreement of the governments of Cyprus and the United Kingdom. Later they became part of a United . .
Cited – Burmah Oil Company (Burma Trading) Limited v Lord Advocate HL 21-Apr-1964
The General Officer Commanding during the war of 1939 to 1945 ordered the appellants oil installations near Rangoon to be destroyed. The Japanese were advancing and the Government wished to deny them the resources. It was done on the day before the . .
Cited – Shaw Savill and Albion Company Ltd v The Commonwealth 1940
(High Court of Australia) The plaintiff owned a ship ‘The Coptic’ which was in a collision with His Majesties Australian Ship ‘Adelaide’. The plaintiff alleged that the collision resulted from the negligence of the defendant’s officers, saying the . .
Cited – Hughes v National Union of Mineworkers QBD 1991
The court struck out as disclosing no cause of action a claim by a police officer who was injured while policing the miners’ strike and who alleged that the police officer in charge had deployed his men negligently.
Held: The officer in charge . .
Cited – Bell, Multiple claimants v Ministry of Defence (1) and (2) QBD 21-May-2003
The claimants sought damages for psychiatric injury for stress and anxiety in being engaged on the behalf of the respondent in the course of combat.
Held: The defendant had no duty to maintain a safe system of work for military personnel . .
Cited – Al-Jedda v Secretary of State for Defence CA 29-Mar-2006
The applicant had dual Iraqi and British nationality. He was detained by British Forces in Iraq under suspicion of terrorism, and interned.
Held: His appeal failed. The UN resolution took priority over the European Convention on Human Rights . .
Cited – Ashley and Another v Sussex Police CA 27-Jul-2006
The deceased was shot by police officers raiding his flat in 1998. The claimants sought damages for his estate. They had succeeded in claiming damages for false imprisonment, but now appealed dismissal of their claim for damages for assault and . .
Cited – Smith, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Defence and Oxfordshire Assistant Deputy Coroner (Equality and Human Rights Commission intervening) SC 30-Jun-2010
The deceased soldier died of heat exhaustion whilst on active service in Iraq. It was said that he was owed a duty under human rights laws, and that any coroner’s inquest should be a fuller one to satisfy the state’s duty under Article 2.
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 27 October 2022; Ref: scu.195488
A pension paid on incapacity as an alternative to retirement was not deductible from damages payable later for negligence. There was no double recovery.
Times 14-Apr-1995, Gazette 12-Apr-1995
England and Wales
Updated: 27 October 2022; Ref: scu.83185
Plaintiff claiming personal injuries damages is entitled to see his GPs medical records.
Times 21-Feb-1995
England and Wales
Updated: 27 October 2022; Ref: scu.81392
Personal Injury claim was to include claim for any recoupable benefits to avoid underclaim.
Times 16-Dec-1994
England and Wales
Updated: 27 October 2022; Ref: scu.81277
Claustrophobia and fear are not diseases capable of founding a damages claim.
Independent 29-Apr-1994
England and Wales
Updated: 26 October 2022; Ref: scu.88727
The CICB scheme is reviewable, but the exclusion of child abuse claims was not irrational.
Times 19-May-1994
England and Wales
Updated: 26 October 2022; Ref: scu.87754
The exclusion from claiming under the scheme, of victims within the same household, including sex abuse victims was not clearly unreasonable. The fact that the scheme was provided under the Crown prerogative did not exclude it from judicial review.
Independent 12-May-1994, [1995] 1 WLR 845
England and Wales
Appeal from – Regina v Criminal Injuries Compensation Board Ex Parte P QBD 29-Apr-1993
A claim under the scheme is to be understood as a privilege and rules excluding some claims not perverse. . .
Cited – In re McFarland HL 29-Apr-2004
The claimant was convicted, imprisoned, and then his conviction was overturned. He sought compensation. He had pleaded guilty after being told by counsel to expect an adverse direction from the magistrate, following a meeting in private between . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 26 October 2022; Ref: scu.86876
The plaintiff was injured by the negligence of the defendant. The defendant provided gratuitous nursing care and other assistance to the plaintiff. They married each other.
