Tag: Personal Injury

Brownlie v Four Seasons Holdings Incorporated: CA 3 Jul 2015

The claimant commenced an action here after suffering injury whilst in Egypt on an excursion organised under the control of the defendant. The defendant denied jurisdiction as regards the damage suffered.
Held: The defendant’s appeal was allowed in part. The use of the word ‘damage’ in the Regulation could not be relied upon to create a false distinction between ‘any damage’ and ‘the direct damage’.

Arden, Bean, King LJJ
[2015] EWCA Civ 665, [2015] 2 CLC 151, [2015] CP Rep 40, [2016] PIQR P2, [2015] WLR(D) 292, [2016] 1 WLR 1814
Bailii, WLRD
Council Regulation (EC) No 864/2007, Civil Procedure Rules 6, Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1934
England and Wales
Cited by:
At CA – Four Seasons Holdings Incorporated v Brownlie SC 19-Dec-2017
The claimant and her family were in a car crash while on holiday in Egypt. The claimant’s husband and his daughter died. The holiday had been booked in England and the car excursion booked in advance from England. The hotel operator was incorporated . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Jurisdiction, European, Personal Injury, Torts – Other, Civil Procedure Rules

Updated: 01 January 2022; Ref: scu.549764

Campbell v Peter Gordon Joiners Ltd and Forsyth, The Liquidator Thereof and Gordon: SCS 3 Feb 2015

(Extra Division – Inner House) The pursuer was injured working as an apprentice for a company operated by its sole director, the second defender. Though he was an apprentice joiner, the company’s insurance excluded (in breach of the 1969 Act) injury by electric powered woodworking machinery. The company was now liquidated, and the appellant sought to recover from the director who had failed to comply with the 1969 Act.
Held: The defenders’ appeal failed. The 1969 did not expressly make a director liable for such a failure, but equally other statutes expressly excluded liability, and again this was not the case here: ‘Where a statute imposes a duty or prohibition and where that duty or prohibition can be seen to have been imposed for the benefit of a particular group of people (in other words a duty is owed to them) then, as a matter of necessary inference, the statute may be construed as conferring a right on members of that particular group to sue on breach, as the correlative of the duty’

[2015] ScotCS CSIH – 11, 2015 GWD 5-109, 2015 SC 453, 2015 SCLR 434, [2016] Lloyd’s Rep IR 35, 2015 SLT 134, [2015] CSIH 11
Bailii
Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969
Scotland
Citing:
Cited – Richardson v Pitt-Stanley CA 11-Aug-1994
The directors of a company did not become personally liable for damages, only because they had failed to insure the company for liability for personal injuries suffered as a result of the company’s activities, even though they may be criminally . .

Cited by:
At SCS – Campbell v Gordon SC 6-Jul-2016
The employee was injured at work, but in a way excluded from the employers insurance cover. He now sought to make the sole company director liable, hoping in term to take action against the director’s insurance brokers for negligence, the director . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Personal Injury

Updated: 28 December 2021; Ref: scu.543675

AB v Chief Constable of X Constabulary: QBD 8 Jan 2015

‘The claimant is a former undercover police officer and the defendant is the Chief Constable of the force of which he was a member. The case concerns a claim for damages for psychiatric injury in the form of an adjustment disorder. The claimant complains that his adjustment disorder arises from a breach of the duty of care owed to him by the Chief Constable, who for the purposes of this claim has accepted vicarious liability for the acts and omissions of the collaborative police unit within which the claimant worked. The context is the claimant’s deployment to another region (outside the area covered by the collaborative unit) as an undercover officer tasked with the obtaining of intelligence in relation to a serious organised criminal group.’

Males J
[2015] EWHC 13 (QB)
Bailii
England and Wales

Personal Injury

Updated: 24 December 2021; Ref: scu.540497

Greenway and Others v Johnson Matthey Plc: QBD 26 Nov 2014

The five claimants had been employed by the defendant. Whilst at work, and in breach of Health an Safety regulations, they had been exposed to complex halogenated platinum salts, and now claimed a sensitisation to such salts. The defendant argued that the sensitisation was not an injury capable of founding a claim.
Held: The claims failed.
Jay J said: ‘the scope of the rule of public policy in operation in these cases, and all cases of employers’ liability, is to safeguard the health, safety and welfare of employees from the careless acts and omissions of their employers; and, in the event of breach, where personal injury is suffered to require the payment of condign compensation. The concepts of health, safety and welfare, properly understood, embody the notion of protection from personal injury and not from economic or financial loss suffered without personal injury. Put another way, it is because the implied contractual duty is precisely conterminous with and reflects the obligations imposed by the law of tort – and, in particular, the tort of negligence – that the outcome must be the same however the cause of action is sought to be classified.’

Jay J
[2014] EWHC 3957 (QB), [2015] PIQR P10, [2014] CN 2094
Bailii
England and Wales
Cited by:
At QBD – Greenway and Others v Johnson Matthey Plc CA 28-Apr-2016
The claimants had been exposed to platinum salts while employed by the defendant company in breach of the employer’s duties in negligence and Health and Safety. Though they had suffered no symptoms, they claimed in damages. The employer said that no . .
At QBD – Dryden and Others v Johnson Matthey Plc SC 21-Mar-2018
Sensitisation to salt can be personal injury
The claimants, had developed platinum salt sensitisation due to the defendant employer’s breach of health and safety regulations and common law duty, claimed a cause of action for personal injury. Platinum salt sensitisation is, in itself, an . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Health and Safety, Personal Injury

Updated: 24 December 2021; Ref: scu.539347

Smoldon v Whitworth and Another: QBD 23 Apr 1996

A claim was brought against a player and a referee in a rugby match when a scrum collapsed. A rugby referee at a colts game has a duty of care to players as regards scrimmaging.

Times 23-Apr-1996, (1997) ELR 249
England and Wales
Cited by:
Appeal from – Smoldon v Whitworth and Nolan CA 17-Dec-1996
The claimant sued another player and the referee at a colts rugby match in which he was badly injured when the scrum collapsed. The claim against the player was dismissed, but the referee was found liable and he now appealed.
Held: The . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Negligence, Personal Injury

Updated: 23 December 2021; Ref: scu.89352

Best v Samuel Fox and Co Ltd: 1952

The court considered liability for injury to secondary victims. Lord Morton of Henryton: ‘it has never been the law of England that an invitor, who has negligently but unintentionally injured an invitee, is liable to compensate other persons who have suffered, in one way or another, as a result of the injury to the invitee. If the injured man was engaged in a business, and the injury is a serious one, the business may have to close down and the employees be dismissed; a daughter of the injured man may have to give up work which she enjoys and stay at home to nurse a father who has been transformed into an irritable invalid as a result of the injury. Such examples could easily be multiplied. Yet the invitor is under no liability to compensate such persons, for he owes them no duty and may not even know of their existence.’

Lord Morton of Henryton
[1952] AC 716, (1951) 2 KB 639, [1952] 2 All ER 394
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – 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 . .
Cited – JD v East Berkshire Community Health NHS Trust and others HL 21-Apr-2005
Parents of children had falsely and negligently been accused of abusing their children. The children sought damages for negligence against the doctors or social workers who had made the statements supporting the actions taken. The House was asked if . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Personal Injury, Negligence

Updated: 21 December 2021; Ref: scu.184754

RE and Others v Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust: QBD 12 Apr 2017

Damages were claimed on behalf of RE after she suffered profound hypoxic ischaemic insult in the moments around her birth at the defendant hospital.

Goss J
[2017] EWHC 824 (QB)
Bailii
England and Wales

Professional Negligence, Personal Injury

Updated: 21 December 2021; Ref: scu.581981

Hughes v Guise Motors Ltd: QBD 1 Nov 2007

The claimant’s car had cut out while being driven on a motorway. The driver had been able to pull onto chevrons at a junction but not onto the hard shoulder. The defendant drove into the rear of the vehicle.
Held: The driver had attempted to get to the hard shoulder but failed. The highway code required him to stay in the vehicle if it was dangerous to get out. There was no contributory negligence.

[2007] EWHC 2529 (QB)
Bailii
Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act 1945
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Rouse v Squires CA 22-Mar-1973
. .
Cited – Houghton v Stannard QBD 29-Oct-2003
. .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Personal Injury

Updated: 10 December 2021; Ref: scu.261918

Multiple Claimants v Sanifo-Synthelabo Ltd. and Anr: QBD 31 Jul 2007

The claimants were children of mothers who suffered from epilepsy and during their pregnancy, it is said, took an anti-epileptic drug (or anti-convulsant drug) called sodium valproate, which the defendants marketed Under the name Epilim. The claimants say that Epilim is a known teratogen, which crosses the placenta during pregnancy and is recognised to cause various deformities, and that therefore it is unsafe for all pregnant women whose fetuses are exposed to it.

Mr Justice Andrew Smith
[2007] EWHC 1860 (QB)
Bailii
England and Wales

Personal Injury

Updated: 10 December 2021; Ref: scu.261907

Mason v Satelcom Ltd and others: QBD 24 Jul 2007

The claimant IT engineer was injured replacing a computer card. He was employed by other defendants contracting for the now only continuing defendant.

His Honour Judge Reddihough,
(Sitting as a Judge of the High Court)
[2007] EWHC 2540 (QB)
Bailii
England and Wales
Cited by:
Appeal from – Mason and Another v Satelcom Ltd and East Potential Ltd CA 14-May-2008
The claimant was replacing a computer memory card. He fell from a ladder suffering injury. He was employed by the defendant contracting for another defendant, and used a ladder on loan from another neighbour.
Held: The contribution sought from . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Personal Injury, Employment

Updated: 10 December 2021; Ref: scu.261904

Goodes v East Sussex County Council: HL 16 Jun 2000

The claimant was driving along a road. He skidded on ice, crashed and was severely injured. He claimed damages saying that the Highway authority had failed to ‘maintain’ the road.
Held: The statutory duty on a highway authority to keep a road in repair did not include an absolute duty to remove all ice. The 1959 Act was a consolidating Act and did not extend the responsibilities of highway authorities. ‘Maintenance and repair’ might sometimes include the removal of ice, but, and contrary to established authority, those words related to works to the surface of the roadway not to matter which might accumulate on it. The presence of ice and snow did not mean that the highway was out of repair. Removing ice and snow was a different kind of obligation which could be imposed on highway authorities only by Parliament. A highway authority’s duty under section 41(1) of the 1980 Act to maintain the highway was a duty to keep the fabric of the highway in such good repair as to render its physical condition safe for ordinary traffic to pass at all seasons of the year. It did not include a duty to prevent the formation of ice or remove an accumulation of snow on the road.
Lord Clyde said: ‘I have no difficulty in holding that Section 41 of the Highways Act, 1980 imposes an absolute duty on the highway authority. There is no hardship in so holding since the section has to be taken along with Section 58 which provides a defence that reasonable care has been taken by the authority. The scheme of the provisions is in its broad effect that the authority should be liable for damage caused by a failure to take reasonable care to maintain the highway, but the injured party is not required to prove the failure to take reasonable care. It is for the authority to prove that it has exercised all reasonable care. Such a reversal of the onus which would have been imposed on a plaintiff in an action for damages at common law is justifiable by the consideration that the plaintiff is not likely to know or be able to readily to ascertain in what respects the authority has failed in its duty. All that the plaintiff will know is that there is a defect in the road which has caused him injury and it is reasonable to impose on the authority the burden of explaining that they had exercised all reasonable care and should not be found liable. But the question in the case is precisely what is the meaning and scope of the absolute duty . . Maintenance certainly includes the work of repair and the taking of measures which will obviate the need to repair, to forestall the development of a defect in the road which will, if allowed to develop, require remedial action. The standard of maintenance is to be measured by considerations of safety. The obligation is to maintain the road so that it is safe for the passage of those entitled to use it. But the question still remains as to precisely what is the scope of that maintenance. It certainly requires that the highway be kept in a structurally sound condition. . . To use the words of Diplock, L.J. in Burnside -v- Emerson [1968] 1 WLR 1490 . . the obligation is to keep the highway ‘in such good repair as renders it reasonably passable for the ordinary traffic of the neighbourhood at all seasons of the year without danger caused by its physical condition.”

Lord Slynn of Hadley Lord Steyn Lord Hoffmann Lord Clyde Lord Hobhouse of Woodborough
Times 16-Jun-2000, Gazette 29-Jun-2000, [2000] UKHL 34, [2000] 3 All ER 603, [2000] 1 WLR 1356
House of Lords, House of Lords, House of Lords, Bailii
Highways Act 1980 41(1), Highways Act 1959
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – Goodes v East Sussex County Council CA 7-Jan-1999
A council which failed to maintain a road ice free when they had decided on the need to prevent icing, and had had the opportunity to prevent it, but failed to take it, were in breach of statutory duty and liable for damages to driver of crashed . .
Cited – Regina v Heath QBD 1865
The highways board had sought and obtained an order against a householder who had built an extension part way over the highway. He had been orderd to pay costs but the taxed costs left a shortfall. The board now sought the difference from the . .
Cited – Cross v Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council CA 27-Jun-1997
The Council’s duty to maintain a highway is not absolute. It must take reasonable steps to prevent or clear ice forming on pathway. Lord Justice Evans analysed the application of Section 41 to a situation which arose from ice and snow. In any case . .
Cited – Haydon v Kent County Council CA 1978
Impacted snow and ice had built up on a steep, narrow, made-up footpath from Monday to Thursday during a short wintry spell. The plaintiff slipped and broke her ankle. The highway authority operated a system of priorities. Their resources were fully . .
Cited – Regina v Inhabitants of Greenhow 1876
A roadway had slipped down the hillside. At one point it was some 25ft below its former position. Though the material underneath was poor and unstable, it was repairable at a substantial cost to the inhabitants of the local borough.
Held: The . .
Cited – Farrell v Alexander HL 24-Jun-1976
The House considered the construction of a consolidation Act.
Held: It is ordinarily both unnecessary and undesirable to construe a consolidation Act by reference to statutory antecedents, but it is permissible to do so in a case where the . .
Cited – Burnside and Another v Emerson and Others CA 1968
The plaintiffs were injured in a road accident caused by flooding. They sued the executors of the deceased driver whose car spun out of control into the path of their own car, and also the highway authority, who had installed a proper system of . .
Cited – Guardians of the Poor of the Union of Amesbury v Justices of the Peace of the County of Wiltshire QBD 1883
The removal of snow which obstructed the main roads of the district of a highway authority was an ‘expense incurred in the maintenance’ of the highways for the purposes of obtaining a contribution from the county under section 13. . .
Cited – Cowley v Newmarket Local Board HL 1892
No action in tort lay against highway authorities for a failure to repair a highway. They were no more liable than were the local inhabitants.
Lord Halsbury said: ‘We are to consider the scope and purpose of the statute, and in particular for . .
Cited – Griffiths v Liverpool Corporation CA 1967
The Highways Act of 1961 had enlarged the duty of the highway authority and made it a general duty to take reasonable care to secure that the highway was not dangerous to traffic.
As to the effect of the 1961 Act, Diplock LJ said: ‘The duty at . .
Cited – Slater v Worthington’s Cash Store Ltd 1941
The defendant property owner was held to be liable for failing to remove snow from his roof, so that a minor avalanche injured a passer-by on the pavement. . .
Cited – Saunders v Holborn District Board of Works QBD 1895
Mr Saunders was injured when he slipped on an icy pavement, and claimed damages.
Held: A breach of the duty to remove snow did not give rise to a private law cause of action, any more than a breach of the duty to maintain the highway. Before . .
Cited – Acton District Council v London United Tramways KBD 1909
The court was asked whether the removal of four or five inches of snow from the tramway in Acton High Street was within the duty to maintain the highway imposed by section 28 of the Act of 1870.
Held: It was not. . .
Cited – Attorney-General v Scott 1905
A highway authority should ‘maintain the road according to an up-to-date standard.’ . .
Cited – Dublin United Tramways Co Ltd v Martin Fitzgerald HL 1903
The plaintiff sued when his horse slipped on tramlines in the road and fell. Stone setts or paving between the rails of a tramway in Grafton Street, Dublin, had become slippery owing to the grit or roughness of setts being worn away. In that state, . .
Cited – Latimer v AEC Limited HL 25-Jun-1953
The Appellant had recovered damages for injuries which he alleged had been the result of a failure on the part of the Respondents in their statutory duty to maintain one of the gangways in their works in an efficient state. He slipped on a factory . .

Cited by:
Cited – Roe v Sheffield City Council and others CA 17-Jan-2003
The claimant sought damages after his car was involved in an accident when a wheel struck a part of a tramway standing proud of the road surface. The defendant argued that they were excused liability by the 1988 Act, incorporating the effects of the . .
Cited – Gorringe v Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council HL 1-Apr-2004
Statutory Duty Not Extended by Common Law
The claimant sought damages after a road accident. The driver came over the crest of a hill and hit a bus. The road was not marked with any warning as to the need to slow down.
Held: The claim failed. The duty could not be extended to include . .
Cited – Fiona Thompson v Hampshire County Council CA 27-Jul-2004
The claimant fell into a ditch by a path on the highway in the dark. She appealed a finding of no liability on the highway authority.
Held: The authority’s responsibility was as to the surface structures of the road way and not as to the . .
Cited – Jane Marianne Sandhar, John Stuart Murray v Department of Transport, Environment and the Regions CA 5-Nov-2004
The claimant’s husband died when his car skidded on hoar frost. She claimed the respondent was liable under the Act and at common law for failing to keep it safe.
Held: The respondent had not assumed a general responsibility to all road users . .
Cited – Department for Transport, Environment and the Regions v Mott Macdonald Ltd and others CA 27-Jul-2006
Claims arose from accidents caused by standing water on roadway surfaces after drains had not been cleared by the defendants over a long period of time. The Department appealed a decision giving it responsibility under a breach of statutory duty . .
Cited – Ali v The City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council CA 17-Nov-2010
The claimant appealed against rejection of her claim for damages after slipping on a footpath maintainable by the defendant after an accumulation of mud and debris. The claim appeared to be the first under section 130, and the highway authority . .
Cited – King Lifting Ltd v Oxfordshire County Council QBD 20-Jul-2016
A heavy crane had toppled from a road. The crane owners said that the highway authority were responsible for the poor condition of the road.
Held: The action failed. The evidence did not support the assertion that the accident arose from a . .
Cited – London Borough of Southwark and Another v Transport for London SC 5-Dec-2018
Question as to the meaning of the GLA Roads and Side Roads (Transfer of Property etc) Order 2000. When the highway was transferred was only the working surfaces, the road surface and the airspace and subsoil necessary for the operation, maintenance . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Personal Injury, Road Traffic, Local Government

Updated: 10 December 2021; Ref: scu.80914

Albert v Motor Insurers Bureau: HL 1971

The plaintiff suffered injury as a passenger when getting a lift to work from a co-worker. The driver was uninsured and had given lift to several co-workers over a period of time, mking a charge.
Held: The lift arrangement was in the nature of a contract, and therefore under the MIB scheme, the MIB were obliged to pay compensation.
Viscount Dilhorne said: ‘To constitute carriage for hire or reward, it is not, of course, necessary that payment is made before the journey. If there is an arrangement that payment will be made for that it matters not when the payment is in fact made.’

