- Home/Publications/Medical Law Reports
Briggs v Pitt-Payne & Lias
[1999] LS Law Med 1
Limitation — Medical negligence action — Prescription of Valium — Limitation — Whether plaintiff knew that he had a significant injury attributable to the defendants before he knew that Valium was misprescribed — Exercise of discretion under section 33 of the Limitation Act 1980
Pavey v Ministry of Defence
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 09
Procedure — Medical negligence action — Master deciding preliminary issues under section 33 of the Limitation Act and, with the consent of the parties, under section 14 of the Limitation Act — Whether Master had jurisdiction to try issue of knowledge under section 14 of the Limitation Act 1980 — Whether Appeal lies to the Court of Appeal or to the Judge in Chambers — Limitation — whether Master's decision as to date of knowledge and his refusal to exercise section 33 discretion were justified
Bishop v Berkshire Health Authority
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 16
Procedure — Plaintiff under disability — Structured settlement — Adjournment for investigation of structured settlement on undertakings to keep conventional offer open — Entitlement of plaintiff to reopen claim
Ian Leslie Marriott v West Midlands Health Authority
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 23
Head injury — Extra-dural haematoma — Admitted to hospital — Discharged — Missed diagnosis — GP examination post-discharge — Failure to heed history and complaints — Failure to refer back to hospital — Whether GP negligent — Body of professional opinion supports not referring back to hospital — Whether that body of professional opinion is reasonable
Roberts v Winbow
[1999] LS Law Med 31
Limitation — Knowledge — Discretion — Significance of injury — Whether short-term but severe symptoms which in the opinion of the trial judge would attract general damages of less than £2,000 could in themselves constitute a significant injury — Attributability — Whether time runs against a plaintiff when she knows that any significant part of her injuries are capable of being attributed to an act or omission on the part of the defendant, or only when she knows that the main part of those injuries are so attributable — Whether a plaintiff has knowledge of attributability if her firm belief that her injuries are attributable to an act or omission on the part of the defendant is not shared by those treating her — Whether equitable to allow action to proceed if brought out of time
Dar Heselwood v Collett
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 42
Personal injury — Agreed offer of settlement — Agreed investigation of structured settlement — Order adjourning matter on terms — Whether party could be released from its undertaking in the order to limit claim — Whether valid agreement to compromise the proceedings — Whether alternative valid agreement
Kapfunde v Abbey National Plc and Dr Daniel
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 48
Negligence — Plaintiff applying for job — Occupational health doctor assessing plaintiff as unsuitable — Whether doctor owed duty of care to plaintiff — Whether prospective employer vicariously liable for doctor
Kent v London Ambulance Service
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 58
Negligence — Duty of care — Whether ambulance service under a duty of care to respond to call for help — Alleged failure to attend promptly — Whether appropriate/reasonable to strike out pursuant to RSC Order 18, rule 19 — Delay — Whether reasonable cause of action — Proximity — Reliance
R v Family Health Service Appeal Authority
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 67
Judicial review — Pharmacy Appeals Committee of Family Health Services Appeal Authority — Doctors' supply of medicine to patients — Medicines Act 1968 — Pharmacists seeking judicial review of Family Health Services Appeal Authority's decision — Whether it is lawful for doctors to supply medicine by unqualified servants or agents
Davis v Jacobs & Camden
[1999] LS Law Med 72
Limitation — Date of knowledge — Section 14(1)(b) Limitation Act 1980 — Knowledge that injury attributable to prescription of drugs — Circumstances in which appellate court will reverse finding of fact of judge on “knowledge” — Limitation — Section 33 Limitation Act 1980 — Discretion to disapply — Circumstances in which appellate court will exercise the discretion afresh — Judge misunderstanding evidence and effect on discretion — Extent to which prospects of success of claim can be taken into consideration in exercise of discretion — Relevance of plaintiff's medical condition (short of disability) to exercise of discretion — Relevance of plaintiff's credibility to exercise of discretion — Section 33(3)(e) conduct of the plaintiff only (and not agents) relevant to exercise of discretion
Stefan v The General Medical Council
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 90
General Medical Council — Health Committee — Procedure — Indefinite suspension — Announcement of decision — Duty to give reasons
Barker v Barking, Havering and Brentwood NHS Trust
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 101
Mental Disorder — Patient detained under section 3 Mental Health Act 1983 — On leave of absence under section 17 MHA 1983 — Detention renewed under section 20 when patient not in hospital — Whether lawful — Habeus corpus — Judicial review — Appropriate procedure.