Held: Where the Plaintiff was voluntarily cared for by the Tortfeasor, she may still eligible for damages for the amount that care would have cost her, had she had to buy it: ‘Where services are voluntarily rendered by a tortfeasor in caring for the plaintiff from motives of affection or duty they should in our opinion be regarded as in the same category as services rendered voluntarily by a third party, or charitable gifts, or insurance payments. They are adventitious benefits, which for policy reasons are not to be regarded as diminishing the plaintiff’s loss. On the facts of the present case the judge’s decision was not in our view contrary to principle or authority and it was fortified by what we regard as compelling considerations of public policy. We consider that he reached the right conclusion and would accordingly dismiss the defendant’s appeal.’
Sir Thomas Bingham MR
Independent 13-May-1993, Times 13-May-1993
England and Wales
Appealed to – Hunt v Severs HL 7-Sep-1994
The tortfeasor, a member of the claimant’s family provided her with voluntary nursing care after the injury. The equivalent cost of that care, was recoverable, but would be held on trust for the carer. The underlying rationale of English Law is to . .
Cited – ATH and another (Executors of the Estate of M, decd) v MS CA 11-Jun-2002
The claimants were the children of the deceased, seeking damages following the death of their mother. At the time of the death they were not living with their father but moved to live with him after the death. They claimed damages for the services . .
Appeal from – Hunt v Severs HL 7-Sep-1994
The tortfeasor, a member of the claimant’s family provided her with voluntary nursing care after the injury. The equivalent cost of that care, was recoverable, but would be held on trust for the carer. The underlying rationale of English Law is to . .
Cited – Pirelli General Plc and others v Gaca CA 26-Mar-2004
The claimant was awarded damages from his employers, who claimed that the benefits received by the claimant from an insurance policy to which the defendants had contributed should be set off against the claim.
Held: McCamley was no longer good . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 26 October 2022; Ref: scu.81536
The travel company and tour operator appealed against an award of damages for personal injury suffered by the respondent who was injured walking into a glass door at her hotel.
Richards, Tomlinson, Lewison LJJ
[2013] EWCA Civ 1371
England and Wales
Updated: 25 October 2022; Ref: scu.517463
Behrens HHJ
[2016] EW Misc B13 (CC)
England and Wales
Updated: 11 October 2022; Ref: scu.565800
Preston County Court – Claim by the estate of Mr John Wignall deceased, for damages for personal injury in the form of noise-induced hearing loss (‘NIHL’) allegedly suffered by the deceased by reason of exposure to excessive and hazardous levels of industrial noise during the course of his employment with British Railways (‘BR’) as a fireman working on steam locomotives hauling passenger and goods trains in the steam age.
Butler HHJ
[2016] EW Misc B17 (CC)
England and Wales
Updated: 11 October 2022; Ref: scu.566582
A regulation encompassed a requirement to take specified action, so far as it is reasonably practicable, in order to prevent danger. Asquith LJ discussed the term: ”Reasonably practicable’ . . seems to me to imply that a computation must be made by the owner, in which the quantum of risk is placed on one scale and the sacrifice involved in the measures necessary for averting the risk (whether in money, time or trouble) is placed in the other; and that if it be shown that there is a gross disproportion between them – the risk being insignificant in relation to the sacrifice – the defendants discharge the onus on them.’
Asquith LJ
[1949] 1 KB 704
England and Wales
Cited – Austin Rover Group Ltd v Her Majesty’s Inspector of Factories HL 1990
The relevant factors in the phrase the words ‘so far as is reasonably practicable’ are the foreseeable risk of injury and the cost of the preventive measures. ‘Sections 2 and 3 impose duties in relation to safety on a single person, whether an . .