Viscount Dilhorne
[1971] 3 WLR 291
England and Wales

Road Traffic, Insurance, Personal Injury, Contract

Updated: 30 November 2021; Ref: scu.565344

McCann v Sheppard: CA 1973

The injured plaintiff succeeded in his action for damages for personal injury. The defendants appealed the quantum of damage but before the appeal was heard the plaintiff died. The court was now asked to reduce the award because of the death.
Held: Damages for pain and suffering and loss of amenities should be limited to an amount appropriate for the length of time that the injured party survived.
The court also considered what cause of action the widow might have. Lord Denning MR said: ‘It is open to doubt whether the widow here would have any claim under the Fatal Accidents Act. Her husband had sued Mr Sheppard to judgment. Under that Act, the matter must be looked at as at the time of his death. Applying the words of the statute ‘If death had not ensued’, would he himself have been entitled to maintain an action and recover damages for negligence? I do not think so: for the simple reason that he had already recovered judgment and having done that he could not maintain another action for the same cause.’

Lord Denning MR
[1973] 1 WLR 540, [1973] 2 All ER 881
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Brown v Robinson and Sentry PC 14-Dec-2004
(Jamaica) The deceased claimant had been shot by a sentry employed by the respondent company. His estate appealed a finding that the sentry was not acting in the course of his employment.
Held: Older authorities had now been replaced by recent . .
Cited – Reader and others v Molesworths Bright Clegg Solicitors CA 2-Mar-2007
The claimants were children of the victim of a road traffic accident. The solicitors were conducting a claim on his behalf for damages, but when he died, they negligently discontinued the action.
Held: The claimants’ action as dependants of . .
Cited – Pickett v British Rail Engineering HL 2-Nov-1978
Lost Earnings claim Continues after Death
The claimant, suffering from mesothelioma, had claimed against his employers and won, but his claim for loss of earnings consequent upon his anticipated premature death was not allowed. He began an appeal, but then died. His personal representatives . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Personal Injury, Damages

Updated: 30 November 2021; Ref: scu.220487

Murray v Shuter: CA 1972

The plaintiff had been badly injured and was not expected to live long. When his claim for damages was almost ready for trial, his lawyers requested an adjournment. It was not possible for a live plaintiff to claim damages for his ‘lost years’. They realised that, if judgment were to be given before he died, it would not be possible for dependants to claim in respect of their dependency. He would recover much less than would be recovered by his estate and dependants after his death. At the hearing of the application to adjourn the trial, there was no dispute as to the effect of judgment before the death and no dispute as to entitlement of the widow to bring another action for loss of dependency if the plaintiff died before his action was brought to judgment.
Held: The court granted the adjournment requested as an exercise of discretion. Lord Denning MR said that if the action were disposed of in the plaintiff’s lifetime, the dependants would have no separate action for their own benefit, but if the trial were deferred until after the death, his own action would continue for the benefit of his estate and in addition, his dependants could bring an action under the FAA. He said: ‘The two actions can be combined’.

Lord Denning MR
[1972] I Lloyds Rep 6
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Reader and others v Molesworths Bright Clegg Solicitors CA 2-Mar-2007
The claimants were children of the victim of a road traffic accident. The solicitors were conducting a claim on his behalf for damages, but when he died, they negligently discontinued the action.
Held: The claimants’ action as dependants of . .
Cited – Pickett v British Rail Engineering HL 2-Nov-1978
Lost Earnings claim Continues after Death
The claimant, suffering from mesothelioma, had claimed against his employers and won, but his claim for loss of earnings consequent upon his anticipated premature death was not allowed. He began an appeal, but then died. His personal representatives . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Personal Injury

Updated: 30 November 2021; Ref: scu.252562

Jolley v Sutton London Borough Council: HL 24 May 2000

An abandoned boat had been left on its land and not removed by the council. Children tried to repair it, jacked it up, and a child was injured when it fell. It was argued for the boy, who now appealed dismissal of his claim by the Court of Appeal, that the possibility of injury to children playing on such an object was foreseeable. The judge had also found a particular danger of an older boy seeking to prop it up and repair it. The council had argued that this latter event was unforseeable.
Held: The Court of Appeal had not been justified in disturbing the Judge’s finding of fact. Given the ingenuity of children for mischief, mischief which went beyond that foreseen, but which was of the same type, was capable of leaving the authority liable under the Act.
There was no social value or cost saving to the Council in creating a risk by leaving a derelict boat lying about. It was something which they ought to have removed whether it created a risk of injury or not. They were liable for an injury which, though foreseeable, was not particularly likely. Foreseeability does not denote a fixed point on the scale of probability.

Lord Browne-Wilkinson Lord Mackay of Clashfern Lord Steyn Lord Hoffmann Lord Hobhouse of Woodborough
Times 24-May-2000, Gazette 08-Jun-2000, [2000] 1 WLR 1082, [2000] UKHL 31, [2000] 3 All ER 409
House of Lords, Bailii
Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 2(2)
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – Regina v London Borough of Sutton, ex parte Jolley CA 19-Jun-1998
The plaintiff, a boy, was injured when playing on a derelict boat left on council land. The council appealed an award of damages against it.
Held: A local authority may be liable for injury caused by a derelict boat not removed from their land . .
First instance – Jolley v Sutton London Borough Council QBD 1998
The claimant, a boy was injured when playing around a boat abandoned on land owned by the defendant. He had propped it up to attempt a repair, and was crushed when it fell on him. He said that in not removing the boat they had been negligent.
Cited – Donoghue (or M’Alister) v Stevenson HL 26-May-1932
Decomposed Snail in Ginger Beer Bottle – Liability
The appellant drank from a bottle of ginger beer manufactured by the defendant. She suffered injury when she found a half decomposed snail in the liquid. The glass was opaque and the snail could not be seen. The drink had been bought for her by a . .
Cited – Bolton v Stone HL 10-May-1951
The plaintiff was injured by a prodigious and unprecedented hit of a cricket ball over a distance of 100 yards. He claimed damages in negligence.
Held: When looking at the duty of care the court should ask whether the risk was not so remote . .
Cited – Hughes v Lord Advocate HL 21-Feb-1963
The defendants had left a manhole uncovered and protected only by a tent and paraffin lamp. A child climbed down the hole. When he came out he kicked over one of the lamps. It fell into the hole and caused an explosion. The child was burned. The . .
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 – Overseas Tankship (UK) Ltd v Miller Steamship Co Pty (The Wagon Mound) (No 2) PC 25-May-1966
(New South Wales) When considering the need to take steps to avoid injury, the court looked to the nature of defendant’s activity. There was no social value or cost saving in this defendant’s activity. ‘In the present case there was no justification . .

Cited by:
Cited – Groom v Selby CA 18-Oct-2001
The defendant negligently failed to discover the claimant’s pregnancy. A severely disabled child was born. The question was as to the responsibility for payment of excess costs of raising a severely disabled child, a claim for economic loss. The . .
Cited – Tomlinson v Congleton Borough Council and others HL 31-Jul-2003
The claimant dived into a lake, severely injuring himself. The council appealed liability, arguing that it owed him no duty of care under the Act since he was a trespasser. It had placed warning signs to deter swimmers.
Held: The council’s . .
Cited – The Attorney General v Hartwell PC 23-Feb-2004
PC (The British Virgin Islands) A police officer had taken the police revolver, and used it to shoot the claimant. It was alleged that the respondent police force were vicariously liable for his acts and also . .
Cited – Gabriel v Kirklees Metropolitan Council CA 24-Mar-2004
The claimant (aged 6) sought damages after being hurt when other children playing on a building site threw stones from the site, hitting him as he passed by.
Held: The case raised questions of law and it was incumbent on the judge to provide . .
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 – London General Holdings Ltd and others v USP Plc and Another CA 22-Jul-2005
Copyright was claimed in a draft legal agreement. Infringement was established, but the court was asked to look at the assessment of damages.
Held: ‘what is the basis upon which damages for breach of copyright are awarded? The question cannot . .
Cited – Jebson v Ministry of Defence CA 28-Jun-2000
The claimant was a guardsman travelling in the rear of a service lorry. He fell from the tailgate suffering severe injury. He was drunk after a social trip.
Held: Though a person could normally expect to be responsible himself for incidents . .
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 – Hone v Six Continents Retail Ltd CA 29-Jun-2005
The employer appealed a finding that it was liable in damages for negligence to the claimant, and employee who suffered psychiatric injury cause by stress at work. He said he had been left to work very excessive hours, between 89 and 92 hours a . .
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 – Geary v JD Wetherspoon Plc QBD 14-Jun-2011
The claimant, attempting to slide down the banisters at the defendants’ premises, fell 4 metres suffering severe injury. She claimed in negligence and occupiers’ liability. The local council had waived a requirement that the balustrade meet the . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Personal Injury, Negligence, Torts – Other

Leading Case

Updated: 27 November 2021; Ref: scu.82576

Spearman v Royal United Bath Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: QBD 4 Dec 2017

The Claimant suffered a hypoglycaemic attack (being Type 1 diabetic) and was taken by ambulance to the Hospital, arriving at 22.00 hours. Within 15 minutes, he had left the emergency department of the hospital, climbed five flights of stairs to a flat roof, climbed over a protective barrier and either fallen or jumped into a courtyard below where he suffered serious injuries.
The issue for decision is whether this accident occurred as a result of the breach of duty of the defendant whether owed to the Claimant under the Occupiers Liability Act 1957 and/or the Occupiers Liability Act 1984 or at Common Law, or whether the Claimant was the author of his own misfortune.

Martin Spencer J
[2017] EWHC 3027 (QB)
Bailii
Occupiers Liability Act 1957, Occupiers Liability Act 1984
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Ovu v London Underground Ltd (Duty of Care) QBD 13-Oct-2021
Safety of Stairs within Undergrounds Care of duty
The Claimant sued the London Underground company because their relative Mr Ovu died after falling down stairs on a fire escape. It was late at night and he wandered on his own on a cold night, outdoors, onto the stairs. The staircase was in good . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land, Personal Injury

Updated: 27 November 2021; Ref: scu.601123

Alves v Attorney General of The Virgin Islands (British Virgin Islands): PC 18 Dec 2017

From the Court of Appeal of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (British Virgin Islands)

Lord Neuberger

Lord Kerr

Lord Carnwath

Lord Hughes

Lord Hodge
[2017] UKPC 42
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Stubbings v Webb and Another HL 10-Feb-1993
Sexual Assault is not an Act of Negligence
In claims for damages for child abuse at a children’s home made out of the six year time limit time were effectively time barred, with no discretion for the court to extend that limit. The damage occurred at the time when the child left the home. A . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Personal Injury, Limitation

Updated: 22 November 2021; Ref: scu.601883

Withers v Perry Chain Co Ltd: CA 21 Jul 1961

An employee with dermatitis returned to work when it was known both to him and his employers that continuing to work would carry a small risk of it recurring or being exacerbated.
Held: The Court allowed the employer’s appeal against the trial judge’s award of damages.
Sellers LJ said: ‘the defendants gave her what they thought to be the best available work they had. In fact, if she had not taken that work it would seem that she would not have worked at all and would not have earned any wages, which apparently she sought to do. I cannot believe that the common law requires employers to refuse to employ a person who is willing to work for them simply because they think that it is not in the person’s best interests to do the work. That would be imposing a restriction on the freedom of the individual which I think is foreign to the whole spirit of the common law of our country.’ and
‘there is no duty at common law requiring an employer to dismiss an employee rather than retain him or her in employment and allowing him or her to earn wages, because there may be some risk. The duty of the defendants in this case was to take all reasonable care for the plaintiff in the employment in which she was engaged, including a duty to have regard to the fact that she had had dermatitis previously. Beyond that I do not think the common law can be invoked.’
Devlin LJ: ‘In my opinion there is no legal duty upon an employer to prevent an adult employee from doing work which he or she is willing to do. If there is a slight risk, as the judge has found, it is for the employee to weigh it against the desirability, or perhaps the necessity, of employment. The relationship between employer and employee is not that of a schoolmaster and pupil. There is no obligation on an employer to offer alternative safe employment, though no doubt a considerate employer would always try to do so – as the defendants thought they had done here. Nor is there any obligation on an employer to dismiss an employee in such circumstances. It cannot be said that an employer is bound to dismiss an employee rather than allow her to run a small risk. The employee is free to decide for herself what risks she will run. I agree with what [Sellers LJ] has said, that if the common law were to be otherwise it would be oppressive to the employee, by limiting his ability to find work, rather than beneficial to him . . . It may be also, on the principle of Paris v Stepney Borough Council, that when the susceptibility of an employee to dermatitis is known there is a duty on the employer to take extra or special precautions to protect such an employee.’

Sellers LJ, Devlin LJ
[1961] 1 WLR 1314, [1961] EWCA Civ 4, [1961] 3 All ER 676
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Paris v Stepney Borough Council CA 1949
. .

Cited by:
Considered – Coxall v Goodyear Great Britain Limited CA 22-Jul-2002
The employee worked at a plant using chemicals. After starting, the work system was changed. The staff were given the best protection available, but the claimant suffered a pre-existing tendency to asthma, which was excited by the chemicals used. He . .
Cited – Barber v Somerset County Council HL 1-Apr-2004
A teacher sought damages from his employer after suffering a work related stress breakdown.
Held: The definition of the work expected of him did not justify the demand placed upon him. The employer could have checked up on him during his . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Personal Injury

Updated: 16 November 2021; Ref: scu.181793

Coia v Portavadie Estates Ltd: SCS 6 Jan 2015

(Extra Division Inner House) ‘In this action for damages for personal injury three central issues arise:
(1) Was the wardrobe pole which fell and injured the pursuer ‘work equipment provided by the defenders for use or used by an employee of theirs at work’ for the purpose of The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 when the accident happened?
(2) Was the pursuer at work when the accident happened?
(3) Was the lodge in which the accident happened a workplace for the purpose of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 when the accident happened? The pursure was a chef working for the defenders, satying at residential accomodation provided by them. The appellant sustained injury when he was removing his own personal possessions from a wardrobe in premises that he occupied otherwise than as a result of his contract of employment with the defenders.
Held: The answer to thr first question was ‘No’, and ‘The appellant was not at work when the accident happened – he was removing his personal possessions from the accommodation which he occupied, but there was nothing in the evidence to establish that he was doing so as a result of an instruction given to him in the course of his employment rather than in the context of his agreement with the defenders that he should be permitted to occupy the lodge on a temporary basis. The lodge was not, at the time of the accident, a workplace for the purpose of the workplace regulations. ‘

Lord Menzies
[2015] ScotCS CSIH – 3
Bailii
Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998
Scotland

Scotland, Personal Injury, Health and Safety

Updated: 11 November 2021; Ref: scu.540499

Haydon v Kent County Council: CA 1978

Impacted snow and ice had built up on a steep, narrow, made-up footpath from Monday to Thursday during a short wintry spell. The plaintiff slipped and broke her ankle. The highway authority operated a system of priorities. Their resources were fully taken up with sanding and gritting roads, but on the Wednesday evening one of their workmen reported the dangerous state of the particular path to them, and they took prompt action next morning, but not in time to prevent the plaintiff’s accident.
Held: The authority was liable. The duty to maintain the highway in section 44(1) included removing snow and ice and taking such protective measures as would render highways and paths safe for vehicles and pedestrians in bad weather conditions.
Lord Denning (dissenting): ”Repair’ means making good defects in the surface of the highway itself so as to make it reasonably passable for the ordinary traffic of the neighbourhood at all seasons of the year without danger caused by its physical condition. That is the combined effect of the statements of Blackburn J. in Reg. v. Inhabitants of High Halden (1859) 1 F. and F. 678; of Diplock L.J. in Burnside v. Emerson [1968] 1 W.L.R. 1490, 1497 and Cairns L.J. in Worcestershire County Council v. Newman [1975] 1 W.L.R. 901, 911. Thus deep ruts in cart roads, potholes in carriage roads, broken bridges on footpaths or bushes rooted in the surface make all the highways ‘out of repair’.’ The statutory definition does not imply that ‘maintain’ has a wider meaning than ‘repair’, and that given the legislation history the cause of action which an injured person has under the 1961 Act was limited to ‘non-repair’ of a highway, and did not include other cases. On the extent of that duty: ‘In my opinion, therefore, the duty in section 44 of the Act of 1959 ‘to maintain the highway’ is the equivalent of the duty at common law and in the Act of 1835 ‘to repair and keep in repair.’ It means that whenever there is a defect in the surface of the highway, the highway authority is under a duty to repair it. But it does not mean that the highway authority is under a duty to remove snow or ice whenever it makes the highway slippery or dangerous. I adhere, therefore, to the view I expressed in Burnside v. Emerson [1968] 1 W.L.R. 1490, 1494: ‘. . . an icy patch in winter or an occasional flooding at any time is not in itself evidence of a failure to maintain’.
Goff L.J said that the highway authority would be in breach of duty only if: ‘having regard to the nature and importance of the way, sufficient time [has] elapsed to make it prima facie unreasonable for the authority to have failed to take remedial measures. Then the authority is liable unless it is able to make out the statutory defence.’

Lord Denning MR, Goff and Shaw LJJ
[1978] QB 343, [1978] 2 All ER 97
Highways Act 1959 44(1), Highways Act 1961
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Regina v Inhabitants of High Halden 1859
highhalden1859
The court considered the liability of the parish for injury arising from a failure to repair the road. The road was ‘an old soft road formed of Weald of Kent clay, and had never been repaired with hard substances’. The evidence was that in wet . .
Cited – Burnside and Another v Emerson and Others CA 1968
The plaintiffs were injured in a road accident caused by flooding. They sued the executors of the deceased driver whose car spun out of control into the path of their own car, and also the highway authority, who had installed a proper system of . .
Cited – Hereford and Worcester County Council v Newman CA 1975
The council had been found responsible by the magistrates for allowing footpaths to be ‘out of repair’. The paths were unusable for various reasons including having a hawthorn hedge growing down the middle, and having barbed wire fencing strung . .

