Hatton v Sutherland [2002] EWCA Civ 76 – Law Journals

Negligence: Causation of loss

Julian Matthews explores a defendant’s liability when there are multiple causes of a given loss ‘While this basis of approach makes clear logical sense, and appears to be wholly in line with the approach of the Court of Appeal, there are significant concerns that the practical working of the approach will result in significant injustice.’ …

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Psychiatric Injury: Collateral damage

Liam Ryan discusses the case law involving secondary victims in harassment claims One of the more interesting aspects in the development of personal injury law over the last 25 years has been the acknowledgment that psychiatric injury can be not only as serious as physical injury, but a general acceptance that psychiatric injuries are substantial, …

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Stress: Being your own worst enemy

Liam Ryan highlights the need to clearly disclose mental health issues to an employer in stress at work claims ‘Considering the need for a risk assessment it was rightly held that this does not obviate the need for any psychiatric injury which could be suffered to be foreseeable.’Following the increasing volume of cases passing through …

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Causation: Reducing damages due to pre-existing conditions – a tenable argument?

Julian Matthews discusses two recent cases which illustrate the potentially far reaching consequences of the rules of causation of damage ‘These cases clearly illustrate that the focus of attention in the assessment of damages in cases where there is a medical or other disability subsisting prior to the date of negligence must be upon the …

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Negligence: Material contribution to damage

One of the more intellectually challenging concepts in the field of clinical negligence is that of material contribution. Julian Matthews highlights two recent cases which illustrate some of the issues which arise ‘A defendant cannot be held to be liable for loss or damage that it did not cause or to which it made no …

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Case Report: Yapp v Foreign and Commonwealth Office [2014] EWCA Civ 1512

Taking the strain; foreseeability in occupational stress claims ‘Occupational stress cases, whether founded on cumulative stress or on a one-off act of unfairness, remain extremely difficult to win.’ This case provides important confirmation of the difficulties in establishing liability for injury arising from occupational stress. Hitherto it was arguable that the high foreseeability hurdle erected …

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Psychiatric Injury: ‘Nervous shock’ – where are we now?

Andrew Hogarth QC analyses the recent approach of the courts to compensate primary and secondary victims ‘The acceptance by courts that some unmeritorious primary victims can succeed has led inevitably to a desire to ensure that secondary victims who are considered by the trial judge to be meritorious will succeed.’ Most would agree that the …

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