Cited – Mann v Northern Electric Distribution Ltd CA 26-Feb-2010
Climb over high fence was unforeseeable
The claimant appealed against dismissal of his claim for damages after suffering very severe injury when climbing onto an electricity substation. He said that the defendant had not satisfied its statutory obligation to fence off the substation. The . .
Cited – Baker v Quantum Clothing Group and Others CA 5-Jun-2009
The court considered a request that one of the three judges (Sedley LJ) recuse himself on the grounds of apparent bias. It was a case claiming damages for personal injury in the form of hearing losses incurred at work. Sedley LJ was Hon President of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 07 October 2022; Ref: scu.401956
Lord Denning MR said: ‘Knowledge or notice of the danger is only a defence when the plaintiff is free to act upon that knowledge or notice so as to avoid the danger’.
Lord Denning MR
[1954] 2 QBD 127
England and Wales
Cited – Roles v Nathan CA 15-May-1963
Two chimney sweeps were overcome by fumes, and died in the basement of the Manchester Assembly Rooms. Whilst occupied working in flues (against advice), a boiler had been lit.
Held: (Majority – Pearson LJ dissenting) The land-owner’s appeal . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 07 October 2022; Ref: scu.568158
[2011] EWCA Civ 1560
England and Wales
Updated: 01 October 2022; Ref: scu.450039
Longmore, Rimer LJJ, Warren J
[2011] EWCA Civ 1304
England and Wales
Updated: 26 September 2022; Ref: scu.448300
The CICB is under no obligation to make enquiries on its own initiative into the facts underlying the claim.
Times 12-Dec-1995
England and Wales
Updated: 22 September 2022; Ref: scu.86479
The claimant had been injured in two separate car accidents suffering physical and psychiatric injuries. Liability was admitted but the insurers coud not agree apportionment of losses.
Whipple J
[2016] EWHC 1728 (QB)
England and Wales
Cited – Bumper Development Corporation Ltd v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis CA 1991
An Indian temple having a legal persona recognised in India may assert rights and make claims under English Law. Even though it would not be recognised as a litigant if based in England and Wales, it was nonetheless entitled, in accordance with the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 19 September 2022; Ref: scu.567070
Claim for damages for clinical negligence
Whipple J
[2016] EWHC 1729 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 19 September 2022; Ref: scu.567064
Ralph Gibson, Butler-Sloss LJJ, Sir edward Eveleigh
[1988] EWCA Civ 18
England and Wales
Updated: 17 September 2022; Ref: scu.442694
The claimant sought damages after suffering very severe injury diving into the defendant’s swimming pool.
Thirlwall J
[2011] EWHC 2004 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 17 September 2022; Ref: scu.442591
Swift J
[2011] EWHC 2136 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 17 September 2022; Ref: scu.442592
David Pittaway QC J
[2011] EWHC 2162 (QB)
Updated: 17 September 2022; Ref: scu.442590
MacKay J
[2011] EWHC 1993 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 16 September 2022; Ref: scu.442244
Stanley Burnton, Aikens LJJ, Sir David Keene
[2011] EWCA Civ 906
England and Wales
Updated: 16 September 2022; Ref: scu.442229
The claimant was a child. He was at a friend’s birthday party when he was severely injured on a bouncy castle. He was ten years old and another child who was fifteen. The unit was unsupervised. The parents denied that the claimant had been given permission to go on the castle.
Held: The parents who organised the party were liable in negligence. The hire company had advised them both to supervise the equipment and to avoid the kind of behavior which had caused the accident.
David Steel J
[2008] EWHC 990 (QB)
England and Wales
Appeal from – Perry and Another v Harris (A Minor) CA 31-Jul-2008
The defendant had organised a children’s party. The claimant (11) was injured when a bigger boy was allowed to use the bouncy castle at the same time. The defendants appealed the award of damages.