Cited by:
Considered – Stovin v Wise (Norfolk City Council, 3rd party) CA 16-Feb-1994
A road user was injured on a corner which was known to the highway authority to be dangerous. The authority had sought to make arrangements with the owner of land adjoining the highway to remove a bank which obstructed the view.
Held: The . .
Cited – Gorringe v Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council HL 1-Apr-2004
Statutory Duty Not Extended by Common Law
The claimant sought damages after a road accident. The driver came over the crest of a hill and hit a bus. The road was not marked with any warning as to the need to slow down.
Held: The claim failed. The duty could not be extended to include . .
Cited – Jane Marianne Sandhar, John Stuart Murray v Department of Transport, Environment and the Regions CA 5-Nov-2004
The claimant’s husband died when his car skidded on hoar frost. She claimed the respondent was liable under the Act and at common law for failing to keep it safe.
Held: The respondent had not assumed a general responsibility to all road users . .
Cited – Thoburn v Northumberland County Council CA 19-Jan-1999
The claimant alleged that the defendant by allowing a flood across a road not to be cleared was in breach of their statutory duty under the 1980 Act.
Held: Though the blockage was not entirely on the Highway, the nature and extent of it was . .
Cited – Department for Transport, Environment and the Regions v Mott Macdonald Ltd and others CA 27-Jul-2006
Claims arose from accidents caused by standing water on roadway surfaces after drains had not been cleared by the defendants over a long period of time. The Department appealed a decision giving it responsibility under a breach of statutory duty . .
Cited – Goodes v East Sussex County Council HL 16-Jun-2000
The claimant was driving along a road. He skidded on ice, crashed and was severely injured. He claimed damages saying that the Highway authority had failed to ‘maintain’ the road.
Held: The statutory duty on a highway authority to keep a road . .
Cited – Ali v The City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council CA 17-Nov-2010
The claimant appealed against rejection of her claim for damages after slipping on a footpath maintainable by the defendant after an accumulation of mud and debris. The claim appeared to be the first under section 130, and the highway authority . .
Cited – Pritchard v Clwyd County Council CA 16-Jun-1992
The plaintiff was injured wading through a flooded street. She claimed damages alleging a failure to maintain the storm water sewers. The defendants appealed a finding that they were responsible, and she appealed a contributory negligence . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Transport, Personal Injury, Negligence

Leading Case

Updated: 11 November 2021; Ref: scu.180995

Cartledge v E Jopling and Sons Ltd: HL 1963

The plaintiffs were steel dressers who, in the course of their employment, had inhaled quantities of noxious dust which had caused them to suffer from pneumoconiosis. They issued proceedings on 1 October 1956 but were unable to show any breach of duty by their employers which contributed to their condition after 1 October 1950. The defendants pleaded that the claims were barred by the six year limitation period under section 2 of the 1939 Act.
Held: Lord Reid made it clear that he would have wished to hold ‘that a cause of action ought not to be held to accrue until either the injured person has discovered the injury or it would be possible for him to discover it if he took such steps as were reasonable in the circumstances’. But the House unanimously held that the 1939 Act and established authority precluded it from so holding. Where a defendant sought to rely upon some damage as setting the limitation clock running, the damage referred to must be ‘real’ as distinct from minimal. The common law ought never to produce a wholly unreasonable result.
Lord Pearce said: ‘It is for a judge or jury to decide whether a man has suffered any actionable harm and in borderline cases it is a question of degree.
It is a question of fact in each case whether a man has suffered material damage by any physical changes in his body. Evidence that those changes are not felt by him and may never be felt tells in favour of the damage coming within the principle of de minimis non curat lex. On the other hand evidence that in unusual exertion or at the onslaught of disease he may suffer from his hidden impairment tells in favour of the damage being substantial.’ and ‘The cause of action accrued when it reached a stage, whether known or unknown, at which a judge could properly give damages for the harm that had been done.’
Lord Reid: ‘If this were a matter governed by the common law I would hold that a cause of action ought not to be held to accrue until either the injured person has discovered the injury or it would be possible for him to discover it if he took such steps as were reasonable in the circumstances. The common law ought never to produce a wholly unreasonable result . . But the present question depends on statute, the Limitation Act, 1939, and section 26 of that Act appears to me to make it impossible to reach the result which I have indicated.’

Lord Reid, Lord Evershed MR, Lord Pearce
[1963] AC 758, [1963] 1 All ER 341
Limitation Act 1939 2
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – Cartledge v E Jopling and Sons Ltd CA 1962
The court gave guidance on when an injury passes from being de minimis to being sufficiently significant to found a cause of action: ‘there is from the beginning some injury occurring from day to day, as each of the minute particles which enter the . .

Cited by:
Cited – Hatton v Messrs Chafes (A Firm) CA 13-Mar-2003
The defendant firm appealed against a refusal to strike out the claimant’s claim for professional negligence, asserting that the judge should have considered the limitation issue in the light of Khan v Falvey.
Held: By the time that the . .
Cited – Lagden v O’Connor HL 4-Dec-2003
The parties had been involved in a road traffic accident. The defendant drove into the claimant’s parked car. The claimant was unable to afford to hire a car pending repairs being completed, and arranged to hire a car on credit. He now sought . .
Cited – McDonnell v Congregation of Christian Brothers Trustees (Formerly Irish Christian Brothers) and others HL 4-Dec-2003
In 2000, the claimant sought damages for sexual abuse from before 1951. The issue was as to whether the limitation law which applied was that as at the date of the incidents, or that which applied as at the date when he would be deemed uner the . .
Cited – The Law Society v Sephton and Co and others CA 13-Dec-2004
The Society appealed dismissal for limitation of its claim against the defendant firm of accountants arising from alleged fraud in approval of a solicitor’s accounts.
Held: The liability did not arise until the Society decided to make . .
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 – Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council v Municipal Mutual Insurance Ltd CA 6-Feb-2006
The deceased had come into contact with asbestos when working on building sites for more than one contractor. The claimant here sought contribution from the defendants for the damages it had paid to his estate. The issue was as to liability on . .
Cited – Haward and others v Fawcetts HL 1-Mar-2006
The claimant sought damages from his accountants, claiming negligence. The accountants pleaded limitation. They had advised him in connection with an investment in a company which investment went wrong.
Held: It was argued that the limitation . .
Cited – A v Hoare; H v Suffolk County Council, Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs intervening; X and Y v London Borough of Wandsworth CA 12-Apr-2006
Each claimant sought damages for a criminal assault for which the defendant was said to be responsible. Each claim was to be out of the six year limitation period. In the first claim, the proposed defendant had since won a substantial sum from the . .
Mentioned – Law Society v Sephton and Co (a Firm) and Others HL 10-May-2006
A firm of solicitors had a member involved in a substantial fraud. The defendant firm of accountants certified the firm’s accounts. There were later many calls upon the compensation fund operated by the claimants, who sought recovery in turn from . .
Cited – Horton v Sadler and Another HL 14-Jun-2006
The claimant had been injured in a road traffic accident for which the defendant was responsible in negligence. The defendant was not insured, and so a claim was to be made against the MIB. The plaintiff issued proceedings just before the expiry of . .
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 – Axa General Insurance Ltd and Others v Lord Advocate and Others SCS 8-Jan-2010
axaReSCS201
The claimant sought to challenge the validity of the 2009 Act by judicial review. The Act would make their insured and themselves liable to very substantial unanticipated claims for damages for pleural plaques which would not previousl or otherwise . .
Cited – Dryden and Others v Johnson Matthey Plc SC 21-Mar-2018
Sensitisation to salt can be personal injury
The claimants, had developed platinum salt sensitisation due to the defendant employer’s breach of health and safety regulations and common law duty, claimed a cause of action for personal injury. Platinum salt sensitisation is, in itself, an . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Limitation, Personal Injury

Leading Case

Updated: 11 November 2021; Ref: scu.179759

Mirvahedy v Henley and another: HL 20 Mar 2003

The defendants’ horses escaped from the field, and were involved in an accident with the claimant’s car.
Held: The defendants were liable under section 2(2). To bolt was a characteristic of horses which was normal ‘in the particular circumstances’, these being some sort of fright or other external stimulus. Section 2 places all animals into one of two categories by their species. Animals either belong to a dangerous species, or they do not. A keeper of an animal is liable for damage caused by his animal dependant upon the category. A dangerous species must meet two requirements, a) that it is not commonly domesticated here and b) that fully grown animals ‘normally have such characteristics that they are likely, unless restrained, to cause severe damage or that any damage they may cause is likely to be severe’.
Lord Nicholls: ‘Take a large and heavy domestic animal such as a mature cow. There is a real risk that if a cow happens to stumble and fall onto someone, any damage suffered will be severe. This would satisfy requirement (a). . . But a cow’s dangerousness in this regard may not fall within requirement (b). This dangerousness is due to a characteristic normally found in all cows at all times. The dangerousness results from their very size and weight. It is not due to a characteristic not normally found in cows ‘except at particular times or in particular circumstances.”

Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead, Lord Nicholls
Times 24-Mar-2003, [2003] UKHL 16, Gazette 15-May-2003, [2003] 2 AC 491, [2003] RTR 26, [2003] PIQR P25, [2003] NPC 38, [2003] 2 WLR 882, [2003] 2 All ER 401
House of Lords, Bailii
Animals Act 1971 2 6(2) 11
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – Mirvahedy v Henley and Henley CA 21-Nov-2001
Horses with no abnormal characteristics were panicked, ran out and collided with a car. The car driver sought damages.
Held: The question was not whether the animals betrayed abnormal characteristics of which the owners should have been aware, . .
Cited – Breeden v Lampard CA 21-Mar-1985
A riding accident occurred at a cubbing meet. The plaintiff’s leg was injured when the defendant’s horse kicked out. A claim was advanced under section 2. This horse, like any horse, was liable to kick out when approached too closely, or too . .
Cited – Cummings v Grainger CA 1977
An untrained Alsatian dog was turned loose in a scrap-yard to deter intruders. The dog seriously injured the plaintiff who had entered the yard.
Held: The requirements of section 2(2) were satisfied but the defendant was entitled to rely upon . .

Cited by:
Cited – Clark v Bowlt CA 26-Jun-2006
A claim was made for personal injury suffered riding a horse.
Held: The court doubted whether a propensity occasionally to move otherwise than as directed can be described as a characteristic of a horse, for the purposes of s. 2(2)(b), but, if . .
Cited – Welsh v Stokes and Another CA 27-Jul-2007
The claimant sued a riding stables after she was badly injured on being thrown from the horse provided. Her claim in negligence failed, but she succeeded under strict liabiilty under the 1971 Act, after the judge relied upon hearsay evidence.
Cited – Freeman v Higher Park Farm CA 30-Oct-2008
The claimant fell from a horse hired to her by the defendant. She claimed for her injuries, and appealed rejection of her claim in strict liability under the 1971 Act. The horse was known to be lively and occasionally to buck, but the claimant was a . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Animals, Road Traffic, Personal Injury

Leading Case

Updated: 11 November 2021; Ref: scu.179981

Haley v London Electricity Board: HL 28 Jul 1964

Electricity undertakers owed a duty of care to blind persons as a class when they excavated a trench along a pavement in a London suburb because blind people foreseeably walk along pavements.

Reid, Morton of Henryton, Evershed, Hodson, Guest LL
[1964] 3 All ER 185, [1964] 3 WLR 479, [1965] AC 778, [1964] UKHL 3
Bailii
England and Wales
Cited by:
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 . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Utilities, Negligence, Personal Injury

Leading Case

Updated: 10 November 2021; Ref: scu.181272

O’Brien v Robinson: HL 19 Feb 1973

The plaintiffs sought damages after being injured when the ceiling of their bedroom fell on them. They were tenants of the defendants.
Held: The 1961 Act implied a duty on L to keep in repair the structure. What was meant by ‘keep in repair.’ A landlord’s obligation to repair only arose when he had notice of the defect, and ‘He will not have notice if no one knows that there is a defect.’
Lord Diplock said: ‘At the root of any analysis of the landlord’s obligations under a repairing covenant lies the initial question whether it is an undertaking by the landlord to prevent the premises ever getting out of repair during the continuance of the tenancy or whether it is an undertaking to do work of repair upon the premises from time to time as and when they have become out of repair. If it is the former the breach occurs as soon as the premises are in fact out of repair and continues until he has put them back into repair. If it is the latter, there is involved the subsidiary question as to the time at which the landlord’s obligation to do the necessary work of repair first arises. Until that time arrives there can be no breach of the obligation: nor can there be any breach thereafter if the landlord then carries out the necessary work of repair with reasonable expedition.’

Lord Reid, Lord Morris of Borth-y-Gest, Lord Diplock, Lord Simon of Glaisdale, Lord Cross of Chelsea
[1973] UKHL 1, [1973] AC 912
Bailii
Housing Act 1961 32, Housing of the Working Classes Act 1885
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Morgan v Liverpool Corporation CA 1927
The tenant claimed that he had been injured when as the upper portion of a window was being opened one of the cords of the window sash broke and the top part of the window slipped down and caught and injured his hand. The plaintiff admitted that the . .
Cited – McCarrick v Liverpool Corporation HL 1947
Premises’ Defect – No Notice Liability on L
The tenant’s wife was injured falling from defective stone steps leading from the kitchen to the back kitchen of the house. Under section the 1936 Act, the judge found the house not to have been kept in the state required. No notice of want of . .
Cited – Makin v Watkinson 1870
The court considered the extent of a Landlord’s duty of repair where he had entered into an express covenant for the purpose. . .
Cited – Summers v Salford Corporation HL 1943
The tenant had given notice to the landlord’s agent that a sash-cord in the only window of a bedroom had broken. No repair was effected and about two months later the second sash-cord broke injuring the tenant. The House was asked whether there was . .
Cited – Fisher v Walters KBD 1926
T complained of being injured when the ceiling fell in the house. The defect was latent.
Held: L was not liable without notice of the defect. . .
Cited – Griffin v Fillet 1926
The tenant gave notice to his landlord that steps to the dwelling-house needed attention but the lessee did not know that the steps were in fact actually dangerous.
Held: The landlord’s liability rested upon the lessor when subsequently he, . .

Cited by:
Cited – Hussain v Mehlman CC 5-Mar-1992
(County Court) The defendant landlord granted the plaintiff a three year assured shorthold tenancy. He now appealed a finding that he was in breach of an implied covenant to maintain the space heating, and otherwise. The tenant had returned the . .
Cited – British Telecommunications Plc v Sun Life Assurance Society Plc CA 3-Aug-1995
A landlord became in breach of his duty of repair under his covenant immediately the repairable defect occurred, not after a reasonable time had been given to make the repair. Nourse LJ summarised the earlier authorities: ‘It is now established by a . .
Cited – Sykes v Harry and Trustee of Estate of Harry, a Bankrupt CA 1-Feb-2001
The tenant appealed dismissal of his claim for damages. He had suffered serious injury after inhaling carbon monoxide fumes from a defective gas fire. The fire had not been maintained and a fall of soot eventually prevented the escape of fumes.
Cited – Edwards v Kumarasamy SC 13-Jul-2016
The claimant sub-tenant had been injured entering the block of apartments. He said that the freeholder was responsible despite no report of the disrepair having been made. The lease excused the landlord from unnotified liability. The parties . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Personal Injury, Landlord and Tenant

Leading Case

Updated: 10 November 2021; Ref: scu.248600

O’Connell v Jackson: CA 7 Jul 1971

Motorcyclist negligent without helmet

The plaintiff sought damages after an accident. The defendant car driver had negligently moved forward into the path of the plaintiff motor cyclist who was injured. The defendant argued that the plaintiff, a motorcyclist, was contributorily negligent in not wearing a crash helmet.
Held: Once the court had established that the plaintiff was contibutorily negligent, it then had to allow both for the extent of his responsibility for the injury and the blameworthiness of his conduct in comparison to that of the defendant in order to assess the proper reduction in damages. The Highway Code was to be relied upon, and that said that a helmet should be worn.

Russell, Edmund Davies, Cairns LJJ
[1972] 1 QB 270, [1971] CLY 3115, [1971] EWCA Civ 5, [1971] 3 All ER 129, [1971] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 354, [1971] 3 WLR 463, [1972] RTR 51, [1971] 2 LLR 354
Bailii
Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act 1947 81, Road Traffic Act I960 74
England and Wales
Citing:
Approved – Jones v Livox Quarries CA 25-Apr-1952
The plaintiff had ridden on the back of a kind of tractor in a quarry and in defiance of his employer’s instructions, risking being thrown off and injured. Another vehicle ran into the back of the first vehicle, injuring the plaintiff. He contended . .
Adopted – Jones v Livox Quarries CA 25-Apr-1952
The plaintiff had ridden on the back of a kind of tractor in a quarry and in defiance of his employer’s instructions, risking being thrown off and injured. Another vehicle ran into the back of the first vehicle, injuring the plaintiff. He contended . .
Cited – Davies v Swan Motor Co (Swansea) Ltd CA 1949
A plaintiff brought an action for damages for personal injury against the drivers of two cars.
Held: There are two aspects to apportioning responsibility between a plaintiff and defendant in an action for negligence, the respective causative . .
Cited – Hilder v Associated Portland Cement Co 1961
A motor cyclist was killed after being hit by a ball kicked by a boy playing in a field adjoining the highway.
Held: The failure of the motor cyclist to wear a crash helmet was not contributory negligence on his part, because (a) no advice on . .

Cited by:
Distinguished – Capps v Miller CA 30-Nov-1988
The plaintiff was injured riding with the defendant on a motor-cycle. The defendant drove negligently, and crashed. The plaintiff’s crash hemet came off and he sustained severe head injuries. He had not fastened it. The defendant appealed an . .
Cited – Badger v The Ministry of Defence QBD 16-Dec-2005
The widow of the deceased sought damages after his exposure to asbestos whilst working for the defendant. He had contracted lung cancer. The defendant argued that the deceased had continued to smoke knowing of the risks, and that he had made a . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Negligence, Personal Injury, Damages, Negligence

Leading Case

Updated: 09 November 2021; Ref: scu.216372

Matthews v Ministry of Defence: HL 13 Feb 2003

The claimant sought damages against the Crown, having suffered asbestosis whilst in the armed forces. He challenged the denial to him of a right of action by the 1947 Act.
Held: Human rights law did not create civil rights, but rather voided procedural bars to their enforcement. The issue of what is a substantive and what a procedural bar is a difficult distinction. At common law, the crown could do no wrong, and therefore no action lay against the crown. That was substantive law, and the 1947 did not stand as a bar to an action which would otherwise lie. The contention that a right existed from the happening of the injury until the Secretary of State issued his certificate did not succeed. The Act did not operate first to create then withdraw a right of action.

