Having heard the scream the father (claimant) rushed into the spot and found his son with his foot trapped by the cars wheel. A large tower was constructed in the Docklands area of East London which now goes by the name of One Canada Square Capacity and Medical Consent. The first is to wipe out recovery in tort for pure psychiatric injury. He was a road worker instructed to attend by the defendant immediately after a terrible accident. In England, the Dulieu v White and Sons [1901]2 KB 66 9 case was a landmark case in terms of the recovery of claims for psychiatric illnesses. In order for the claimant to successfully recover compensation the court needs to consider an amalgam of rules and exceptions as well as different categories of claimants, which . Similarly there are some other cases where the claimants were not actually present at the scene of the accident but the court still held the defendant liable for negligently inflicting psychaitric injury to the claimants. Reference this In 1997, the claimant initiated an action for psychiatric illness against the defendant. Taylor v Somerset HA [1993] PIQR P 262 2. A rescuer or an employee suffering such psychiatric illness is also classified as a secondary victim (unless they are themselves endangered in the event). The claimant brought an action against the defendant for causing psychiatric injury to him. However, as far as their claim for psychiatric illness was concerned, the court was neither convinced with the surrounding facts and circumstances that there was sufficient close tie of love and affection with the claimants and the primary victim nor was convinced that the psychiatric illness that they had sustained was reasonably foreseeable by the defendant in accordance with the recovery criteria for psychiatric illness established in the leading case of Alcock. The employer could have checked up on him during his . Such a duty of care must be aplied to everyone in the vicinity particularly to a mother who had the fear for psysical safety to her children. So, therefore, a secondary victim is someone who suffers from psychiatric illness through the fear of other persons safety or injury. Finally, the secondary victim is required to satisfy the court that his psychiatric illness was a direct result of witnessing or hearing of the traumatic event or its immediate aftermath[26]. Also the plaintiff had to establish that the nervous shock caused by the accident, resulted from her fear for her own safety. Frost v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police [1997] 3 WLR 1194. [12] Teff, H (1992) Liability for Psychiatric Illness after Hillsborough 12 Oxford Journal of Legal studies 440. The claimant further argued that the defendant by causing an accident to the boy negligently had been in breach of his duty and was liable to for all the direct consequences of the breach, no matter if the damage to the claimant was reasonably forseeable or not. Pages 14 Course Hero uses AI to attempt to automatically extract content from documents to surface to you and others so you can study better, e.g., in search results, to enrich docs, and more. However, during the journey, a very strong wind thrown the metal sheet and Smith away while he was sitting on top of it. The House of Lords reversed the Court of Appeal decision in Frost v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire [1997] 1 All ER 540, which had found that the plaintiffs were primary victims, as rescuers. According to him, the existing law of negligence in relation to psychiatric illness generally recognizes a claim brought by the people who are in a close relationship with the primary victims, but reluctant to allow any claims by the bystanders. Many of the spectators saw their friends and relatives die in the crush and suffered nervous shock after the incident. Disclaimer: This work was produced by one of our expert legal writers, as a learning aid to help law students with their studies. Only Parliament could take such a step. Although, it was admitted by the police constable that they were negligent in performing their duties in the football stadium and it was only because of their negligence the horrible disaster took place which ended the lives of ninety six spectators and caused injury to the other spectators. The outcome of this case is particularly note worthy. The Greatorex v Greatorex and another[37]is another case in which the question arose whether a defendant owes any duty of care towards the claimant for not causing him a psychiatric injury by self inflicted injuries. Having heard the scream of the boy, his mother looked out of the window from about seventy to eighty yeard away of the place where the accident took place. Info: 9733 words (39 pages) Dissertation Consequently, actions brought by the potential claimants or the victims of psychiatric illness have often been unsuccessful for a number of reasons despite of having been suffered genuine recognized psychiatric injury[1]. u $VnI=vJ--EmC\A$2Tat9iamg~>k,H7^V TJ=7jdv'6M:c 7c{}N8o}~p7k;? Primary victims are victims who are imperilled or reasonably believe themselves to be imperilled by the defendants negligence.Lord Steyn said: the law on the recovery of compensation for pure psychiatric harm is a patchwork quilt of distinctions which are difficult to justify. However , he was failed to meet the criteria of immediate aftermath of the disaster. Different kinds of harm The horrific events of 15 April 1989 at the . Finally, after a careful consideration of all the issues, it was held by Cazalet J. In the case of Benson v Lee[62], the claimant was informed that her son had an accident and sustained injuries. The defendant relied on the decision of the case in Bourhill v Young[48] with a view to support his arguement and stated that the psychiatric injury to the mother was not reasonably foreseeable as she was not within the range of reasonable anticipation. The caimant was summoned by the hospital authority in order to see her injured family members. Again, there was neither any duty of care towards the claimant not to inflict any kind of physical injury or harm to himself nor there was any duty to the claimant not to cause him psychiatric injury by means of exposing him to the sight of the defendants self-inflicted injuries[40]. Lord Oliver[30] thought that, Mr. Brians action failed not only because he could not provide with evidence of close tie of love and affection but also because the perception of the shocking event was gradual as opposed to the sudden appreciation by sight or sound of a horrifying event. Held: Being directly involved, the pursuer was a primary victim, and accordingly not subject to the limits on claiming for . The second solution is to abolish all the special limiting rules applicable to psychiatric harm. We're here to answer any questions you have about our services. It does not merely include the very accident that caused the death or injury to the primary victims but it also includes the immidiate aftermath of the accident[66]. Capacity plays a vital role in determining whether a person can exercise autonomy in making choices in all aspects of life, from simple decisions to far-reaching decisions such as Our academic writing and marking services can help you! Held: (Smith LJ dissenting) The . Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this dissertation are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UKDiss.com. ]S+ dfEOP 5mr'%G-X5aD)N>M%X/sVXRGt-sVm]^ciARbDwfmB!%xDh \HKPjMQ7h{,jSZ !L Copyright 2003 - 2023 - LawTeacher is a trading name of Business Bliss Consultants FZE, a company registered in United Arab Emirates. In this case, the defendant was claimants son who had a car accident while he was negligently driving his car being drunk. When the defendant started backing his car out, Keith Keel began to give directions to the defendant from behind the car in order to prevent any collision with the pillar or any other cars. It was not disputed that D was negligent or, indeed, that this had caused nervous shock to C. The Court of Appeal had previously found in favour of C and D appealed to the House of Lords. The English law of negligence in relation to nervous shock or psychiatric illness is often considered as unfair and unsatisfactory by the defendants, claimants and even by the judges. . If you are the original writer of this dissertation and no longer wish to have your work published on the UKDiss.com website then please: Our academic writing and marking services can help you! Another appellant, namely Robert Alcock, was present on the ground during the football match and witnessed the whole disaster from the west stand of the stadium. In Alcock v Chief Constable Of South shire Police [1992] 1 AC 310, 407, Lord Oliver introduced a broader classification of the primary victims as including those involved, either mediately or immediately or , as a participant in the event causing them psychiatric illness. Registered office: Creative Tower, Fujairah, PO Box 4422, UAE. Due to his death, Rough was also very distressed which resulted in a psychiatric illness. [58] As per Salmon J. The defendants admitted their negligence but also argued that the nervous shock suffered by the mother was too remote. The plaintiff, Mr Smith was deemed to be a primary victim, since he was involved in the accident and risked personal injury. . [20] Michaell A Jones, Liability for Psychiatric Illness More Principle, Less Subtlety? [1995] 4 Web JCLI. However, these two categories of secondary victims are exceptionally allowed to recover at common law even without a close tie of love and affection between them and the immediate victims, as required of other secondary victims. Prior to the Page v Smith case it was assumed that reasonable foreseeability of psychiatric illness was required in all cases of negligently inflicted psychiatric illness and that all such plaintiffs must be persons of normal disposition.. There is indeed a sense of remoteness in this case. After ariving to the garage, the claimant was asked by the defendant to repay the garage bills before he get his car released from that garage. He drove her to the hospital where she saw her dead daughter, and her husband and two other children seriously injured, all still covered in oil and mud. [63] Tort Law; Text, Cases and Materials by Jenny Steele 2007. In the case of Frost v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police [1999] Lord Steyn stated that the area of Tort Law relating to psychiatric trauma is rather complex. [65] Cases and Commentary on Tort, by Barbara Harvey & John Marston, 5th Edition. Genearlly, the defendants are not liable to the claimants for causing psychiatric injury by means of self inflicted physical injuries. 2819 Words. D h.d.CFPxe @0RI4 #Pm'Qc^FF" -P!P)Hljc6f.X{81,qxn;G#1t._!c 6jlw(9OAEiQ*Jr.JEW; v}qsF{-HE qx#>#erJ5$afH" :s8C1@( di4)bH'=8 pKzx2DjkZhh"lc+*`>p@>*& "$x However, in this case, their Lordship took the similar opinion that, the issue of proximity of relationship should be decided on a case by case basis. Although, according to the guidelines of television broadcasting, none of the television channels highlighted any scenes that relate to the dying or suffering of the spectators in that disaster[24]. Sir Cliff Richard OBE V The British Broadcasting Corporation; The Chief Constable Of South Yorkshire Police [2018] EWHC 1837 (Ch) Summary. 2 Alcock v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police [1992] 1 AC 310. The second issue was- whether the defendant owes a duty of care to the claimant not to inflict any kind of physical injury or harm to himself. Only full case reports are accepted in court. As a result, the claimant suffered from a nervous shock. No plagiarism, guaranteed! IMPORTANT:This site reports and summarizes cases. The issue before the court was whether any person is entitled to establish a claim for psychiatric illness which has been sustained through the fear or apprehension of physical injury to others. Many of the claimants witnessed horrific images and scenes of carnage on the television . Sixteen separate actions were brought against him by persons none of whom was present in the area where the disaster occurred, although four of them were elsewhere in the ground. However, an action was brought by the mother for psychiatric injury against the defendant. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of LawTeacher.net. The plaintiffs in the case were police officers who suffered psychiatric injury after witnessing the Hillsborough stadium disaster. Accordingly, in the case of Robertson and Rough v Forth Road Bridge Joint Board[35], the claimants brought an action against the defendants for a horrible disaster that took place on the Forth Road Bridge. In Frost v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire [1999] AC 455 at 507H-508A, Lord Hoffman described Lord Oliver's explanation of these 'unwilling participant' cases as "an ex post facto rationalisation" and as "an elegant, not to say ingenious, explanation, which owes nothing to the. Open Document. So, in this situation- Singleton LJ. The lead case on secondary victim claims is Alcock v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police [1992] which sets out a 4-stage test known as the control mechanisms. Comparison of the Effect of Classical and Heavy Metal Music on Productivity and Mental Health. The case of Alcock v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire[22]is the best example which provided the criteria for recovery of psychiatric injury claims by the secondary victims. The Facts. 164 0 obj <> endobj %%EOF The Court of Appeal (by a majority) found in favour of all but one of the officers. The 2003 decision of Fletcher v Commissioners for Public Works clearly demonstrates this point. It is of paramount importance that the law enforcement .Cited James-Bowen and Others v Commissioner of Police of The Metropolis SC 25-Jul-2018 The Court was asked whether the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis (the Commissioner) owes a duty to her officers, in the conduct of proceedings against her based on their alleged misconduct, to take reasonable care to protect them from . They said that the defendants negligent treatment allowed the attack to take place. Essays, case summaries, problem questions and dissertations here are relevant to law students from the United Kingdom and Great Britain, as well as students wishing to learn more about the UK legal system from overseas. Despite of establishing a close tie of love where the secondary victims fails to satisfy the requirement of proximity in time and place with the accident, the court will not entilte them to recover damages for psychiatric illness. Two of the claimants found their relatives or friend severely injured whereby one of them had his relative who escaped unhurt. To export a reference to this article please select a referencing stye below: Mental Health relates to the emotional and psychological state that an individual is in. Case summaries. .Cited McLoughlin v Jones; McLoughlin v Grovers (a Firm) CA 2002 In deciding whether a duty of care is established the court must go to the battery of tests which the House of Lords has taught us to use, namely: . He brought an action for negligently inflicted psychiatric illness against the defendants. So, however, in the light of the above case decisions it has been obvious that the secondary victim must establish proximity of relationship or close tie of love and affection in order to establish a claim for psychiatric illness. The defendant argued that, there was no negligence on his part as far as the claimants psychiatric illness was concerned. In support of my opinion I will discuss and analyse the outcomes of a number of relevant law cases, namely, Dulieu v White and Son[1901]2 KB 669 , Hambrook v Stoke Bros [1925] 1 KB 141, McLoughlin v O Brian (1983) AC 410 310 AT 407, Alcock -v- The Chief Constable of South Yorkshire [1992] 1 AC 310, Page -v- Smith [1995] 2 All ER 736 AT 759, 761 per Lord Lloyd, White v The Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police[1992]1 AC.310. He was seriously injured. For example, in Hinz v Berry[3], the court recognized morbid depression as a recognizable psychiatric illness. Only recognisable psychiatric illness would qualify for in such claims. This was not the situation prior to this case. So, it is the secondary victims who are required to prove the fact that he has sustained a psychiatric injury because the person with whom he is in a close relationship has in fact suffered from a severe physical injury. He went to the psychiatrist and took medical treatment. Although the boy arrived home eventually but his mother suffered from a nervous shock[45]. At the trial, Branson J. took the opinion that, the claimant will not be entitled to establish a claim for nervous shock and recover any kind of damages if she had not suffered the shock through the fear of her own safety. The defendant admitted that they were negligent in relation to the death of her daughter as well as injury to her rest of the family members but simply denied any kind of liabilty for negligently causing psychiatric injury to her. Common Law - Evidence Law - Amissibility of Evidence Essays - Use Our Free Law Essays To Help You With Your Law Course Codification of Directors Duties was Unnecessary. Although he did not suffer physical injury, the crash he claimed resulted in chronic fatigue syndrome. When faced with these two decisions, one can't help but recall the comment of Lord Steyn in Frost v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire [1992] 2 AC 455 (at 511), who considered that "the search for principle was called off in Alcock". In that case, the defendant did not reasonably foresee that the claimant would suffer from psychiatric injury as she was too far away from the actual place of the accident. He suffered a mental breakdown in 1986, and had four months off work. View examples of our professional work here. Held: The general rules restricting the recovery of damages for pure psychiatric harm applied to the plaintiffs claims as employees. All work is written to order. During the course of the disaster, scenes were broadcasted live on the television. The unsuccessful claimants made a cross appeal to the Court of Appeal against the judges decision whereby the defendants also appealed against the ten successful claimants. Among all the claimants, thirteen people lost either their relatives or friends because of death. [17] took the view that, the mother suffered nervous shock by her own unaided realization of what she had seen with her own eyes, not because of what she learnt from a bystander. In the case of bystanders, it is not generally foreseeable by the defendants that such a person would suffer from psychiatric injury. The distinction normally made between primary and secondary victims claiming damages for shock in witnessing a terrible event does not apply to employees who were obliged by their contract to be present. White v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire. 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