Held: The appeal succeeded. The relevant . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 16 September 2022; Ref: scu.267562
The definition ‘any other bodily harm’ contained in the Warsaw Convention was wide enough to include psychiatric harm. Returning to the original text of the convention it was clear that it was not intended simply to import the French law, and that the words were ones of expansion, rather than limitation of the scope of damages which could be claimed. Psychiatric harm which was not claimed to be consequent from physical injury or condition, was claimable under the Convention.
Times 25-Oct-2000
Warsaw Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules regarding International Air Transport 1929
Scotland
Updated: 16 September 2022; Ref: scu.82783
The defendant, operator of a holiday park, appealed against a finding of liability for the accident causing the claimant’s injury. The claimant, in a wheelchair, had ascended one part of the room by a ramp, but then tried to return to the lower level mistakenly believing a further ramp existed. It did not and she was injured. The claimant however had not herself given evidence. In correspondence, at a time when the defendant misunderstood the circumstances they had mistakenly asserted the existence of warning measures.
Held: The judge had allowed himself to be wrongly influenced by two misapprehensions, and his decision could not stand. On studying the photographs and ‘no one looking at that scene could possibly think that he or she was approaching a sloping ramp. In my judgment, it was quite obvious and apparent that there was a difference in level between the wooden floor of the upper level and the small seating area on the intermediate level.’
Lord Neuberger MR, Elias LJJ, Dame Janet Smith
[2011] EWCA Civ 753
Occupier’s Liability Act 1957 2
England and Wales
Updated: 15 September 2022; Ref: scu.441393
[2011] ScotSC 14
Updated: 15 September 2022; Ref: scu.441362
[2010] UKUT 460 (AAC)
England and Wales
Updated: 07 September 2022; Ref: scu.433611
Maurice Kay, Carnwath, Moses LJJ
[2011] EWCA Civ 451
England and Wales
Updated: 06 September 2022; Ref: scu.432830
The claimant sought damages after injuring his head at work. He suffered a a second accident elsewhere whilst intoxicated, but said that the first injury had left him less able to manage his drinking.
My P, Smith, Aikens LJJ
[2011] EWCA Civ 365
England and Wales
Updated: 06 September 2022; Ref: scu.431827
[2011] ScotCS CSOH – 49
Scotland
Updated: 03 September 2022; Ref: scu.430617
McCombe J
[2011] EWHC 89 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 01 September 2022; Ref: scu.428707
[2010] EWCA Civ 1445, [2011] PIQR Q2
England and Wales
Updated: 28 August 2022; Ref: scu.427178
Richard Seymour QC J
[2008] EWHC 2693 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 28 August 2022; Ref: scu.427044
The claimant had contracted Hepatitis C after receiving a blood transfusion. She now challenged as unlawful the ex gratia scheme of compensation set up by the second respondent.
Kenneth Parker J
[2010] EWHC 3070 (Admin), [2011] Med LR 165, (2011) 117 BMLR 185
England and Wales
Updated: 28 August 2022; Ref: scu.427021
The claimant appealed against rejection of his claim for damages based upon his contraction of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome after a road traffic accident.
Ward, Longmore, Etherton LJJ
[2010] EWCA Civ 1347
England and Wales
Updated: 28 August 2022; Ref: scu.426859
Criminal Injuries Compensation
[2010] UKUT 204 (AAC)
England and Wales
Updated: 23 August 2022; Ref: scu.423188
The claimant was injured in a road traffic accident in Spain, and sought to claim here.
Tomlinson J
[2010] EWHC 2017 (QB)
England and Wales
Cited – FBTO Schadeverzekeringen v Jack Odenbreit ECJ 13-Dec-2007
ECJ Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 – Jurisdiction in matters relating to insurance – Liability insurance – Action brought by the injured party directly against the insurer – Rule of jurisdiction of the courts for the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 22 August 2022; Ref: scu.421251
The parties sought approval of a settlement proposal after a claim for personal injuries following professional negligence.