Bingham of Cornhill, Hoffman, Hope of Craighead, Millett, Walker of Gestingthorpe LL
Times 14-Feb-2003, [2003] UKHL 4, [2003] 2 WLR 435, Gazette 03-Apr-2003, [2003] 1 AC 1163, 14 BHRC 585, [2003] PIQR P24, [2003] UKHRR 453, [2003] ACD 42, [2003] ICR 247, [2003] 1 All ER 689, [2004] HRLR 2
House of Lords, Bailii
European Convention on Human Rights 6, Crown Proceedings Act 1947 10
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – Matthews v Ministry of Defence CA 29-May-2002
The Ministry appealed against a finding that the Act, which deprived the right of a Crown employee to sue for personal injuries, was an infringement of his human rights.
Held: The restriction imposed by the section was not a procedural . .
Cited – Bell v Secretary of State for Defence CA 1986
The deceased was injured serving in the forces in Germany. His injury was worstened after negligent communications between army doctors. The defendant relied upon State Immunity to defend a claim, saying he had issued a certificate that he had died . .
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 – Quinn v Ministry of Defence CA 28-Nov-1997
. .
Cited – Derry v Ministry of Defence CA 18-Mar-1999
Where an army doctor was accused of failing to diagnose a serviceman’s ocular cancer, the negligence which caused the consequent injury was caused by the delay in a correct diagnosis, and the treatment fell within the scope of Crown Immunity. . .
Cited – Golder v The United Kingdom ECHR 21-Feb-1975
G was a prisoner who was refused permission by the Home Secretary to consult a solicitor with a view to bringing libel proceedings against a prison officer. The court construed article 6 of ECHR, which provides that ‘in the determination of his . .
Cited – Ashingdane v The United Kingdom ECHR 28-May-1985
The right of access to the courts is not absolute but may be subject to limitations. These are permitted by implication since the right of access ‘by its very nature calls for regulation by the State, regulation which may vary in time and place . .
Cited – James and Others v The United Kingdom ECHR 21-Feb-1986
The claimants challenged the 1967 Act, saying that it deprived them of their property rights when lessees were given the power to purchase the freehold reversion.
Held: Article 1 (P1-1) in substance guarantees the right of property. Allowing a . .
Cited – Stubbings and Others v The United Kingdom ECHR 22-Oct-1996
There was no human rights breach where the victims of sex abuse had been refused a right to sue for damages out of time. The question is whether and to what extent differences in otherwise similar situations justify a different treatment in law: . .
Cited – Powell and Rayner v The United Kingdom ECHR 21-Feb-1990
The applicants complained of the noise generated by Heathrow Airport saying that it affected their human rights to enjoy their private life and possessions.
Held: Whether the case was analysed in terms of a positive duty on the state to take . .
Cited – Fayed v United Kingdom ECHR 6-Oct-1994
The Secretary of State had appointed inspectors to investigate and report on a company takeover. In their report, which was published, the inspectors made findings which were critical of and damaging to the applicants, who relied on the civil limb . .
Cited – Osman v The United Kingdom ECHR 28-Oct-1998
Police’s Complete Immunity was Too Wide
(Grand Chamber) A male teacher developed an obsession with a male pupil. He changed his name by deed poll to the pupil’s surname. He was required to teach at another school. The pupil’s family’s property was subjected to numerous acts of vandalism, . .
Cited – Tinnelly and Sons Ltd and Others and McElduff and Others v United Kingdom ECHR 10-Jul-1998
Legislation which disallowed claimants who asserted that they had been discriminated against, on the grounds of their religious background, from appealing through the courts system, was a clear breach of their human rights. A limitation will not be . .
Cited – Waite and Kennedy v Germany ECHR 18-Feb-1999
The grant of immunity from the jurisdiction of the national court to an international organisation according to a long-standing practice essential for ensuring the proper functioning of these organisations free from unilateral interference by . .
Cited – Z And Others v The United Kingdom ECHR 10-May-2001
Four children complained that, for years before they were taken into care by the local authority, its social services department was well aware that they were living in filthy conditions and suffering ‘appalling’ neglect in the home of their . .
Cited – McElhinney v Ireland; Al-Adsani v United Kingdom; Fogarty v United Kingdom ECHR 21-Nov-2001
Grand Chamber – The first applicant said he had been injured by a shot fired by a British soldier who had been carried for two miles into the Republic of Ireland, clinging to the applicant’s vehicle following an incident at a checkpoint.
Held: . .
Cited – Kaplan v United Kingdom ECHR 14-Dec-1978
(Admissibility) The Secretary of State had, after preliminary procedures, served notices on an insurance company disallowing it from writing any new business, because its managing director the applicant, had been found not to be a fit and proper . .

Cited by:
Appealed to – Matthews v Ministry of Defence CA 29-May-2002
The Ministry appealed against a finding that the Act, which deprived the right of a Crown employee to sue for personal injuries, was an infringement of his human rights.
Held: The restriction imposed by the section was not a procedural . .
Cited – Barnfather v London Borough of Islington Education Authority, Secretary of State for Education and Skills QBD 7-Mar-2003
The appellant was convicted of the crime of being a parent whose child had failed to attend school regularly. She challenged saying that the offence required no guilty act on her part, but was one of strict liability, and contrary to her human . .
Cited – Wilson v Secretary of State for Trade and Industry; Wilson v First County Trust Ltd (No 2) HL 10-Jul-2003
The respondent appealed against a finding that the provision which made a loan agreement completely invalid for lack of compliance with the 1974 Act was itself invalid under the Human Rights Act since it deprived the respondent of its property . .
Cited – Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v Kehoe CA 5-Mar-2004
The claimant had applied to the Child Support Agncy for maintenance. They failed utterly to obtain payment, and she complained now that she was denied the opportunity by the 1991 Act to take court proceedings herself.
Held: The denial of . .
Cited – Kehoe, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions HL 14-Jul-2005
The applicant contended that the 1991 Act infringed her human rights in denying her access to court to obtain maintenance for her children.
Held: The applicant had no substantive right to take part in the enforcement process in domestic law . .
Cited – O’Connor and Another v Wiltshire County Council CA 9-May-2007
The claimants sought compensation for the diminution in the values of their properties because of noise pollution from a new highway. The defendant highway authority said that liability had been transferred to its contractors, and it had not been . .
Cited – Reader and others v Molesworths Bright Clegg Solicitors CA 2-Mar-2007
The claimants were children of the victim of a road traffic accident. The solicitors were conducting a claim on his behalf for damages, but when he died, they negligently discontinued the action.
Held: The claimants’ action as dependants of . .
Cited – Regina v G (Secretary of State for the Home Department intervening) HL 18-Jun-2008
The defendant was fifteen. He was convicted of statutory rape of a 13 year old girl, believing her to be 15. He appealed saying that as an offence of strict liability he had been denied a right to a fair trial, and also that the offence charged was . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Human Rights, Personal Injury, Armed Forces

Leading Case

Updated: 09 November 2021; Ref: scu.179117

Cox v Ergo Versicherung Ag: SC 2 Apr 2014

The deceased army officer serving in Germany died while cycling when hit by a driver insured under German law. His widow, the claimant, being domiciled in England brought her action here, claiming for bereavement and loss of dependency. The Court was asked whether German or UK law applied to the assessment of the damages.
Held: Broadly, German law was similar to the English common law before the Fatal Acidents Acts. It was unnecessary to classify the sections 1A, 3 and 4 of the Fatal Accidents Act as procedural or substantive, because they were irrelevant. If substantive, they were irrelevant because the substantive law in this case is German law. They do not lay down general rules of English law relating to the assessment of damages, even in personal injury actions, but only rules applicable to actions under the Act itself. Our general law of damages approximated to the German Law.

Lord Neuberger, President, Lord Mance, Lord Sumption, Lord Toulson, Lord Hodge
[2014] WLR(D) 150, [2014] UKSC 22, UKSC 2012/0225, [2014] 1 AC 1379, [2014] 2 WLR 948, [2014] 1 CLC 430, [2014] 2 All ER 926, [2014] RTR 20
WLRD, Bailii, Bailii Summary, SC, SC Summary
Regulation EC 44/2001, Fatal Accidents Act 1976 1(1) 1(2), Fatal Accidents Act 1846
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Baker v Bolton and others KBD 8-Dec-1808
The plaintiff and his wife had been thrown from the roof of a coach. The plaintiff sought damages for the loss of his wife’s ‘comfort, fellowship, and assistance’.
Held: The claim failed in part: ‘the jury could only take into consideration . .
Cited – Roerig v Valiant Trawlers Ltd CA 28-Jan-2002
The claimant who was Dutch, was a widow of a fisherman who had died at sea. The question on appeal was ‘in assessing damages for loss of dependency should benefits resulting from the loss be deducted from the damages?’ The claimant’s position under . .
Appeal from – Cox v Ergo Versicherung Ag CA 25-Jun-2012
The deceased member of the armed forces had died in a road traffic accident in Germany. The parties didputed whether the principles governing the calculation of damages were those in the 1976 Act and UK law, or under German law.
Held: ‘There . .
At first instance – Cox v Ergo Versicherung Ag and Another QBD 28-Oct-2011
The deceased died in a road traffic accident whilst serving in the Armed forces in Germany. The driver was insured under German law. The widow now claimed damages in England. She had entered a new relationship.
Held: The object of section 844 . .
Cited – Harding v Wealands HL 5-Jul-2006
Claim in UK for Accident in Australia
The claimant had been a passenger in a car driven by his now partner. They had an accident in New South Wales. The car was insured in Australia. He sought leave to sue in England and Wales because Australian law would limit the damages.
Held: . .
Cited – Seward v The Vera Cruz HL 1884
The House was asked to rule upon the nature of a fatal accident claim as established by the 1846 Act, Lord Campbell’s Act – was it such as to be within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty Division?
Held: Earl of Selbourne LC said: ‘Lord . .
Cited – Phrantzes v Argenti CA 1960
The court was asked to enforce payment of a dowry which was owed under Greek law.
Held: English law does not guarantee a remedy for every foreign cause of action. Lord Parker CJ said that to be available in support of a foreign cause of . .
Cited – Clark (Inspector of Taxes) v Oceanic Contractors Inc HL 16-Dec-1982
HL Income tax, Schedule E – Non-resident employer – Employees working in U.K. sector of North Sea – Whether employer liable to deduct tax from emoluments – Income Tax (Employments) Regulations 1973 – Income and . .
Cited – Coupland v Arabian Gulf Oil Co QBD 1983
The plaintiff employee, injured whilst working for the defendant in Libya, sued in contract and tort. The judge held that Libyan law was the proper law of the contract, but that this was of no relevance to the claim in tort which could proceed here . .
Cited – Davidsson v Hill CA 1901
Ships collided at sea. The negligent crew were aboard the British ship. A crew member on the Norwegian ship died in the collision, and his family sued here.
Held: The family had a right of action against the defendant owners of the British . .
Cited – Boys v Chaplin HL 1969
The plaintiff sued in England for a traffic accident which had happened in Malta. The law of Malta would have denied certain elements of damages which would be available in this jurisdiction.
Held: Liability in respect of the road accident in . .
Cited – The Esso Malaysia 1974
A Russian seaman died as the result of a collision in international waters between two foreign registered vessels. His family sought to claim here.
Held: The benefit of the Fatal Accidents Acts can, in principle, be claimed by a foreigner. The . .
Cited – M’Elroy v M’Allister SCS 4-Nov-1948
The court rejected the renvoi doctrine in tort. An act done in a foreign country was actionable in Scotland only if it was, if done in Scotland, a tort, and was also actionable according to the law of the place in which it was done. . .
Cited – South Australia Asset Management Corporation v York Montague Ltd etc HL 24-Jun-1996
Limits of Damages for Negligent Valuations
Damages for negligent valuations are limited to the foreseeable consequences of advice, and do not include losses arising from a general fall in values. Valuation is seldom an exact science, and within a band of figures valuers may differ without . .
Cited – Raffelsen Zentralbank Osterreich Ag v Five Star General Trading Llc and Others CA 1-Mar-2001
An assigned marine insurance policy was subject to a claim. The issue was the ability of an assignee to claim as a claim in contract where the proper law was that under which the contract was made, or a claim of an intangible right to claim against . .
Cited – Kuwait Airways Corporation v Iraqi Airways Company and Others (Nos 4 and 5) HL 16-May-2002
After the invasion of Kuwait, the Iraqi government had dissolved Kuwait airlines, and appropriated several airplanes. Four planes were destroyed by Allied bombing, and 6 more were appropriated again by Iran.
Held: The appeal failed. No claim . .
Cited – Serco Ltd v Lawson; Botham v Ministry of Defence; Crofts and others v Veta Limited HL 26-Jan-2006
Mr Lawson was employed by Serco as a security supervisor at the British RAF base on Ascension Island, which is a dependency of the British Overseas Territory of St Helena. Mr Botham was employed as a youth worker at various Ministry of Defence . .
Cited – Duncombe and Others v Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (No 2) SC 15-Jul-2011
The court considered whether a teacher employed by the Secretary of State to teach in one of its European Schools was entitled to protection against unfair dismissal.
Held: The claimants’ appeals were allowed and the cases remitted to the . .
Cited – Ravat v Halliburton Manufacturing and Services Ltd SC 8-Feb-2012
The respondent was employed by the appellant. He was resident in GB, and was based here, but much work was overseas. At the time of his dismissal he was working in Libya. The company denied that UK law applied. He alleged unfair dismissal.
Cited – Duncombe and Others v Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (No 2) SC 15-Jul-2011
The court considered whether a teacher employed by the Secretary of State to teach in one of its European Schools was entitled to protection against unfair dismissal.
Held: The claimants’ appeals were allowed and the cases remitted to the . .

Cited by:
Cited – Moreno v The Motor Insurers’ Bureau SC 3-Aug-2016
The claimant had been severely injured when hit by a car in Greece. The car’s driver was uninsured. The Court was now asked whether the scope of her claim to damages was to be determined in accordance with English or Greek law. The implementation of . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

European, Damages, Personal Injury

Leading Case

Updated: 09 November 2021; Ref: scu.523422

Cookson v Knowles: HL 24 May 1978

The House described the approach to the calculation of damages for a dependency under the Fatal Accidents Acts.
Held: The multipliers in Fatal Accidents Act cases should be calculated from the date of death.
Sections 3 and 4 mark a departure from the ordinary principles of assessment in English law, which can fairly be described as anomalous, providing for what Lord Diplock called an ‘artificial and conjectural exercise’ whose ‘purpose is no longer to put dependants, particularly widows, in the same economic position as they would have been in had their late husband lived.’
Lord Fraser of Tullybelton said: ‘The court has to make the best estimates that it can having regard to the deceased’s age and state of health and to his actual earnings immediately before his death, as well as to the prospects of any increases in his earnings due to promotion or other reasons.’
and . . ‘In a personal injury case, if the injured person has survived until the date of trial, that is a known fact and the multiplier appropriate to the length of his future working life has to be ascertained as at the date of trial. But in a fatal accident case the multiplier must be selected once and for all as at the date of death, because everything that might have happened to the deceased after that date remains uncertain.’
Lord Diplock said: ‘When the first Fatal Accidents Act was passed in 1846, its purpose was to put the dependants of the deceased, who had been the bread-winner of the family, in the same position financially as if he had lived his natural span of life. In times of steady money values, wages levels and interest rates this could be achieved in the case of the ordinary working man by awarding to his dependants the capital sum required to purchase an annuity of an amount equal to the annual value of the benefits with which he had provided them while he lived, and for such period as it could reasonably be estimated they would have continued to enjoy them but for his premature death. Although this does not represent the way in which it is calculated such a capital sum may be expressed as the product of multiplying an annual sum which represents the ‘dependency’ by a number of years’ purchase. This latter figure is less than the number of years which represents the period for which it is estimated that the dependants would have continued to enjoy the benefit of the dependency, since the capital sum will not be exhausted until the end of that period and in the meantime so much of it as it not yet exhausted in each year will earn interest from which the dependency for that year could in part be met. The number of years’ purchase to be used in order to calculate the capital value of an annuity for a given period of years thus depends upon the rate of interest which it is assumed that money would earn, during the period. The higher the rate of interest, the lower the number of years’ purchase . . ”

Lord Diplock, Lord Fraser of Tullybelton
[1979] AC 556, [1978] UKHL 3, [1978] 2 WLR 978, [1978] 2 All ER 604
Bailii
Fatal Accidents Act 1976 4
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – Cookson v Knowles CA 1977
Lord Denning MR said: ‘In Jefford v Gee . . we said that, in personal injury cases, when a lump sum is awarded for pain and suffering and loss of amenities, interest should run ‘ from the date of service of the ‘writ to the date of trial’. At that . .

Cited by:
Cited – Cooke, Sheppard, Page v United Bristol Health Care, Stibbe and Another, Lee CA 16-Oct-2003
The claimant appealed against his damages award, saying that it should have allowed for the anticipated rises in the cost of providing his care in the future.
Held: Rises in future costs were already factored into the tables used for . .
Cited – A Train and Sons Ltd v Fletcher CA 24-Apr-2008
Appeal re award of interest on claim under Fatal Accidents Act.
Hooper LJ confessed: ‘I do not understand why chronological years are deducted from the multiplier’. . .
Cited – Cox v Ergo Versicherung Ag CA 25-Jun-2012
The deceased member of the armed forces had died in a road traffic accident in Germany. The parties didputed whether the principles governing the calculation of damages were those in the 1976 Act and UK law, or under German law.
Held: ‘There . .
Not followed – Knauer v Ministry of Justice SC 24-Feb-2016
The court was asked: ‘whether the current approach to assessing the financial losses suffered by the dependant of a person who is wrongfully killed properly reflects the fundamental principle of full compensation, and if it does not whether we . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Personal Injury

Leading Case

Updated: 02 November 2021; Ref: scu.187194

Michael Alexander Watson v British Boxing Board of Control Ltd, World Boxing Organisation Incorporated: CA 19 Dec 2000

The claimant was seriously injured in a professional boxing match governed by rules established by the defendant’s rules. Ringside medical facilities were available, but did not provide immediate resuscitation. By the time he received resuscitation in hospital he had sustained permanent brain damage which such treatment would have prevented.
Held: A body which had responsibility for licensing and setting conditions for the boxing matches was liable in negligence when, having assumed responsibility for the boxer’s medical care, the standards it set were inadequate. The setting of rules could be akin to the giving of advice and thus had an indirect influence on the occurrence of the injury. Had the Board said nothing, it might not be liable, but once it gave advice by setting rules, it came to be responsible. If it had in place the appropriate protocols for provision of medical care, the claimant’s injuries would not have been so severe. ‘It seems to me that the authorities support a principle that, where A places himself in a relationship to B in which B’s physical safety becomes dependant upon the acts and omissions of A, A’s conduct can suffice to impose on A a duty to exercise reasonable care for B’s safety.’ and ‘Had the board simply given advice to all involved in professional boxing as to appropriate medical precautions, it would be strongly arguable that there was insufficient proximity between the board and individual boxers to give rise to a duty of care. The board, however, went far beyond this. It made provision in its rules for the medical precautions to be employed and made compliance with these rules mandatory.’

Lord Phillips MR
Gazette 22-Mar-2001, Times 02-Feb-2001, [2000] EWCA Civ 2116, [2001] QB 1134, [2001] PIQR 16
Bailii, Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Considered – Perrett v Collins, Underwood PFA (Ulair) Limited (T/a Popular Flying Association) CA 22-May-1998
The plaintiff was a passenger in an aircraft which crashed, and there was a preliminary issue as to the liability to him of those who certified that the aircraft was fit to fly. The propeller was mismatched to the gearbox.
Held: A certifying . .
Appeal from – Watson v British Board of Boxing Control QBD 12-Oct-1999
A governing body of a sport, had a duty to insist on arrangements for sporting events, held under its aegis, to ensure proper access to medical aid. There was no contract between the parties, but boxers had to fight under the Board’s rules. A . .
Applied – Barrett v Ministry of Defence CA 3-Jan-1995
The deceased was an off-duty naval airman. The claim was based upon the alleged negligent failure of the defendant to enforce disciplinary regulations against drunkenness so as to protect the deceased against his own known proclivity for alcohol . .

