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PERSONAL INJURY
Occupier’s Liability
Siddorn v Patel & Anr, High Ct, 28/03/2007
A landlord was not liable as an occupier of land for injuries sustained by a tenant who had, whilst dancing on a garage roof that formed no part of her tenancy, fallen through a perspex skylight, because the danger had arisen from the tenant's activity rather than the state of the premises.
Summary Judgment
Bishara v Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, CA (Civ Div) 26/03/2007
The judge had erred in granting summary judgment in a claim for personal injuries as it was not possible to say that no duty of care was owed until the claim had been advanced and the evidence tested.
Riding Accident – Negligence & Foreseeability
MacClancy v Carenza, High Ct, 16/03/2007
A defendant horse riding instructor had not been negligent in failing to warn her student of an alleged hazard on a riding school cross-country course, as it was not dangerous and it was not foreseeable that anyone would perceive it as dangerous. The very serious injuries suffered by the student claimant for personal injury damages had not been caused by any other negligent act of the defendant.
Permission to accept Part 36 Payment into Court out of time – Costs
Matthews v Metal Improvements Co Inc, CA (Civ Div) 14/03/2007
A judge giving the claimant permission to accept out of time a sum paid into court had not identified any fact that made it unjust to make the usual order for the claimant to pay the defendant's costs after the expiration of 21 days from the payment into court.
Interim Payment Application
Wade v Turfrey, High Ct, 09/03/2007
The court exercised its discretion and granted an application for an interim payment of £850,000 in an action for damages for personal injury.
Statistical Evidence in relation to life expectancy
Arden v Malcolm, High Ct, 02/03/2007
A judge had not erred in refusing to allow expert statistical evidence as to life expectancy to be adduced in a personal injury action as the appropriate course was for the matter to be addressed by the clinical experts with the expert evidence of a statistician required only if the clinician experts could not agree.
Fatal Accidents Act 1976, S.1 – Cause of action surviving for the benefit of dependants
Reader & Ors v Molesworths Bright Clegg Solicitors, CA (Civ Div) 02/03/2007
Pursuant to the Fatal Accidents Act 1976 s.1, if at the moment of his death, an injured claimant had an existing cause of action arising from the wrongful act that caused his injuries, and if he died as the result of the same wrongful act, a second cause of action for the benefit of his dependants would come into being at that moment. That action for bereavement or dependency would not be extinguished where the original personal injury claim had been discontinued.
Negligence
Cole v Davis-Gilbert & Ors, CA (Civ Div) 01/03/2007
Where an individual had stepped into an exposed hole on a village green and broken her leg, the organisation responsible for the digging of the hole had neither been negligent nor breached its duty of care as it had previously sealed the hole and it was the unexplained removal of the infill, not the infill itself that was the primary causative factor in the accident.
Pleural Plaques & Pre-existing condition – Assessment of Damages
Hindson v Pipe House Wharf (Swansea) Ltd, High Ct, 21/02/2007
In assessing damages for personal injury as result of the negligent exposure to asbestos dust, which had caused pleural plaques on the lungs and a risk of developing malignant and non-malignant diseases, on the facts of the case it had not been appropriate to reduce the appropriate award of general damages to take into account the potential effects of the claimant's pre-existing condition, but that had been a factor in the assessment of his future loss of earnings.
CLINICAL NEGLIGENCE
Neonatal Negligence
Antoniades v East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, High Ct, 16/03/2007
A hospital trust was liable for the irreversible brain damage that the claimant began to suffer 17 minutes after his birth due to the lack of oxygen to his brain caused by a plug of mucus blocking his trachea. Although the nature of the obstruction to the airway was very rare, the fact of the obstruction should have been obvious to the paediatricians in time for them to remove it before the brain damage was done, and their failure to do so was negligent.
Gynaecological Negligence
Tagg v Countess of Chester Hospital Foundation Trust, High Ct, 15/03/2007
On the balance of probabilities, a surgeon had negligently failed to adequately inspect an area of a patient's bowel after performing gynaecological surgery and consequently a hole in the patient's bowel had remained undetected, causing injury and loss for which the hospital trust was liable.
Obstetric Negligence
Richards v Swansea NHS Trust, High Ct, 13/03/2007
In the absence of any evidence from an NHS trust that there had been logistical constraints on hospital staff that caused them to take 55 minutes from deciding to carry out a Caesarean section to the delivery, it was to be inferred that such constraints did not exist and the trust had therefore acted in breach of its duty to deliver the child as quickly as possible and had negligently caused his severe disability.
ROAD TRAFFIC
Dangerous Driving
Milton v CPS, High Ct, (Admin) 16/03/2007
Whilst the test under the Road Traffic Act 1988 s.2A(3) for determining whether a driver had been driving dangerously was primarily an objective test, circumstances relevant to dangerousness that were favourable to the driver such as his special driving skills or adverse circumstances such as a complete lack of experience, could be taken into account in applying the objective test.
DAMAGES
Assessment of Damages – Gratuitous Care
Lindsay v Wood, High Ct, 01/03/2007
The assessment of damages due to a claimant who had suffered severe brain damage that had left him needing lifelong care and support depended on whether he would receive some gratuitous care from his wife who lived in Australia, and would be assessed on the basis that there was only a 20 per cent chance that his application to join her and live in Australia in the long term would succeed.
ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE
Human Rights – Inquests
R v HM Coroner for Northern District London, HL (Lord Bingham of Cornhill, Lord Rodger of Earlsferry, Baroness Hale of Richmond, Lord Brown of Easton-under-Heywood, Lord Mance) 28/03/2007; Times, March 29, 2007
The Court of Appeal had erred in concluding that, by virtue of the Human Rights Act 1998 s.3, the Coroners Act 1988 s.11(5)(b)(ii) has had, since the coming into force of the 1998 Act, to be interpreted to require an inquest complying with the United Kingdom's international obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights 1950 Art.2, no matter when the death occurred.
Inquest – Jury verdicts
Police Service of Northern Ireland v McCaughey, HL (NI) (Lord Bingham of Cornhill, Lord Rodger of Earlsferry, Baroness Hale of Richmond, Lord Brown of Easton-under-Heywood, Lord Mance) 28/03/2007
A jury in Northern Ireland may not return a verdict of lawful or unlawful killing. The Coroners Act (Northern Ireland) 1959 s.8 required the police service of Northern Ireland to furnish to a coroner to whom notice under s.8 is given such information as it then had or was thereafter able to obtain (subject to any relevant privilege or immunity) concerning the finding of a body or concerning the death.
Jurisdiction – Inquest without Jury
Paul & Ors v Deputy Coroner of the Queen’s Household & Assistant Deputy Coroner for Surrey, High Ct (Admin) 02/03/2007
Rulings that the inquests into the deaths of Diana Princess of Wales and Dodi Al Fayed were to be conducted by the coroner as deputy coroner of the Queen's household sitting without a jury were flawed and would be quashed.
PROFESSIONS – HUMAN RIGHTS
Suspension under National Health Service (Performers Lists) Regulations 2004
R v Waltham Forest NHS PCT & Anr, CA (Civ Div) 28/03/2007
The unlawful suspension of a doctor from the medical performers list pursuant to the National Health Service (Performers Lists) Regulations 2004 did not amount to or give rise to a deprivation of a possession so as to engage the European Convention on Human Rights 1950 Protocol 1 Art.1.
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