Tugendhat J
[2010] EWHC 1928 (QB)
Updated: 21 August 2022; Ref: scu.421069
Laws, Smith, Rimer LJJ
[2010] EWCA Civ 752
England and Wales
Updated: 21 August 2022; Ref: scu.420401
Carnwath, Jackson LJJ, Hedley J
[2010] EWCA Civ 689
England and Wales
Updated: 19 August 2022; Ref: scu.417708
[2008] EWCA Civ 1601
England and Wales
Updated: 17 August 2022; Ref: scu.408801
Appeal against rejection of claim for personal injury – child’s finger caught in door of hotel lift.
[2000] EWCA Civ 5566
England and Wales
Updated: 17 August 2022; Ref: scu.408785
The claimant appealed after losing her claim for damages for personal injuries after tripping on a footpath maintained by the defendant.
Smith, Ward LJJ, Briggs J
[2010] EWCA Civ 409
England and Wales
Updated: 17 August 2022; Ref: scu.408777
The claimant was haemophiliac who suffered ill health after receiving contaminated blood transfusions
Holman J
[2010] EWHC 765 (Admin), : [2010] Med LR 271, (2010) 116 BMLR 57
England and Wales
Updated: 17 August 2022; Ref: scu.408640
HH Judge Thornton QC
[2010] EWHC 735 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 17 August 2022; Ref: scu.408601
[2009] NIQB 89
Northern Ireland
Updated: 15 August 2022; Ref: scu.403419
[2010] ScotCS CS0H – 40, [2010] CSOH 40, 2010 Rep LR 64, 2010 SLT 473, 2010 GWD 12-223
Scotland
Updated: 15 August 2022; Ref: scu.403391
[2010] ScotCS CSOH – 16
Scotland
Updated: 14 August 2022; Ref: scu.401929
Burnett J
[2010] EWHC 214 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 14 August 2022; Ref: scu.401007
The deceased had died in an accident whilst filming in Spain for the defendants. The plaintiff personal representatives sought damages here, while the defendants denied that the court had jurisdiction under the 1968 Convention, and said that the death actually occurred as a consequence of the negligence of his medical treatment in Spain.
Phillips J
[1994] EWHC QB 1, [1996] 1 WLR 920, [1994] ILPr 731, [1994] 3 All ER 42
Brussels Convention on Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments 1968, Civil Liability (Contribution) Act 1978 1, Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982
Cited – Haqen v Zeehaqhe ECJ 1990
ECJ ‘Article 6(2) makes provision for a special jurisdiction, which the Plaintiff may choose because of the existence, in clearly defined situations, of a particularly close connecting factor between a dispute . .
Cited – Somafer Sa v Saar-Ferngas Ag ECJ 22-Nov-1978
ECJ 1. The Convention of 27 September 1968 must be interpreted having regard both to its principles and objectives and to its relationship with the treaty. The question whether the words and concepts used in the . .
Cited – Kalfelis v Bankhaus Schroder, Munchmeyer, Hengst and Co and others ECJ 27-Sep-1988
ECJ For Article 6(1) of the Convention of 27 September 1968 on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters to apply, a connection must exist between the various actions brought . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 11 August 2022; Ref: scu.383805
Blake J
[2009] EWHC 3042 (QB)
The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 4
Updated: 07 August 2022; Ref: scu.381550
A failure to provide guidance to employee resulting in repetitive strain injury. A prescribed disease PDA4 of RSI type was found. The issue was causation not forseeability.
Gazette 02-Aug-1996, Gazette 23-Oct-1996
England and Wales
Appealed to – Pickford v Imperial Chemical Industries Plc HL 30-Jun-1998
In the absence of conclusive evidence establishing a cause of a condition, the judge was free to find that causation was not established and that the claim was lost. There was no necessary obligation on an employer to have procedures which might . .