Cited by:
Cited – Binod Sutradhar v Natural Environment Research Council CA 20-Feb-2004
The defendant council had carried out research into a water supply in India in the 1980s. The claimant drank the water, and claimed damages for having consumed arsenic in it.
Held: There is a close link between the tests in law for proximity . .
Cited – Jane Marianne Sandhar, John Stuart Murray v Department of Transport, Environment and the Regions CA 5-Nov-2004
The claimant’s husband died when his car skidded on hoar frost. She claimed the respondent was liable under the Act and at common law for failing to keep it safe.
Held: The respondent had not assumed a general responsibility to all road users . .
Cited – Sutradhar v Natural Environment Research Council HL 5-Jul-2006
Preliminary Report of Risk – No Duty of Care
The claimant sought damages after suffering injury after the creation of water supplies which were polluted with arsenic. He said that a report had identified the risks. The defendant said that the report was preliminary only and could not found a . .
Cited – Calvert v William Hill Credit Ltd ChD 12-Mar-2008
The claimant said that the defendant bookmakers had been negligent in allowing him to continue betting when they should have known that he was acting under an addiction. The defendant company had a policy for achieving responsible gambling, . .
Cited – Portsmouth Youth Activities Committee (A Charity) v Poppleton CA 12-Jun-2008
The claimant was injured climbing without ropes (‘bouldering’) at defendant’s activity centre. The defendant appealed against a finding of 25% responsibility in having failed to warn climbers that the existence of thick foam would not remove all . .
Cited – Geary v JD Wetherspoon Plc QBD 14-Jun-2011
The claimant, attempting to slide down the banisters at the defendants’ premises, fell 4 metres suffering severe injury. She claimed in negligence and occupiers’ liability. The local council had waived a requirement that the balustrade meet the . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Administrative, Personal Injury, Negligence

Leading Case

Updated: 02 November 2021; Ref: scu.135634

Dryden and Others v Johnson Matthey Plc: SC 21 Mar 2018

Sensitisation to salt can be personal injury

The claimants, had developed platinum salt sensitisation due to the defendant employer’s breach of health and safety regulations and common law duty, claimed a cause of action for personal injury. Platinum salt sensitisation is, in itself, an asymptomatic condition but further exposure to chlorinated platinum salts is likely to cause someone with platinum salt sensitisation to develop an allergic reaction involving physical symptoms such as running eyes or nose, skin irritation, and bronchial problems.
Held: The claimants’ appeal was allowed. The claimants had suffered what counted as bodily damage sufficient to found and action for personal injury.
Held: A hidden and symptomless but non-negligible physical change was actionable: ‘ The physiological changes to the claimants’ bodies may not be as obviously harmful as, say, the loss of a limb, or asthma or dermatitis, but harmful they undoubtedly are. Cartledge establishes that the absence of symptoms does not prevent a condition amounting to actionable personal injury, and an acceptance of that is also implicit in the sun sensitivity example, in which the symptoms would only be felt upon exposure to sunshine, just as the symptoms here would only be felt upon exposure to platinum salts. What has happened to the claimants is that their bodily capacity for work has been impaired and they are therefore significantly worse off. They have, in my view, suffered actionable bodily damage, or personal injury, which, given its impact on their lives, is certainly more than negligible.’
Lady Black, with whom the other Justices of the Supreme Court agreed, said that, as well as the usual reference to pain, suffering and loss of amenity, personal injury has been considered to consist of a physical change which makes the claimant appreciably worse off in respect of his or her health or capability and as including an injury sustained to a person’s physical capacity of enjoying life. She concluded that what had happened to the claimants was that their bodily capacity for work had been impaired and, therefore, they were significantly worse off: they had suffered actual bodily damage, or personal injury, which, given its impact on their lives, was more than negligible.

Lady Hale, President, Lord Wilson, Lord Reed, Lady Black, Lord Lloyd-Jones
[2018] UKSC 18, [2018] ICR 715, (2018) 161 BMLR 1, [2018] WLR(D) 182, [2018] PIQR P12, [2018] 2 WLR 1109, UKSC 2016/0140
Bailii, Bailii Summary, WLRD, SC, SC Summary, SC Video Summary, SC 27 Nov 17 am, SC 27 Nov 17 pm, SC 28 Nov 17 am
England and Wales
Citing:
At QBD – Greenway and Others v Johnson Matthey Plc QBD 26-Nov-2014
The five claimants had been employed by the defendant. Whilst at work, and in breach of Health an Safety regulations, they had been exposed to complex halogenated platinum salts, and now claimed a sensitisation to such salts. The defendant argued . .
At CA – Greenway and Others v Johnson Matthey Plc CA 28-Apr-2016
The claimants had been exposed to platinum salts while employed by the defendant company in breach of the employer’s duties in negligence and Health and Safety. Though they had suffered no symptoms, they claimed in damages. The employer said that no . .
Cited – Cartledge v E Jopling and Sons Ltd HL 1963
The plaintiffs were steel dressers who, in the course of their employment, had inhaled quantities of noxious dust which had caused them to suffer from pneumoconiosis. They issued proceedings on 1 October 1956 but were unable to show any breach of . .
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 – Fair v London and North Western Rly Co QBD 1869
In actions for personal injuries, the court is constantly required to form an estimate of chances and risks which cannot be determined with anything like precision; for example, the possibility that the injury will improve, or deteriorate, or the . .

Cited by:
Cited – Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd v Williams and Another CA 3-Jul-2018
Japanese Knotweed escape is nuisance
The defendant appealed against an order as to its liability in private nuisance for the escape of Japanese Knotweed from its land onto the land of the claimant neighbours. No physical damage to properties had yet been shown, but the reduction in . .
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.

Negligence, Personal Injury

Updated: 02 November 2021; Ref: scu.608730

Simpson v Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS Trust: CA 12 Oct 2011

The court was asked whether it was possible to assign as a chose in action a cause of action in tort for damages for personal injury, and if so under what circumstances it was possible.
Held: The appeal was dismissed. The claimant did not have an interest in the injured party’s claim of a kind that the law should or does recognise as sufficient to support an assignment of what would otherwise be a bare right of action. She was therefore guilty of ‘wanton and officious intermeddling with the disputes of others’ and ‘The assignment in this case plainly savours of champerty, given that it involves the outright purchase by Mrs. Simpson of a claim which, if it is successful, would lead to her recovering damages in respect of an injury that she has not suffered.’

Maurice Kay VP LJ, Janet Smith D, Moore-Bick LJ
[2011] EWCA Civ 1149, (2012) 124 BMLR 1, [2012] 1 Costs LO 9, [2012] 1 All ER 1423, [2012] PIQR P2, [2012] 2 WLR 873, [2012] QB 640
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Trendtex Trading Corporation v Credit Suisse HL 1981
A party had purported to sue having taken an assignment of a dishonoured letter of credit, in the context of the abolition of maintenance and champerty as crimes and torts in the 1967 Act.
Held: The assignment was struck down as champertous, . .
Cited – Torkington v Magee 11-Jul-1902
Chose in Action defined
The effect of the 1873 Act was essentially procedural and it did not render choses in action that had not previously been assignable in equity capable of assignment.
Channell J defined a debt or other legal chose in action: ”Chose in Action’ . .
Cited – Ord v Upton CA 7-Jan-2000
A bankrupt labourer (aged 30) after the bankruptcy order issued a writ against a doctor who had treated him for back pain before the bankruptcy order, claiming damages for negligence, including damages for pain and suffering as well as damages for . .
Cited – Tolhurst v Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd 1902
. .
Cited – Sibthorpe and Morris v London Borough of Southwark CA 25-Jan-2011
The court was asked as to the extent to which the ancient rule against champerty prevents a solicitor agreeing to indemnify his claimant client against any liability for costs which she may incur against the defendant in the litigation in which the . .
Cited – British Cash and Parcel Conveyors Ltd v Lamson Store Service Co Ltd 1908
The court explained the law underlying the civil and criminal penalties for the maintenance of an action by third parties: ‘It is directed against wanton and officious intermeddling with the disputes of others in which the [maintainer] has no . .
Cited – Ellis v Torrington CA 1920
An assignment of the benefit of a covenant in a lease held to be sufficiently connected with enjoyment of the property as not to be a bare right of action. The assignment was not void.
Scrutton LJ stated that the assignee of a cause of action . .
Cited – Peters v General Accident Fire and Life Assurance Corporation Ltd 1938
Held: A policy of motor insurance was personal to the original policyholder and incapable of being assigned to a purchaser of the vehicle in respect of which it had been issued, since the identity of the insured was material to the risk undertaken . .
Cited – Compania Colombiana de Seguros v Pacific Steam Navigation Co 1964
The court considered the situation arising where an insurer took an sssignment of the right of action from the insured.
Held: Once there has been an effective assignment of a chose in action, the assignor has no continuing interest in the . .
Cited – Giles v Thompson, Devlin v Baslington (Conjoined Appeals) HL 1-Jun-1993
Car hire companies who pursued actions in motorists’ names to recover the costs of hiring a replacement vehicle after an accident, from negligent drivers, were not acting in a champertous and unlawful manner. Lord Mustill said: ‘there exists in . .
Cited – Regina (Factortame Ltd and Others) v Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (No 8) CA 3-Jul-2002
A firm of accountants had agreed to provide their services as experts in a case on the basis that they would be paid by taking part of any damages awarded. The respondent claimed that such an agreement was champertous and unlawful.
Held: The . .
Cited – Holden v Thompson 1907
Several children were removed by their impoverished parents from the care of a religious institution. A charity supporting them, employed solicitors to act for them to defend proceedings brought by the institution. The solicitors now sought their . .
Cited – Pressos Compania Naviera S A And Others v Belgium ECHR 20-Nov-1995
When determining whether a claimant has possessions or property within the meaning of Article I the court may have regard to national law and will generally do so unless the national law is incompatible with the object and purpose of Article 1. Any . .
Cited – Shaws (EAL) Ltd v Pennycook CA 2-Feb-2004
Tenant’s First Notice to terminate, stood
The landlord served a notice to terminate the business lease. The tenant first served a notice to say that it would not seek a new lease, but then, and still within the time limit, it served a second counter-notice seeking a new tenancy. The . .
Cited – Wilson v Secretary of State for Trade and Industry; Wilson v First County Trust Ltd (No 2) HL 10-Jul-2003
The respondent appealed against a finding that the provision which made a loan agreement completely invalid for lack of compliance with the 1974 Act was itself invalid under the Human Rights Act since it deprived the respondent of its property . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Personal Injury, Torts – Other, Contract

Updated: 02 November 2021; Ref: scu.445405

Fairchild v Glenhaven Funeral Services Ltd and Others: HL 20 Jun 2002

The claimants suffered mesothelioma after contact with asbestos while at work. Their employers pointed to several employments which might have given rise to the condition, saying it could not be clear which particular employment gave rise to the condition. The claimants appealed dismissal of their claim.
Held: It is for a claimant to prove that a defendant’s breach of duty caused the loss for which he claims. The situation as it stood created substantial injustice. The Court of Appeal had applied the conventional test of whether it could be shown that the condition would not have been suffered but for the employment. The overall object of tort law was to define cases in which the law might justly hold one party liable to compensate another. This case raised inconsistent policy considerations. In such circumstances justice could only be served by holding both possible sources of the disease responsible.
Lord Bingham said: ‘In a personal injury action based on negligence or breach of statutory duty the claimant seeks to establish a breach by the defendant of a duty owed to the claimant, which has caused him damage. For the purposes of analysis, and for the purpose of pleading, proving and resolving the claim, lawyers find it convenient to break the claim into its constituent elements: the duty, the breach, the damage and the causal connection between the breach and the damage. In the generality of personal injury actions, it is of course true that the claimant is required to discharge the burden of showing that the breach of which he complains caused the damage for which claims and to do so by showing that but for the breach he would not have suffered the damage.’
Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead spoke of new departures in the law: ‘To be acceptable the law must be coherent. It must be principled. The basis on which one case, or one type of case, is distinguished from another should be transparent and capable of identification. When a decision departs from principles normally applied, the basis for doing so must be rational and justifiable if the decision is to avoid the reproach that hard cases make bad law.’

Lord Bingham of Cornhill, Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead, Lord Hoffmann, Lord Hutton and Lord Rodger of Earlsferry
Times 21-Jun-2002, [2002] UKHL 22, [2003] 1 AC 32, [2002] Lloyds Rep Med 361, [2002] 3 All ER 305, [2002] PIQR P28, (2002) 67 BMLR 90, [2002] 3 WLR 89, [2002] ICR 798
House of Lords, Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – McGhee v National Coal Board HL 1973
The claimant who was used to emptying pipe kilns at a brickworks was sent to empty brick kilns where the working conditions were much hotter and dustier. His employers failed, in breach of their duty, to provide him with washing facilities after his . .
Approved – Wilsher v Essex Area Health Authority HL 24-Jul-1986
A premature baby suffered injury after mistaken treatment by a hospital doctor. He had inserted a monitor into the umbilical vein. The claimant suggested the treatment should have been by a more senior doctor. The hospital appealed a finding that it . .
Approved – Bonnington Castings Ltd v Wardlaw HL 1-Mar-1956
The injury of which the employee complained came from two sources, a pneumatic hammer, in respect of which the employers were not in breach of the relevant Regulations; and swing grinders, in respect of which they were in breach.
Held: It had . .
Appeal from – Fairchild v Glenhaven Funeral Services Ltd and Others, Dyson and Another v Leeds City Counci CA 11-Dec-2001
Where a claimant suffered mesothelioma, contracted whilst working with asbestos, but the disease may have been contracted from inhalation at different times, and with different employers, his claim must fail since it was not possible to identify . .
Cited – Chapman v Hearse, Baker v Willoughby HL 26-Nov-1969
The plaintiff, a pedestrian had been struck by the defendant’s car while crossing the road. The plaintiff had negligently failed to see the defendant’s car approaching. The defendant had a clear view of the plaintiff prior to the collision, but was . .
Cited – Empress Car Company (Abertillery) Ltd v National Rivers Authority HL 22-Jan-1998
A diesel tank was in a yard which drained into a river. It was surrounded by a bund to contain spillage, but that protection was over ridden by an extension pipe from the tank to a drum outside the bund. Someone opened a tap on that pipe so that . .
Cited – Kuwait Airways Corporation v Iraqi Airways Company and Others (Nos 4 and 5) HL 16-May-2002
After the invasion of Kuwait, the Iraqi government had dissolved Kuwait airlines, and appropriated several airplanes. Four planes were destroyed by Allied bombing, and 6 more were appropriated again by Iran.
Held: The appeal failed. No claim . .
Cited – Rahman v Arearose Limited and Another, University College London, NHS Trust CA 15-Jun-2000
The claimant had suffered a vicious physical assault from which the claimant’s employers should have protected him, and an incompetently performed surgical operation. Three psychiatrists agreed that the aetiology of the claimant’s very severe . .
Cited – Nicholson v Atlas Steel Foundry and Engineering Co Ltd HL 1957
The deceased had worked in the defender’s steel foundry, inhaling there siliceous dust particles. He contracted pneumoconiosis and died. The complaints related to the defender’s failure to provide adequate ventilation to extract the dust. The . .
Cited – Gardiner v Motherwell Machinery and Scrap Co Ltd HL 1961
The pursuer had worked for the defenders for three months, demolishing buildings, and had contracted dermatitis. He claimed that they had not provided him with adequate washing facilities and that failure caused the dermatitis. On appeal the . .

Cited by:
Cited – Six Continents Retail Ltd v Carford Catering Ltd, R Bristoll Ltd CA 5-Nov-2003
The claimant’s premises had been destroyed by fire. They sought damages from the designers for negligence. . .
Cited – Coudert Brothers v Normans Bay Limited (Formerly Illingworth, Morris Limited) CA 27-Feb-2004
The respondent had lost its investment in a Russian development, and the appellants challenged a finding that they had been negligent in their advice with regard to the offer documents.
Held: As to the basis of calculation of damages as to a . .
Cited – Donachie v The Chief Constable of the Greater Manchester Police CA 7-Apr-2004
The claimant had been asked to work under cover. The surveillance equipment he was asked to use was faulty, requiring him to put himself at risk repeatedly to maintain it resulting in a stress disorder and a stroke.
Held: There was a direct . .
Cited – Chester v Afshar HL 14-Oct-2004
The claimant suffered back pain for which she required neurosurgery. The operation was associated with a 1-2% risk of the cauda equina syndrome, of which she was not warned. She went ahead with the surgery, and suffered that complication. The . .
Cited – Gregg v Scott HL 27-Jan-2005
The patient saw his doctor and complained about a lump under his arm. The doctor failed to diagnose cancer. It was nine months before treatment was begun. The claimant sought damages for the reduction in his prospects of disease-free survival for . .
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 – AD and OH (A Child) v Bury Metropolitan Borough Council CA 17-Jan-2006
The claimants, mother and son, sought damages from the respondent after they had commenced care proceedings resulting in the son being taken into temporary care. The authority had wrongly suspected abuse. The boy was later found to suffer brittle . .
Cited – Barker v Corus (UK) Plc HL 3-May-2006
The claimants sought damages after contracting meselothemia working for the defendants. The defendants argued that the claimants had possibly contracted the disease at any one or more different places. The Fairchild case set up an exception to the . .
Cited – Brett v University of Reading CA 14-Feb-2007
The deceased’s personal representative sought damages after the death from mesothelioma after working for the defendant for many years. . .
Cited – Rolls Royce Industrial Power (India) Ltd v Cox CA 22-Nov-2007
The claimant was the widow of a man who died from mesothelioma after alleged asbestos contamination working for the appellant. The defendant appealed on liability saying that there was insufficient evidence of causation since there was little to . .
Cited – Ashley and Another v Chief Constable of Sussex Police HL 23-Apr-2008
The claimants sought to bring an action for damages after a family member suspected of dealing drugs, was shot by the police. At the time he was naked. The police officer had been acquitted by a criminal court of murder. The chief constable now . .
Cited – Environment Agency v Ellis CA 17-Oct-2008
The claimant was injured working for the appellants. The appellants now appealed the finding that they were responsible saying that other factors contributed to the injury, and in particular that he had fallen at home. The claimant said that that . .
Cited – Sanderson v Hull CA 5-Nov-2008
Insufficient proof of cause of infection
The claimant worked as a turkey plucker. She caught an infection (campylobacter enteritis) at work, and the employer now appealed against a finding of liability. The employer said that the only necessary protection was regular washing of hands. The . .
Cited – Wootton v J Docter Ltd and Another CA 19-Dec-2008
The claimant sought damages saying that the contraceptive pill dispensed by the defendant was not the one prescribed by her doctor, and that she had become pregnant and suffered the losses claimed namely care, expenses and loss of earnings flowing . .
Cited – Halsey v Milton Keynes General NHS Trust etc CA 11-May-2004
The court considered the effect on costs orders of a refusal to take part in alternate dispute resolution procedures. The defendant Trust had refused to take the dispute to a mediation. In neither case had the court ordered or recommended ADR.
Cited – Sienkiewicz v Greif (UK) Ltd; Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council v Willmore SC 9-Mar-2011
The Court considered appeals where defendants challenged the factual basis of findings that they had contributed to the causes of the claimant’s Mesothelioma, and in particular to what extent a court can satisfactorily base conclusions of fact on . .
Applied – Willmore v Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council QBD 24-Jul-2009
The claimant sought damages for personal injury, saying that she had now contracted mesolthelioma having been exposed to asbestos whilst a pupil at a school run by the defendant’s predecessors.
Held: The authority was liable. . .
Cited – Sutton v Syston Rugby Football Club Ltd CA 20-Oct-2011
Rugby Field Inspection Adequate not detailed
The claimant was injured training for rugby. His knee was hurt by a sharp object left behind by previous users, but almost hidden. He said that the defendants were negligent in not having inspected the pitch before training. The club appealed saying . .
Cited – AXA General Insurance Ltd and Others v Lord Advocate and Others SC 12-Oct-2011
Standing to Claim under A1P1 ECHR
The appellants had written employers’ liability insurance policies. They appealed against rejection of their challenge to the 2009 Act which provided that asymptomatic pleural plaques, pleural thickening and asbestosis should constitute actionable . .
Cited – Employers’ Liability Insurance ‘Trigger’ Litigation: BAI (Run Off) Ltd v Durham and Others SC 28-Mar-2012
The court considered the liability of insurers of companies now wound up for mesothelioma injuries suffered by former employees of those companies, and in particular whether the 1930 Act could be used to impose liability. The insurers now appealed . .
Cited – Employers’ Liability Policy ‘Trigger’ Litigation; Durham v BAI (Run off) Ltd etc QBD 21-Nov-2008
The court heard six claims against companies restored to the register of companies to make claims under their insurance policies for personal injury in the form of death from mesothelioma from asbestos, and particularly whether liability could be . .
Cited – Employers’ Liability Insurance ‘Trigger’ Litigation, Re CA 8-Oct-2010
Companies restored to the register, and the personal representatives of former employees, appealed against rejection of their claims from the insurers of the former companies for damages from mesothelioma following exposure to asbestos during . .
Cited – Zurich Insurance Plc UK Branch v International Energy Group Ltd SC 20-May-2015
A claim had been made for mesothelioma following exposure to asbestos, but the claim arose in Guernsey. Acknowledging the acute difficultis particular to the evidence in such cases, the House of Lords, in Fairchild. had introduced the Special Rule . .
Cited – Campbell v Gordon SC 6-Jul-2016
The employee was injured at work, but in a way excluded from the employers insurance cover. He now sought to make the sole company director liable, hoping in term to take action against the director’s insurance brokers for negligence, the director . .
Cited – Willers v Joyce and Another (Re: Gubay (Deceased) No 1) SC 20-Jul-2016
Parties had been involved in an action for wrongful trading. This was not persisted with but the claimant sought damages saying that the action was only part of a campaign to do him harm. This appeal raised the question whether the tort of malicious . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Personal Injury, Health and Safety

