Background

Each of the cases concerned an alleged failure by the defendant to diagnose the primary victim’s life-threatening condition resulting in their close relatives witnessing the primary victim’s death causing psychiatric injury. The claimants sued the defendant hospitals for negligence.

The Issues

On 13 January 2022 the Court of Appeal concluded that they were bound by the Court of Appeal ruling in Crystal Taylor v. A. Novo (UK) Ltd [2013] EWCA Civ 194, that there is no claim for psychiatric injury if there is an interval of time between the breach of duty and the event which causes shock. Dissenting judgements however justified an appeal to the Supreme Court.

Held

By a 6-1 majority the Supreme Court dismissed the appeals and concluded that the secondary victim had to witness the “accident” suffered by the primary victim for there to be recoverability. The court held that a) Clinical Negligence is not “an accident”. b) Witnessing a traumatic death caused by an accident which had not been witnessed, is insufficient.  c) While doctors owe a duty of care to protect the health of their patients, they do not owe a duty of care to members of the patient’s close family to protect them against the experience of witnessing a death.

Comment

This Supreme Court Judgement means that relatives cannot claim compensation for witnessing the death or serious injury of a loved one where the death was as a result of negligent medical treatment.  However, it remains unclear as to whether the rules governing claims by secondary victims arising from ‘accidents’ could ever apply in a medical setting.

See a copy of the judgment here:

https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2022-0038-0044-0049-judgment.pdf

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