Appeal from – Pickford v Imperial Chemical Industries Plc HL 30-Jun-1998
In the absence of conclusive evidence establishing a cause of a condition, the judge was free to find that causation was not established and that the claim was lost. There was no necessary obligation on an employer to have procedures which might . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 05 August 2022; Ref: scu.77802
Costs only appeal in relation to an action for damages for personal injuries.
Toulson, Patten LJJ
[2009] EWCA Civ 1039
England and Wales
Updated: 04 August 2022; Ref: scu.375977
The Home Secretary was under no duty to bring the new statutory CICB scheme into force on any particular date. He was free to continue to use his own. The court refused to order a judicial review.
Staughton LJ and Buckley J
Times 30-May-1994, Independent 24-May-1994
Criminal Justice Act 1988 17(1) 108 109 110 8111 112 113 114 115 116 117
England and Wales
Appeal from – Regina v Secretary of State for Home Department Ex Parte Fire Brigades Union and Others CA 10-Nov-1994
The Home Secretary’s non-statutory scheme for the compensation for criminal injuries was unlawful pending implementation of the Act. It amounted to an abuse of power. He had power to delay implementing the new Act, with no duty to bring it into . .
At First Instance – Regina v Secretary of State for the Home Department ex parte Fire Brigades Union HL 5-Apr-1995
Parliament had passed the 1988 Act which provided for a new Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme. Instead of implementing the Act, the Home Secretary drew up a non-statutory scheme for a tarriff based system by using prerogative powers. The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 03 August 2022; Ref: scu.87741
The Home Secretary’s non-statutory scheme for the compensation for criminal injuries was unlawful pending implementation of the Act. It amounted to an abuse of power. He had power to delay implementing the new Act, with no duty to bring it into force, but could not in the interim introduce a scheme which differed radically from the scheme whilst the existing Act remained unrepealed.
Hobhouse LJ said that whether or not a provision becomes part of the law of the United Kingdom depends upon whether and when it comes into force: that is what coming into force means. When a statutory provision becomes part of the law of the United Kingdom depends upon what commencement provision Parliament has enacted.
Sir Thomas Bingham MR, Morritt LJ, Hobhouse LJ dissenting
Times 10-Nov-1994, Independent 10-Nov-1994, [1995] 2 WLR 1
England and Wales
Appeal from – Regina v Secretary of State for Home Department Ex Parte Fire Brigades Union and Others QBD 24-May-1994
The Home Secretary was under no duty to bring the new statutory CICB scheme into force on any particular date. He was free to continue to use his own. The court refused to order a judicial review. . .
Cited – Attorney General v De Keyser’s Royal Hotel Ltd HL 10-May-1920
A hotel had been requisitioned during the war for defence purposes. The owner claimed compensation. The AG argued that the liability to pay compensation had been displaced by statute giving the Crown the necessary powers.
Held: There is an . .
Appeal from – Regina v Secretary of State for the Home Department ex parte Fire Brigades Union HL 5-Apr-1995
Parliament had passed the 1988 Act which provided for a new Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme. Instead of implementing the Act, the Home Secretary drew up a non-statutory scheme for a tarriff based system by using prerogative powers. The . .
Cited – RM v The Scottish Ministers SC 28-Nov-2012
The pursuer was held in a secure mental hospital. When moved to a highersecurity section, he challenged the move. He lost but then was unable to make an apeal as allowed iunder the 2003 Act because the Scottish Parliament had not created the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 03 August 2022; Ref: scu.87743
Pill LJ, Hooper LJ, Wilson LJ
[2009] EWCA Civ 850
England and Wales
Cited – Morris v West Hartlepool Steam Navigation HL 1956
The ship had followed a practice of leaving the between deck hatch covers off in the absence of a guard rail around the hatchway. The plaintiff seaman fell into the hold. There was evidence that on this ship it was quite usual for men to be sent . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 30 July 2022; Ref: scu.368604