Leading Case

Updated: 01 November 2021; Ref: scu.174011

Ward v Tesco Stores Ltd: CA 1976

The claimant slipped on the contents of a yoghurt pot which had spilled onto the floor of the supermarket. The defendants gave evidence of frequent inspection and sweeping of the supermarket floor with instructions to the staff to clear up spillages wherever they were noticed, but they did not adduce any evidence as to when the store had last been brushed before the plaintiff’s accident. There was no evidence before the Court as to whether the floor had been brushed a few moments before the accident or as long as an hour or an hour and a half earlier so that the Court was left without information on what was an important matter. In those circumstances the trial judge considered that prima facie the accident would not have happened, had the defendants taken reasonable care.
Held: It was not for the plaintiff to have to show how long it had been there. This sort of accident did not happen in the ordinary course of events if the floor was kept clean and spillages dealt with as soon as they occurred. The probability was that the spillage had been on the floor long enough to be dealt with. Hence there was an evidential burden on the defendant to show that accident did not arise from want of proper care on their part. Ormrod LJ dissented.
Megaw LJ said: ‘It is for the plaintiff to show that there has occurred an event which was unusual and which in the absence of explanation is more consistent with fault on the part of the defendants than absence of fault.’ and
‘When the plaintiff has established that the defendants can still escape from liability they could escape from liability if they could show that the accident must have happened, or even on balance of probability would have been likely to have happened, even if there had been in existence a proper and adequate system in relation to the circumstances to provide for the safety of customers. But if the defendants wish to put forward such a case it is for them to show that on the balance of probability either by evidence or by inference from the evidence that is given or is not given this accident would have been at least equally likely to have happened despite a proper system designed to give reasonable protection to customers. That, in this case, they wholly failed to do. Really the essence of counsel for the defendant in any possible argument – and he did not shrink from it – was: ‘never mind whether we had no system at all; still, as the plaintiffs failed to show that the yoghurt was spilt within a few seconds before the accident, she must fail. As I have said, in the circumstances of this case, I do not think that the plaintiff, to succeed, had to prove how long it was since the defendants’ floor had become slippery.’ Devlin J’s statement in Richards was not a statement of general principle.
Lawton LJ said: ‘Such burden of proof as there is on defendants . . is evidential, not probative. The trial Judge thought that prima facie this accident would not have happened had the defendants taken reasonable care. In my judgment he was justified in taking that view because the probabilities were that the spillage had been on the floor long enough for it to have been cleaned up by a member of the staff.’

Megaw LJ, Lawton LJ , Ormrod LJ
[1976] 1 WLR 810, [1976] 1 All ER 219
England and Wales
Citing:
Restricted – Richards v W F White and Co 1957
The plaintiff slipped on oil and fell suffering injury, and claimed damages.
Held: There had to be some evidence to show how long the oil had been present and some evidence from which it could be inferred that a prudent occupier of the . .

Cited by:
Cited – Laverton v Kiapasha (T/A Takeaway Supreme) CA 19-Nov-2002
Slipping on wet floor of takeaway – claimant had too much to drink – wearing high heels.
Held: ‘There is a distinction between particular dangers such as greasy spillages, which it is reasonable to expect a shopkeeper to deal with . .
Cited – Tedstone v Bourne Leisure Ltd (T/A Thoresby Hall Hotel and Spa) CA 7-May-2008
A leisure centre appealed a finding of liability under the 1957 Act after a customer slipped on water by a jacuzzi and injured herself, saying that the judge imposed too high a duty of care.
Held: The appeal succeeded. ‘If the claimant can . .
Cited – Harrison v Derby City Council CA 21-Apr-2008
The claimant injured herself tripping over a depression in the pavement. The council appealed a finding that it was in breach of its duty, saying that it had inspected the footway every six months.
Held: The appeal succeeded. Any collapse at . .
Cited – Hall v Holker Estate Co Ltd CA 17-Dec-2008
The claimant was injured playing football with his son while playing football at a caravan park owned by the defendant. He appealed dismissal of his claim. They had been using goal posts which collapsed on him injuring his face. It had not been . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Personal Injury, Torts – Other

Leading Case

Updated: 01 November 2021; Ref: scu.200647

Pickett v British Rail Engineering: HL 2 Nov 1978

Lost Earnings claim Continues after Death

The claimant, suffering from mesothelioma, had claimed against his employers and won, but his claim for loss of earnings consequent upon his anticipated premature death was not allowed. He began an appeal, but then died. His personal representatives appealed.
Held: The House assumed that, because the claimant had brought a successful claim for his personal injury, a claim by his dependants under the Fatal Accidents Act was precluded, although Lord Salmon emphasised that he expressed no concluded opinion about the correctness of that assumption. Damages could be recovered for loss of earnings in the claimant’s lost years. Only in this way could provision be made for the loss to be suffered by the dependants. Referring to Skelton: ‘The judgments, further, bring out an important ingredient, which I would accept, namely that the amount to be recovered in respect of the earnings in the ‘lost’ years should be that amount after deduction of an estimated sum to represent the victim’s probable living expenses during those years.
There is the additional merit of bringing awards under this head into line with what could be recovered under the Fatal Accidents Acts.’

Lord Wilberforce, Lord Salmon, and Lord Edmund-Davies
[1980] AC 136, [1978] UKHL 4
Bailii
Fatal Accidents Act 1976 1(1)
England and Wales
Citing:
Overruled – Oliver v Ashman CA 1961
The rule that loss of earnings, in the years lost to an injured plaintiff whose life expectancy had been shortened, were not recoverable, was still good law.
Pearce LJ summarised the authorities: ‘The Law Reform Miscellaneous Provisions Act . .
Followed – Skelton v Collins 7-Mar-1966
(High Court of Australia) Damages – Personal Injuries – Loss of earning capacity – Loss of expectation of life – Loss of amenities during reduced life span – Pain and suffering – Plaintiff rendered permanently unconscious by injuries – Basis of . .
Cited – Benham v Gambling HL 1941
The injured person was a child of two and a half. He was unconscious from the moment of the accident until his death, which occurred later on the same day. He had acquired at the time of injury a cause of action for loss of expectation of life.
Cited – Admiralty Commissioners v Steamship Amerika (Owners), The Amerika PC 13-Aug-1917
The Admiralty sought to recover as an item of loss the pensions payable to the widows of sailors killed in an accident to a submarine: . .
Cited – Rose v Ford HL 1937
Damages might be recovered for a loss of expectation of life. A claim for loss of expectation of life survived under the Act of 1934, and was not a claim for damages based on the death of a person and so barred at common law.
Lord Wright . .
Cited – Brunner v Greenslade ChD 1971
Megarry J discussed the ratio decidendi of and approving dicta in Lawrence.
‘The substance of the views of Simonds J was that where there is a head scheme, any sub-purchasers are bound inter se by the covenants of that head scheme even though . .
Cited – Roach v Yates CA 1937
The plaintiff had been gravely injured. His wife and sister-in-law had nursed him and gave up their employment for that purpose.
Held: The plaintiff could recover their lost wages, albeit there was no suggestion of any agreement between the . .
Cited – Chaplin v Hicks CA 1911
A woman who was wrongly deprived of the chance of being one of the winners in a beauty competition was awarded damages for loss of a chance. The court did not attempt to decide on balance of probability the hypothetical past event of what would have . .
Cited – Read v Great Eastern Railway Company QBD 25-Jun-1868
A railway passenger was injured; he sued and was awarded damages. He died later from injury on the accident.
Held: The widow could not bring an action for loss of dependency under section 1 of the 1846 Act. The cause of action was the . .
Cited – Phillips v London and South Western Railway
Co CA 1879
In an action against the railway company for personal injury to a passenger, a physician, making pounds 5,000 a year, and where is an increasing practice, the jury in assessing the damages to their consideration, besides the pain and suffering of . .
Cited – Williams v Mersey Docks and Harbour Board CA 1905
The deceased suffered an injury in December 1902 which would have entitled him to institute proceedings against the harbour board within the special statutory period of six months pursuant to the 1893 Act. No such action was brought by the deceased, . .
Cited – Murray v Shuter CA 1972
The plaintiff had been badly injured and was not expected to live long. When his claim for damages was almost ready for trial, his lawyers requested an adjournment. It was not possible for a live plaintiff to claim damages for his ‘lost years’. They . .
Cited – Harris v Brights Asphalt Contractors Ltd QBD 1953
The plaintiff was not to be prevented from recovering the costs of private medical treatment.
It was argued and decided that (a) damages for the loss of earnings for the ‘lost years’ is nil, and (b) ‘the only relevance of earnings which would . .
Cited – Pope v D Murphy and Son Ltd QBD 1961
Both the injured plaintiff’s earning capacity and his expectation of life had been diminished and in assessing damages for the diminution of his earning capacity his Lordship had regard to the plaintiff’s pre-accident expectation of life.
Cited – Reid v Lanarkshire Traction Co SCS 1934
(Inner House) The shortening of life was accepted as a head of damage: ‘while the doctrine of an award in respect of the shortening of life may have originated in the theory of mental disquiet about the prospect or the possibility of death . . . . .
Cited – Wise v Kaye CA 1-Dec-1961
. .
Cited – Shephard v H West and Son Ltd HL 27-May-1963
The House looked at how personal injury damages shoud be set in cases of severe injury.
Lord Pearce said: ‘[i]f a plaintiff has lost a leg, the court approaches the matter on the basis that he has suffered a serious physical deprivation no . .
Cited – Jefford v Gee CA 4-Mar-1970
The courts of Scotland followed the civil law in the award of interest on damages. The court gave examples of the way in which they apply the ex mora rule when calculating the interest payable in a judgment. If money was wrongfully withheld, then . .
Cited – McCann v Sheppard CA 1973
The injured plaintiff succeeded in his action for damages for personal injury. The defendants appealed the quantum of damage but before the appeal was heard the plaintiff died. The court was now asked to reduce the award because of the death.
Cited – Cookson v Knowles CA 1977
Lord Denning MR said: ‘In Jefford v Gee . . we said that, in personal injury cases, when a lump sum is awarded for pain and suffering and loss of amenities, interest should run ‘ from the date of service of the ‘writ to the date of trial’. At that . .
Cited – Livingstone v Rawyards Coal Co HL 13-Feb-1880
Damages or removal of coal under land
User damages were awarded for the unauthorised removal of coal from beneath the appellant’s land, even though the site was too small for the appellant to have mined the coal himself. The appellant was also awarded damages for the damage done to the . .
Cited – Davies v Powell Duffryn Associated Collieries Limited HL 1941
Damages under the Fatal Accidents Acts are calculated having regard to ‘a balance of gains and losses for the injury sustained by the death.
An appellate court should be slow to interfere with a judge’s assessment of damages. Lord Wright . .

Cited by:
Cited – Independent Assessor v O’Brien, Hickey, Hickey CA 29-Jul-2004
The claimants had been imprisoned for many years before their convictions were quashed. They claimed compensation under the Act. The assessor said that there should be deducted from the award the living expenses they would have incurred if they had . .
Cited – Gregg v Scott HL 27-Jan-2005
The patient saw his doctor and complained about a lump under his arm. The doctor failed to diagnose cancer. It was nine months before treatment was begun. The claimant sought damages for the reduction in his prospects of disease-free survival for . .
Applied – Gammell v Wilson; Furness v Massey HL 1982
In each case, the deceased, died as a result of the defendants’ negligence. The parents claimed damages for themselves as dependants under the 1976 Act, and for the estate under the 1934 Act. The claims under the 1976 Act were held to have been . .
Cited – O’Brien and others v Independent Assessor HL 14-Mar-2007
The claimants had been wrongly imprisoned for a murder they did not commit. The assessor had deducted from their compensation a sum to represent the living costs they would have incurred if living freely. They also appealed differences from a . .
Cited – Reader and others v Molesworths Bright Clegg Solicitors CA 2-Mar-2007
The claimants were children of the victim of a road traffic accident. The solicitors were conducting a claim on his behalf for damages, but when he died, they negligently discontinued the action.
Held: The claimants’ action as dependants of . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Personal Injury

Leading Case

Updated: 01 November 2021; Ref: scu.190060

Cummings v Grainger: CA 1977

An untrained Alsatian dog was turned loose in a scrap-yard to deter intruders. The dog seriously injured the plaintiff who had entered the yard.
Held: The requirements of section 2(2) were satisfied but the defendant was entitled to rely upon the trespasser defence provided by section 5. The dog had characteristics not normally found in Alsatian dogs except in circumstances where they are used as guard dogs. These were ‘particular circumstances’ within section 2(2)(b). Such an animal is behaving dangerously but it is doing so in a manner characteristic of its species in the circumstances.
Lord Denning MR: ‘This is a case of a barmaid who was badly bitten by a big dog’

Lord Denning MR, Ormrod and Bridge LJJ
[1977] QB 397
Animals Act 1971 2 5
England and Wales
Cited by:
Approved – Mirvahedy v Henley and Henley CA 21-Nov-2001
Horses with no abnormal characteristics were panicked, ran out and collided with a car. The car driver sought damages.
Held: The question was not whether the animals betrayed abnormal characteristics of which the owners should have been aware, . .
Cited – Mirvahedy v Henley and another HL 20-Mar-2003
The defendants’ horses escaped from the field, and were involved in an accident with the claimant’s car.
Held: The defendants were liable under section 2(2). To bolt was a characteristic of horses which was normal ‘in the particular . .
Dictum applied – Curtis v Betts CA 1990
The defendant owned a bull mastiff dog. It was known to react fiercely when protecting its territory. The plaintiff, a child, had known the dog since it was a puppy, and approached as the dog was about to be put into a car. The dog bit his face . .
Cited – Welsh v Stokes and Another CA 27-Jul-2007
The claimant sued a riding stables after she was badly injured on being thrown from the horse provided. Her claim in negligence failed, but she succeeded under strict liabiilty under the 1971 Act, after the judge relied upon hearsay evidence.
Cited – Freeman v Higher Park Farm CA 30-Oct-2008
The claimant fell from a horse hired to her by the defendant. She claimed for her injuries, and appealed rejection of her claim in strict liability under the 1971 Act. The horse was known to be lively and occasionally to buck, but the claimant was a . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Animals, Personal Injury

Leading Case

Updated: 31 October 2021; Ref: scu.180024

Wakelin v London and South Western Railway Co: HL 1886

The liability of a defendant in negligence must rest in the first place on there being, per Lord Watson) ‘some negligent act or omission on the part of the company or their servants which materially contributed to the injury or death complained of . . Mere allegation or proof that the company were guilty of negligence is altogether irrelevant; they might be guilty of many negligent acts or omissions, which might possibly have occasioned injury to somebody, but had no connection whatever with the injury for which redress is sought, and therefore the plaintiff must allege and prove, not merely that they were negligent, but that their negligence caused or materially contributed to the injury.’

Lord Watson, Lord Halsbury LC
(1886) 12 App Cas 41
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Wilsher v Essex Area Health Authority HL 24-Jul-1986
A premature baby suffered injury after mistaken treatment by a hospital doctor. He had inserted a monitor into the umbilical vein. The claimant suggested the treatment should have been by a more senior doctor. The hospital appealed a finding that it . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Personal Injury, Negligence

Leading Case

Updated: 31 October 2021; Ref: scu.272565

Thornton v Shoe Lane Parking Ltd: CA 18 Dec 1970

The claimant had suffered damage at the defendant’s car park. The defendant relied upon an exemption clause printed on the ticket, and now appealed against rejection of its defence under the clause.
Held: The appeal failed. The more extreme an exemption clause, the clearer is the notice required to be given before it will be regarded as having been incorporated into the contract.
Megaw LJ said: ‘When conditions sought to be attached all constitute . . the sort of restriction . . that is usual . . it may not be necessary for a defendant to prove more than that the intention to attach some conditions has been fairly brought to the notice of the other party. But at least where the particular condition relied on involves a sort of restriction that is not shown to be usual . . a defendant must show that his intention to attach an unusual condition of that particular nature was fairly brought to the notice of the other party. How much is required as being . . reasonably sufficient to give the plaintiff notice of the condition, depends on the circumstances.’ In relation to the particular condition restricting liability for personal injury as I have said to say – ‘In my view, however before it can be said that a condition of that sort, restrictive of statutory rights, has been fairly brought to the notice of a party to a contract there must be some clear indication which would lead an ordinary sensible person to realise, at or before the time of making the contract, that a term of that sort relating to personal injury, was sought to be included.’
Lord Denning MR said: ‘the customer is bound by the exempting condition if he knows that the ticket is issued subject to it; or if the company did what was reasonably sufficient to give him notice of it’, however ‘No customer in a thousand ever read the conditions [on the back of a parking lot ticket]. If he had stopped to do so, he would have missed the train or the boat.
None of those cases has any application to a ticket which is issued by an automatic machine. The customer pays his money and gets a ticket. He cannot refuse it. He cannot get his money back. He may protest to the machine, even swear at it; but it will remain unmoved.’

Lord Denning MR, Megaw LJ, Sir Gordon Willmer
[1971] 1 All ER 686, [1971] 2 WLR 585, [1971] 2 QB 163, [1970] EWCA Civ 2, [1971] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 289, [1971] RTR 79
Bailii
Occupiers Liability Act 1957
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – TICC Limited v Cosco (UK) Limited CA 5-Dec-2001
The claimants sought to have incorporated by notice into a contract of bill of lading, the terms of a freight surcharge. Notice had been given to the shipping agents in Hong Kong only. The shippers claimed the surcharge under the 1992 Act, saying . .
Cited – Interfoto Picture Library Ltd v Stiletto Visual Programmes Ltd CA 12-Nov-1987
Incorporation of Onerous Terms Requires More Care
Photographic transparencies were hired out to the advertising agency defendant. The contract clauses on the delivery note included a fee which was exorbitant for the retention of transparencies beyond the set date.
Held: The plaintiff had not . .
Cited – Amiri Flight Authority v BAE Systems Plc CA 17-Oct-2003
The appellant had contracted to purchase maintenance from the defendant of aircraft it had also purchased from them. They sought damages for negligence, saying the defendants had failed to prevent a known risk of corrosion. The defendants argued . .
Cited – Brodie, Marshall and Co (Hotel Division) Ltd v Sharer 1988
The defendant resisted payment of his estate agent’s charges. The agency contract gave the agent sole selling rights, but the purchaser was found on the vendor’s own initiative. The terms made commission was payable if ‘we introduce directly of . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Contract, Personal Injury

Leading Case

Updated: 31 October 2021; Ref: scu.182831

Edwards v Railway Executive: HL 1952

A boy aged 9 was injured on a railway line. He had been warned not to go onto the land and had found his way through a defective fence. He claimed in negligence. The fence had been breached by children with some frequency for many years before the accident. When defects were observed by the Defendant’s employees, repairs were duly effected. These were required with frequency. The evidence was that the fence was intact on the accident date.
Held: He was a trespassr and not a licensee.
Lord Goddard said: ‘repeated trespass of itself confers no licence . . how is it to be said that (an occupier) has licensed what he cannot prevent . . Now, to find a licence there must be evidence either of express permission or that the landowner has so conducted himself that he cannot be heard to say that he did not give it . . What then have they done in this case to lead anyone to suppose that they may go on to their property to play ?’
Lord Oaksey said: ‘In my opinion, in considering the question whether a licence can be inferred, the state of mind of the suggested licensee must be considered. The circumstances must be such that the suggested licensee could have thought and did think that he was not trespassing but was on the property in question by the leave and licence of its owner.’
Lord Porter said that the first question to be decided was: ‘whether there was any evidence from which it could be inferred that children from the recreation ground had become licensees to enter the respondent’s premises and toboggan down the embankment . . There must, I think, be such assent to the user relied upon as amounts to a licence to use the premises. Whether that result can be inferred or not must, of course, be a question of degree, but in my view a court is not justified in likely inferring it . . The onus is on the appellants to establish their licence, and in my opinion they do not do so merely by showing that, in spite of a fence now accepted as complying with the Act requiring the respondents to fence, children again and again broke their way through. What more, the appellants asked, could the respondents do? Report to the Corporation? But their caretaker knew already. Prosecute? First you have to catch your children and even then would that be more effective? In any case I cannot see that the respondents were under any obligation to do more than keep their premises shut off by a fence which was duly repaired when broken and obviously intended to keep intruders out.’

Lord Porter, Lord Goddard, Lord Oaksey
[1952] 2 All ER 430, [1952] AC 737
Cited by:
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 – Harvey v Plymouth City Council CA 29-Jul-2010
The Council appealed against a finding of liability under the 1957 Act after the claimant was injured after jumping over a fence to flee hving to pay a taxi, and falling down a steep slope onto a car park. The land had been licenced to the . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Negligence, Personal Injury, Land

Leading Case

Updated: 31 October 2021; Ref: scu.182867

McFarlane v Tayside Health Board: OHCS 11 Nov 1996

No damages are awardable for the birth of child following the failure of a vasectomy. It is against public policy to treat the birth of a child as a loss.
Times 11-Nov-1996
Scotland
Cited by:
Appeal from – McFarlane v Tayside Health Board IHCS 8-May-1998
Damages were payable where child born after vasectomy of husband and sperm tests gave false confirmation. This even though gift of a child a normal and healthy process and happy outcome. . .
Outer House – MacFarlane and Another v Tayside Health Board HL 21-Oct-1999
Child born after vasectomy – Damages Limited
Despite a vasectomy, Mr MacFarlane fathered a child, and he and his wife sought damages for the cost of care and otherwise of the child. He appealed a rejection of his claim.
Held: The doctor undertakes a duty of care in regard to the . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 23 October 2021; Ref: scu.83533

Talbot v Berkshire County Council: CA 23 Mar 1993

In a motor accident, both driver and passenger were injured. The passenger sued the driver. The driver’s insurers, without notice to the driver, made a third party claim against the Berkshire County Council, claiming contribution as between joint tortfeasors but including no claim for the driver’s own injuries. The driver later discovered his insurer’s action and himself sought damages from the council.
Held: A cause of action estoppel, which estops a plaintiff pursuing a second action which could have been combined with a first action, applied to an action for personal injuries to prevent a motorist suing a highway authority. The insurers’ solicitors appeared to have been negligent but the claim against the county council should be struck out unless there were special circumstances, and in this case there were not.
Stuart-Smith LJ said: ‘There can be no doubt that the [driver’s] personal injury claim could have been brought at the time of [the passenger’s] action. It could have been included in the original third party notice issued against the council (R.S.C., Ord. 16, r. 1(b)(c)); it could have been started by a separate writ and consolidated with or ordered to be tried with [the passenger’s] action: Ord. 4, r. 9. The third party proceedings could have been amended at any time before trial and perhaps even during the trial to include such a claim, notwithstanding that it was statute-barred, since it arose out of the same or substantially the same facts as the cause of action in respect of which relief was already claimed, namely, contribution or indemnity in respect of [the passenger’s] claim: Ord. 20, r. 5. In my opinion, if it was to be pursued, it should have been so brought.’ and

‘The rule is thus in two parts. The first relates to those points which were actually decided by the court: this is res judicata in the strict sense. Secondly, those which might have been brought forward at the time, but were not. The second is not a true case of res judicata but rather is founded on the principle of public policy in preventing multiplicity of actions, it being in the public interest that there should be an end to litigation: the court will stay or strike out the subsequent action as an abuse of process.’
Stuart-Smith LJ, Mann LJ, Nourse LJ
Times 23-Mar-1993, [1994] QB 290
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – C (A Minor) v Hackney London Borough Council CA 10-Nov-1995
The mother had claimed in damages for the injuries to her health from the landlord authority’s failure to repair. Her child then brought a subsequent action in respect of his own injuries. The authority claimed the action should be stopped as res . .
Cited – Johnson v Gore Wood and Co HL 14-Dec-2000
Shareholder May Sue for Additional Personal Losses
A company brought a claim of negligence against its solicitors, and, after that claim was settled, the company’s owner brought a separate claim in respect of the same subject-matter.
Held: It need not be an abuse of the court for a shareholder . .
Cited – Brown v Rice and Another ChD 14-Mar-2007
The parties, the bankrupt and her trustee, had engaged in a mediation which failed at first, but applicant said an agreement was concluded on the day following. The defendants denied this, and the court as asked to determine whether a settlement had . .
Cited – Divine-Bortey v London Borough of Brent CA 14-May-1998
The claimant had brought and lost an action relating to his dismissal by the defendant, who now appealed against an order that he was not estopped from bring a second claim on a different basis namely race discrimination, disapplying the rule in . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 29 September 2021; Ref: scu.89696

Higham v Stena Sealink Ltd: CA 26 Feb 1996

The Convention limitation period of two years overrode the national period where it was applied.
Times 26-Feb-1996, [1996] 1 WLR 1107
Athens Convention Relating to the Carriage of Passengers at Sea
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Warner v Scapa Flow Charters (Scotland) SC 17-Oct-2018
This appeal raises a question about the interpretation of article 16 of the Athens Convention relating to the Carriage of Passengers and their Luggage by Sea 1974 (‘the Athens Convention’) and its application to the Scots law of limitation of . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 27 September 2021; Ref: scu.81369

McLelland v Greater Glasgow Health Board: OHCS 14 Oct 1998

(Scotland) Where a hospital had negligently failed to diagnose a foetus with Down’s Syndrome, it became liable to the father as well as the mother for damages for initial shock and distress and continued emotional stress bringing up a Down’s child.
Lord Macfadyen
Times 14-Oct-1998, 1999 SLT 543, 1999 SC 30, 1998 SCLR 1081, [1998] ScotCS 12
Bailii
Scotland

Updated: 14 September 2021; Ref: scu.83565

Smith v Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Others: CA 28 Nov 2017

Sir Terence Etherton MR agreed with counsel that ‘the only sure common thread running through the various descriptions of the ambit test, for the purposes of article 14, in the several speeches in M [2006] 2 AC 91 is that the connection or link between the facts and the provisions of the Convention conferring substantive rights must be more than merely tenuous’. He summarised the position: ‘The claim is capable of falling within article 14 even though there has been no infringement of article 8. If the state has brought into existence a positive measure which, even though not required by article 8, is a modality of the exercise of the rights guaranteed by article 8, the state will be in breach of article 14 if the measure has more than a tenuous connection with the core values protected by article 8 and is discriminatory and not justified. It is not necessary that the measure has any adverse impact on the complainant in a positive modality case other than the fact that the complainant is not entitled to the benefit of the positive measure in question.’
Sir Terence Etherton MR, McCombe LJ, Sir Patrick Elias
[2017] EWCA Civ 1916, [2018] 2 WLR 1063, [2017] WTLR 1469, [2017] WLR(D) 799, (2018) 162 BMLR 1, [2018] QB 804, [2018] PIQR P5
Bailii, WLRD
Fatal Accidents Act 1976, European Convention on Human Rights
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – McLaughlin, Re Judicial Review SC 30-Aug-2018
The applicant a differently sexed couple sought to marry under the Civil Partnership Act 2004, but complained that they would lose the benefits of widowed parent’s allowance. Parliament had decided to delay such rules to allow assessment of reaction . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 06 September 2021; Ref: scu.599717

Davidson v Lothian and Borders Fire Board: IHCS 18 Jul 2003

The pursuer, a firefighter, sought damages for injury incurred during a drill. The drill involved manipulating a ladder, which was caught by the wind, a known risk in such exercises.
Held: The defenders had failed to discharge the burden on them of establishing that all appropriate steps were taken to reduce the risk of injury to the pursuer and his fellow employees to the lowest level reasonably practicable, as was required of them under Regulations.
Lord Marnoch, Lord Hamilton, Lord Macfadyen
[2003] ScotCS 203
Bailii
Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 4(1)(b)
Scotland
Citing:
Cited – Nimmo v Alexander Cowan and Sons Ltd HL 1967
The employer was prosecuted under the 1961 Act.
Held: the burden of proving that it was not reasonably practicable to make and keep a place of work safe rested upon the defendant employer. If an exception was to be established, it was for the . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 29 August 2021; Ref: scu.184666

Tameside and Glossop Acute Services NHS Trust v Thompstone and others: CA 17 Jan 2008

The court set out the legal principles applying when making a Periodical Payments Order in an award of damages for serious personal injury. The periodical payments payable to the claimant in respect of his care costs should be calculated by reference to the actual cost of care, as set out in the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (‘ASHE’), rather than the RPI.
Waller LJ VP, Buxton, Smith LJJ
[2008] EWCA Civ 5, [2008] LS Law Medical 282, [2008] 1 WLR 2207, [2008] PIQR Q2, [2008] 2 All ER 553, (2008) 100 BMLR 113
Bailii
Damages Act 1996 2
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – Thompstone v Tameside and Glossop Acute Services NHS Trust QBD 23-Nov-2006
. .

Cited by:
Cited – Preston v City Electrical Factors Ltd and Another QBD 13-Nov-2009
The claimant had received andpound;100,000 in interim payments on his personal injury claim, and now sought a further similar sum.
Held: The claim was thought substantial, but the defendants said that any final award would include an . .
Cited – Dunhill v Burgin SC 12-Mar-2014
Lack of Capacity – Effect on Proceedings
The Court was asked ‘First, what is the test for deciding whether a person lacks the mental capacity to conduct legal proceedings on her own behalf (in which case the Civil Procedure Rules require that she has a litigation friend to conduct the . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 04 August 2021; Ref: scu.263771

Stubbings v Webb and Another: HL 10 Feb 1993

Sexual Assault is not an Act of Negligence
In claims for damages for child abuse at a children’s home made out of the six year time limit time were effectively time barred, with no discretion for the court to extend that limit. The damage occurred at the time when the child left the home. A woman suffered child abuse and claimed as an adult. The limitation period for non-accidental personal injuries arising from complaints of rape or of indecent assault is six years (section 2).
Held: The damage arising from injuries deliberately inflicted arose at the time, or if the victim was a child, at the age of attaining majority. The time did not begin to run only when the claimant became aware of a causal connection between her damage and the injuries. An action for damages for deliberate assault or trespass to the person was not an ‘action for damages for negligence, nuisance or breach of duty’ in respect of personal injuries within the meaning of section 11(1) of the 1980 Act. Such an assault or trespass was not a breach of duty within the meaning of the section. It followed that, on the one hand, the limitation period was six years and, on the other hand, the court had no discretion under section 33 to extend the six year period.
References: Gazette 10-Feb-1993, [1993] AC 498, [1993] 2 WLR 120, Times 17-Dec-1992, [1993] 1 All ER 322, [1992] 1 QB 197
Judges: Griffiths L
Statutes: Limitation Act 1980 2 33 11(1) 11(2)
Jurisdiction: England and Wales
This case cites:

  • Appealed to – Stubbings and Others v The United Kingdom ECHR 22-Oct-1996 (Times 24-Oct-96, (1996) 23 EHRR 213, , [1996] ECHR 44, 22083/93, 22095/93, )
    There was no human rights breach where the victims of sex abuse had been refused a right to sue for damages out of time. The question is whether and to what extent differences in otherwise similar situations justify a different treatment in law: . .
  • Appeal from – Stubbings v Webb CA 1992 ([1992] QB 197)
    The claimant sought damages for having been raped. The defendant said the claim was out of time. . .
  • Cited – Letang v Cooper CA 15-Jun-1964 ([1965] 1 QB 232, , [1964] EWCA Civ 5, [1964] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 339, [1964] 2 All ER 929, [1964] 3 WLR 573)
    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 . .

This case is cited by:

  • Cited – KR and others v Bryn Alyn Community (Holdings) Ltd and Another CA 12-Feb-2003 (, Times 17-Feb-03, [2003] EWCA Civ 85, [2003] QB 1441, [2003] Fam Law 482, [2004] 2 All ER 716, [2003] 1 FLR 1203, [2003] Lloyd’s Rep Med 175, [2003] 3 WLR 107, [2003] 1 FCR 385)
    The respondent appealed decisions by the court to allow claims for personal injury out of time. The claims involved cases of sexual abuse inflicted by its employees going back over many years.
    Held: The judge had misapplied the test laid down . .
  • Cited – Barry Young (Deceased) v Western Power Distribution (South West) Plc CA 18-Jul-2003 (, [2003] EWCA Civ 1034, Times 18-Jul-03, [2003] 1 WLR 2868, [2003] 1 WLR 2868)
    The deceased had begun an action on becoming ill after exposure to asbestos by the defendant. He withdrew his action after receiving expert evidence that his illness was unrelated. A post-mortem examination showed this evidence to be mistaken. His . .
  • Mentioned – McDonnell v Congregation of Christian Brothers Trustees (Formerly Irish Christian Brothers) and others HL 4-Dec-2003 (, [2003] UKHL 63, , Times 05-Dec-03, [2004] 1 AC 1101)
    In 2000, the claimant sought damages for sexual abuse from before 1951. The issue was as to whether the limitation law which applied was that as at the date of the incidents, or that which applied as at the date when he would be deemed uner the . .
  • Cited – A v Hoare QBD 14-Oct-2005 (, [2005] EWHC 2161 (QB), Times 27-Oct-05, [2006] ACD 12)
    The defendant had been convicted and sentenced for the attempted rape of the claimant. He had subsequently won a substantial sum on the lottery, and she now sought damages. He replied that the action was statute barred being now 16 years old. The . .
  • Criticised – A v Hoare; H v Suffolk County Council, Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs intervening; X and Y v London Borough of Wandsworth CA 12-Apr-2006 ([2006] Fam Law 533, [2006] 2 FLR 727, [2006] 1 WLR 2320, [2006] 3 FCR 673, , [2006] EWCA Civ 395, Times 28-Apr-06, [2006] 1 WLR 2320)
    Each claimant sought damages for a criminal assault for which the defendant was said to be responsible. Each claim was to be out of the six year limitation period. In the first claim, the proposed defendant had since won a substantial sum from the . .
  • Cited – KR and others v Royal and Sun Alliance Plc CA 3-Nov-2006 (, [2006] EWCA Civ 1454, Times 08-Nov-06)
    The insurer appealed findings of liability under the 1930 Act. Claims had been made for damages for child abuse in a residential home, whom they insured. The home had become insolvent, and the claimants had pursued the insurer.
    Held: The . .
  • Overruled – A v Hoare HL 30-Jan-2008 (, [2008] UKHL 6, Times 31-Jan-08, [2008] 2 WLR 311, Gazette 14-Feb-08, [2008] 1 AC 844, (2008) 11 CCL Rep 249, [2008] 1 FCR 507, [2008] Fam Law 402, [2008] 1 FLR 771, (2008) 100 BMLR 1, [2008] 2 All ER 1)
    Each of six claimants sought to pursue claims for damages for sexual assaults which would otherwise be time barred under the 1980 Act after six years. They sought to have the House depart from Stubbings and allow a discretion to the court to extend . .
  • Appeal from – Stubbings and Others v The United Kingdom ECHR 22-Oct-1996 (Times 24-Oct-96, (1996) 23 EHRR 213, , [1996] ECHR 44, 22083/93, 22095/93, )
    There was no human rights breach where the victims of sex abuse had been refused a right to sue for damages out of time. The question is whether and to what extent differences in otherwise similar situations justify a different treatment in law: . .
  • Cited – Stingel v Clark 20-Jul-2006 ((2006) 80 ALJR 1339, , (2006) 228 ALR 229, [2006] HCA 37)
    Asutlii (High Court of Australia) Limitation of Actions – Appellant alleged respondent had raped and assaulted her in 1971 – Appellant alleged that she suffered post-traumatic stress disorder of delayed onset in . .
  • Reversed by Hoare – RAR v GGC QBD 10-Aug-2012 (, [2012] EWHC 2338 (QB))
    The claimant alleged that the defendant, her stepfather, had sexually and otherwise assaulted her when she was a child. He had pleaded guilty to one charge in 1978, and now said that the claim was out of time. The claimant sought the extension of . .
  • Cited – Alves v Attorney General of The Virgin Islands (British Virgin Islands) PC 18-Dec-2017 (, [2017] UKPC 42)
    From the Court of Appeal of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (British Virgin Islands) . .
  • Cited – Archbishop Bowen and Another v JL CA 21-Feb-2017 (, [2017] EWCA Civ 82)
    The defendants appealed against finding that they were responsible for the assaults by a priest on the claimant. . .
  • Cited – F and S v TH QBD 1-Jul-2016 (, [2016] EWHC 1605 (QB))
    Claim for damages as victims of sexual abuse alleged against father. . .

These lists may be incomplete.
Last Update: 22 September 2020; Ref: scu.89598

McLoughlin v OBrian: HL 6 May 1982

References: [1983] 1 AC 410, [1982] 2 All ER 298, [1982] UKHL 3, [1982] 2 WLR 982
Links: Bailii
Coram: Lord Wilberforce, Lord Bridge, Lord Scarman
Ratio: 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 happened. She saw and comforted her injured husband and children, and was told of the death of her youngest child. She brought proceedings for the psychiatric effect of the shock that she sustained as a result.
Held: Her appeal was allowed. The House identified the circumstances in which such a claim could succeed:
1. While damages cannot, at common law, be awarded for grief and sorrow, a claim for damages for ‘nervous shock’ caused by negligence can be made without the necessity of showing direct impact or fear of immediate personal injuries for oneself.
2. A plaintiff may recover damages for ‘nervous shock’ brought on by injury caused not to him — or herself but to a near relative, or by the fear of such injury.
3. Subject to the next paragraph, there is no English case in which a plaintiff has been able to recover nervous shock damages where the injury to the near relative occurred out of sight and earshot of the plaintiff.
4. An exception has been made where the plaintiff does not see or hear the incident but comes upon its immediate aftermath.
5. A remedy on account of nervous shock has been given to a man who came upon a serious accident involving numerous people immediately thereafter and acted as a rescuer of those involved.
Three issues were to be addressed: the class of persons whose claims should be recognised, the proximity of such persons to the accident and the means by which the shock was caused. Foreseeability in any given set of circumstances is ultimately a question of fact.
On the issue of the court’s role in developing the law, Lord Scarman: ‘By concentrating on principle the judges can keep the legal system clear of policy problems which neither they, nor the forensic process which it is their duty to operate, are equipped to resolve. If principle leads to results which are thought to be socially unacceptable, Parliament can legislate to draw a line or map out a new path.’
Lord Wilberforce said: ‘there remains, in my opinion, just because ‘shock’ in its nature is capable of affecting so wide a range of people, a real need for the law to place some limitation upon the extent of admissible claims.’ and
‘As regards proximity to the accident, it is obvious that this must be close in both time and space . . The shock must come through sight or hearing of the event or of its immediate aftermath.’
and ‘Whatever is unknown about the mind body relationship (and the area of ignorance seems to expand with that of knowledge), it is now accepted by medical science that recognisable and severe physical damage to the human body and system may be caused by the impact, through the senses, of external events on the mind. Thus there may be produced what is as identifiable an illness as any that may be caused by direct physical impact.’
This case cites:

  • Cited – Hambrook v Stokes Brothers CA ([1925] 1 KB 141)
    The defendant’s employee left a lorry at the top of a steep narrow street unattended, with the engine running and without having taken proper steps to secure it. The lorry ran violently down the hill. The plaintiff’s wife had been walking up the . .
  • Cited – Hinz v Berry CA ([1970] 2 QB 40)
    Then plaintiff saw her husband killed and her children injured by a runaway motor car. At trial she was awarded damages for nervous shock. The question was whether, having regard to the fact that she had suffered sorrow and grief it would not be to . .
  • Rejected – Bourhill v Young’s Executor HL ([1943] AC 92, [1943] SC (HL) 78, 1943 SLT 105, Bailii, [1942] UKHL 5)
    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 . .

(This list may be incomplete)
This case is cited by:

  • Applied – Alcock and Others v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police QBD (lip, [1991] 2 WLR 814, [1991] CLY 2671)
    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 HL (Gazette 22-Jan-92, lip, [1991] 3 WLR 1057, Times 29-Nov-91, [1992] 1 AC 310, Bailii, [1991] UKHL 5)
    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 – Keen v Tayside Contracts OHCS (Times 27-Mar-03, Bailii, [2003] ScotCS 55, ScotC)
    The claimant sought damages for post traumatic stress disorder. He was a road worker instructed to attend by the defendant immediately after a terrible accident.
    Held: It was a classic case of nervous shock. He was not a rescuer, and nor had . .
  • Cited – Giullietta Galli-Atkinson v Seghal CA ([2003] Lloyds Rep Med 285, Bailii, [2003] EWCA Civ 697)
    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 – Marvin John Pearson v Anthony Lightning CA (Times 30-Apr-98, Gazette 20-May-98, Bailii, [1998] EWCA Civ 591)
    The parties were golfers playing different holes at the same time. The shot of one hit the other in the eye. The shot was a recovery shot over where he should have known others would be playing. Where a golfer hit a shot which was difficult but . .
  • Cited – Jaensch v Coffey ((1984) 55 CLR 549, [1984] 54 ALR 417, [1985] CLY 2326, Austlii, [1984] HCA 52)
    (High Court of Australia) The claimant’s husband was injured. She saw his injuries at hospital and was affected. She claimed damages for her own shock.
    Held: The driver owed her a duty of care, and was liable for negligence which caused . .
  • Cited – Donachie v The Chief Constable of the Greater Manchester Police CA ([2004] EWCA Civ 405, Bailii)
    The claimant had been asked to work under cover. The surveillance equipment he was asked to use was faulty, requiring him to put himself at risk repeatedly to maintain it resulting in a stress disorder and a stroke.
    Held: There was a direct . .
  • Cited – JD v East Berkshire Community Health NHS Trust and others HL (Bailii, [2005] UKHL 23, House of Lords, [2005] 2 AC 373, Times 22-Apr-05, [2005] 2 WLR 993)
    Parents of children had falsely and negligently been accused of abusing their children. The children sought damages for negligence against the doctors or social workers who had made the statements supporting the actions taken. The House was asked if . .
  • Cited – Quayle and others v Regina, Attorney General’s Reference (No. 2 of 2004) CACD (Bailii, [2005] EWCA Crim 1415, Times 22-Jun-05, [2006] Crim LR 148, (2006) 89 BMLR 169, [2006] 1 All ER 988, [2005] 2 Cr App R 34, [2005] 1 WLR 3642)
    Each defendant appealed against convictions associated variously with the cultivation or possession of cannabis resin. They sought to plead medical necessity. There had been medical recommendations to move cannabis to the list of drugs which might . .
  • Cited – Rothwell v Chemical & Insulating Co Ltd and Another CA (Bailii, [2006] EWCA Civ 27, [2006] ICR 1458, Times 31-Jan-06)
    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 – French and others v Chief Constable of Sussex Police CA (Bailii, [2006] EWCA Civ 312, Times 05-Apr-06)
    The claimants sought damages for psychiatric injury. They were police officers who had been subject to unsuccessful proceedings following a shooting of a member of the public by their force.
    Held: The claim failed: ‘these claimants have no . .
  • Cited – Fook, Regina v CACD (Bailii, [1993] EWCA Crim 1)
    The defendant appealed his conviction for assault. He had suspected a lodger of theft, and was accused of having assaulted him while interrogating him about it. He locked the complainant in his room, but he then fell whilst escaping through a first . .
  • Cited – Johnston v NEI International Combustion Ltd; Rothwell v Chemical and Insulating Co Ltd; similar HL (Bailii, [2007] UKHL 39, Times 24-Oct-07, [2007] ICR 1745, [2007] 4 All ER 104, [2008] LS Law Medical 1, [2007] 3 WLR 877, (2008) 99 BMLR 139, [2008] 1 AC 281, [2008] PIQR P6)
    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 – Hussain v West Mercia Constabulary CA (Bailii, [2008] EWCA Civ 1205, Times)
    The claimant taxi driver complained of misfeasance in public office in the way the defendant had responded to the several calls for assistance made by him to the police.
    Held: His appeal against the striking out failed. The damages pleaded . .
  • Cited – Taylor v A Novo (UK) Ltd CA (Bailii, [2013] EWCA Civ 194, [2013] 3 WLR 989, [2013] Med LR 100, [2013] PIQR P15, [2013] WLR(D) 119, [2014] Ch 150, [2014] 1 QB 150, WLRD)
    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 – Rhodes v OPO and Another SC ([2015] 2 WLR 137, Bailii, [2015] UKSC 32, [2016] AC 219, [2015] EMLR 20, [2015] HRLR 11, [2015] WLR(D) 227, [2015] 4 All ER 1, WLRD, Bailii Summary, UKSC 2014/0251, SC, SC Summary, SC Video Summary)
    The mother sought to prevent a father from publishing a book about his life. It was to contain passages she said may cause psychological harm to their 12 year old son. Mother and son lived in the USA and the family court here had no jurisdiction to . .
  • Cited – OPO v MLA and Another CA (Bailii, [2014] EWCA Civ 1277, [2014] WLR(D) 422, WLRD)
    The claimant child sought to prevent publication by his father of an autobiography which, he said, would be likely to cause him psychological harm. The father was well known classical musician who said that he had himself suffered sexual abuse as a . .
  • Cited – Liverpool Women’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust v Ronayne CA (Bailii, [2015] EWCA Civ 588, [2015] WLR(D) 263, WLRD)
    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 – Smith v Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Another QBD (Bailii, [2016] EWHC 2208 (QB))
    The claimant had cohabited with the deceased: ‘The claimant seeks a declaration in one of two alternative forms:
    i) Pursuant to s.3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 . . that s.1A(2)(a) of the Fatal Accidents Act 1976 . . is to be read as including . .

(This list may be incomplete)
Jurisdiction: England and Wales

Last Update: 24-Nov-16
Ref: 180105

Bunyan v Jordan; 1 Mar 1937

References: (1937) 57 CLR 1, [1937] HCA 5, [1937] ALR 204
Links: Austlii
Coram: Latham C.J., Rich, Dixon, Evatt and McTiernan JJ
Ratio:(High Court of Australia) The plaintiff sought damages having been put to severe fright by a short fired by her employer, the defendant.
This case cites:

  • Cited – Wilkinson -v- Downton ([1897] 2 QB 57)
    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 . .

(This list may be incomplete)
This case is cited by:

  • Cited – Rhodes -v- OPO and Another SC ([2015] 2 WLR 137, Bailii, [2015] UKSC 32, [2016] AC 219, [2015] EMLR 20, [2015] HRLR 11, [2015] WLR(D) 227, [2015] 4 All ER 1, WLRD, Bailii Summary, UKSC 2014/0251, SC, SC Summary, SC Video Summary)
    The mother sought to prevent a father from publishing a book about his life. It was to contain passages she said may cause psychological harm to their 12 year old son. Mother and son lived in the USA and the family court here had no jurisdiction to . .

(This list may be incomplete)

Last Update: 30-Jun-16
Ref: 566202

Jameson and Wyatt (Executors of the Estate of David Allen Jameson) v Central Electricity Generating Board and Babcock Energy Limited; 10 Mar 1995

References: Unreported, 10 March 1995
Coram: Tudor Evans J
The plaintiff claimed damages for mesothelioma. CEGB had provided a contractual indemnity in respect of damage or injury occurring before building works were taken over by a client in 1960. The question was whether a workman who died from mesothelioma well after 1960 but was exposed during the building work before 1960 had suffered damage or injury before 1960.
Held: The evidence did not establish even that minimal microscopic changes had occurred before 1960 and that the damage or injury occurred many years after the deceased had finished working.
This case is cited by:

(This list may be incomplete)
Last Update: 13-Dec-15 Ref: 238333

Jones v Metal Box Ltd; 11 Jan 2007

References: Unreported, 11 January 2007
Coram: Judge Hickinbottom
(Cardiff County Court) The court considered a claim for damages from asbestos exposure giving rise to mesothelioma. As to considering medical causation: unless the claimant could show that the risk was doubled by the exposure alleged, then it is more likely than not that the mesothelioma had an idiopathic rather than an occupational cause.
This case is cited by:

Jaensch v Coffey; 20 Aug 1984

References: (1984) 55 CLR 549, [1984] 54 ALR 417, [1985] CLY 2326, [1984] HCA 52
Links: Austlii
Coram: Gibbs CJ, Murphy, Brennan, Deane and Dawson JJ
(High Court of Australia) The claimant’s husband was injured. She saw his injuries at hospital and was affected. She claimed damages for her own shock.
Held: The driver owed her a duty of care, and was liable for negligence which caused nervous shock. A finding at first instance that she had normal fortitude, her predisposition to anxiety and depression gave no defence.
Brennan J said: ‘Liability for negligence occasioning nervous shock has not been readily accepted, perhaps because the courts found evidence of psychiatric illness and of its aetiology to be too vague to warrant a finding of a causal relationship between psychiatric illness and careless conduct . . A plaintiff may recover only if the psychiatric illness is the result of physical injury negligently inflicted on him by the defendant or if it is induced by ‘shock’. Psychiatric illness caused in other ways attracts no damages . . I understand ‘shock’ in this context to mean the sudden sensory perception – that is, by seeing, hearing or touching – of a person, thing or event, which is so distressing that the perception of the phenomenon affronts or insults the plaintiff’s mind and causes a recognizable psychiatric illness.’
This case cites:

  • Cited – McLoughlin -v- O’Brian HL ([1983] 1 AC 410, [1982] 2 All ER 298, Bailii, [1982] UKHL 3)
    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 . .

This case is cited by:

  • Cited – Alcock and Others -v- Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police HL (Gazette 22-Jan-92, lip, [1991] 3 WLR 1057, Times 29-Nov-91, [1992] 1 AC 310, Bailii, [1991] UKHL 5)
    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 – Alcock and Others -v- Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police QBD (lip, [1991] 2 WLR 814, [1991] CLY 2671)
    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 – Taylor -v- A Novo (UK) Ltd CA (Bailii, [2013] EWCA Civ 194)
    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 . .

Cavanagh v London Transport Executive; 23 Oct 1956

References: Times 23-Oct-1956
Coram: Devlin J
The deceased stepped onto the road just behind a taxi cab which was stationary or just drawing up. He neither saw nor heard an approaching number bus and walked directly into its path. He suffered a fractured skull. There was evidence that his mental processes became grossly abnormal. Some sixteen months after the accident he committed suicide.
Held: The court was satisfied that ‘an irrational state of mind arising from his head injuries was a cause, if not the main cause, of his suicide.’ The judge ‘would, if necessary, hold that the plaintiff (the widow of the deceased) had discharged the burden of causation upon her and that the financial worry did not amount to a novus actus. But if, looked at independently of its origins it would amount to a novus actus, he was satisfied that the deceased’s financial position in January, 1955, could be traced back to the accident.’
This case is cited by:

  • Cited – Corr -v- IBC Vehicles Ltd CA (Bailii, [2006] EWCA Civ 331, Times 21-Apr-06, [2006] ICR 1138, [2007] QB 46, [2006] 2 All ER 929, [2006] 3 WLR 395)
    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 . .

Farrell v Avon Health Authority; 8 Mar 2001

References: [2001] All ER (D) 17
Coram: Judge Bursell QC
The claimant was father to a new-born child. At the birth he was told that his baby son was dead before seeing his son and understanding that an error had been made. He sought damages asserting that he had suffered nervous shock. The Hospital said that he was not able to recover for psychiatric injury where no possibility of a physical injury was forseeable.
Held: He succeeded. As a primary victim a claim for psychiatric injury was possible even where no physical injury was risked. A real risk of suffering a recognised psychiatric disorder was sufficient.

Robertson Or Macey-Lillie v Lanarkshire Health Board andC: OHCS 26 May 2000

References: Times 28-Jun-2000, [2000] ScotCS 136
Links: Bailii, ScotC
Coram: Lord Philip
Economic circumstances have not changed sufficiently yet to alter the rate of three per cent used when calculating damages in personal injury cases. Though the returns on government stocks had fallen the figure of two per cent was not yet appropriate, and lay within the range of returns contemplated when the original figures had been set.
Statutes: Damages Act 1996

El Al Israel Airlines Ltd v Tsui Yuan Tseng; 16 Sep 1997

References: (1999) 525 US 155, 919 FSupp 155, 147 ALRFed 783, 65 USLW 2817, 142 L Ed 2d 576, 119 SCt 662, 122 F3d 99
Links: USSC
(US Supreme Court) The Warsaw Convention should be applied in a consistent manner internationally, without reference to the local laws of the high contracting parties.
Statutes: Warsaw Convention 29
This case is cited by:

  • Cited – Barclay -v- British Airways Plc CA (Bailii, [2008] EWCA Civ 1419, Times)
    The claimant sought damages for personal injury. The airline said that the injury was not the result of an accident within article 17.1. She was walking down the aisle and slipped.
    Held: The appeal was dismissed. The meaning of ‘accident’ . .

Elizabeth Ann Jameson and Alan William Wyatt (Executors of the Estate of David Allen Jameson) v Central Electricity Generating Board and Babcock Energy Limited: CA 13 Feb 1997

References: Times 25-Feb-1997, [1997] EWCA Civ 1008
Links: Bailii
Executors may sue for a dependency claim despite a full and final settlement having been made by the deceased.
This case cites:

Keenen v Miller Insulation and Engineering Ltd; 8 Dec 1987

References: Unreported, 8 December 1987
Coram: Piers Ashworth QC
The claimant’s cause of action for lung fibrosis did not arise at the time he was exposed to asbestos between August 1952 and May 1953 because at that stage he had not suffered physical injury by May 1953. Basing himself on the evidence of Dr Rudd the court held that for a long time after exposure the defence mechanisms of the body held their own and only became exhausted after a period of equilibrium which lasted well after 4th June 1954, the relevant date for limitation.
This case is cited by:

  • Approved – McCaul -v- Elias Wild (Unreported, 14 September 1989)
    The plaintiff who had suffered pleural thickening from inhalation of asbestos fibres in 1943 – 1950 suffered no actionable injury until about 1985, when he first experienced breathlessness. . .
  • Cited – Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council -v- Municipal Mutual Insurance Ltd CA (Bailii, [2006] EWCA Civ 50, Times 09-Feb-06, [2006] 1 WLR 1492, [2007] Lloyd’s Rep IR 173)
    The deceased had come into contact with asbestos when working on building sites for more than one contractor. The claimant here sought contribution from the defendants for the damages it had paid to his estate. The issue was as to liability on . .