Brown v Lewisham and North Southwark Health Authority
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 110
Medical negligence action — Causation — Foreseeability — Remoteness — Appeal against findings of causation at first instance — Whether the judge's findings were justified by the evidence — Whether causation of injury should be analysed by reference to breach of the duty owed.
Lakey v Merton, Sutton and Wandsworth Health Authority
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 119
Medical negligence action — Failure to X-ray and diagnose fracture of the acetabulum — Duty of the judge to explain conclusions — Duty of the judge to give reasons for rejection of expert evidence
Penney, Palmer and Cannon v East Kent Health Authority
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 123
Medical negligence action — Cervical smear screening — Cytoscreeners — Pathologists — Endocervical cancer — Expert evidence — Bolam defence — Whether Bolam defence applies — Whether smears should have been reported as negative or borderline
Roylance v General Medical Council
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 139
General Medical Council — Professional Conduct Committee — Whether conduct of hearing by the President of the GMC sitting as chairman of the Committee was such as to give rise to an appearance of bias — Whether affidavit evidence relating to the deliberations of the Committee in camera should be admitted — Scope of “professional misconduct” in the medical profession outside the field of clinical misconduct — Whether penalty of erasure from the Medical Register appropriate
Appleby v Walsall Health Authority
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 154
Limitation — Plaintiff suffering hypoxic brain damage at birth — Claim for medical negligence commenced over 25 years after birth — Plaintiff's constructive knowledge — Whether mother's actual knowledge imputed to plaintiff on reaching majority — Exercise of discretion under section 33 of the Limitation Act 1980
Morera-Loftus v Wray Castle Limited and Blackburn
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 159
Negligence — Duty to take reasonable care for the health and safety of residential college student — Duty owed by college and by college medical adviser/student's general practitioner — Breach of duty — Failure to provide proper care and supervision of sick student — Failure to diagnose deterioration in condition — Meningitis leading to permanent and severe deafness and tinnitus — Loss of earnings — Whether alleged breaches caused damage — Quantum of damages
Worrall v Powergen plc
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 177
Personal injuries — Fatal Accidents Act — Multiplier for future loss of dependency — Appropriate Ogden Table to be used for calculation of multiplier — Whether benefits to be deducted before calculating interest on past loss — Appropriate multiplier for future loss of DIY services — Appropriate award of general damages for pain and suffering and loss of amenity
Briody v St Helen's and Knowsley Area Health Authority
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 185
Medical negligence –– Limitation — Civil Procedure — Preliminary issue: plaintiff's claim allowed to proceed under section 33 Limitation Act 1980 — Judgment for plaintiff for damages to be assessed — Appeal by defendant — Defendant seeking leave to appeal out of time exercise of section 33 discretion
Das v Ganju
[1999] LS Law Med 198
Limitation — Section 33 Limitation Act 1980 — Discretion to disapply effects of section 11 — Relevance under section 33(3)(e) of conduct of plaintiff's lawyers to delay in commencement of proceedings — Relevance under section 33(3)(f) of plaintiff having sought expert legal and medical advice but advice being misleading — Period of delay when considering comparative cogency of the evidence under section 33(3)(b) — Section 33(3)(c) and relevance of defendant's conduct post-negligence but before commencement of any forensic process
Hardwick v Hudson
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 208
Damages — Personal injury — Whiplash injury — Gratuitous services by relative to claimant's business — Claim for value of services — Whether recoverable — Proper sum for pain, suffering, loss or amenity — Appropriate multiplier for future losses
Burns v Davies
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 215
Personal injury — Damages — Quantum — Interest — Plaintiff involved in accident which left him paraplegic — Appropriate award of general damages for pain, suffering, loss of amenity — Rate of interest to be applied to general damages
Chappel v Hart
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 223
Doctor — Duty of Care — Failure to warn of risk of perforation of oesophagus during surgery — Ensuing infection led to permanent speech impairment — If warned, plaintiff would have deferred operation — Damage not for loss of chance of avoiding injury but for physical injury — Whether direct causal connection between failure to warn and damage suffered — Whether damages should be nominal or substantial
Re N
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 257
Negligence — forensic medical examination of plaintiff by defendant — whether defendant owed plaintiff duty of care to attend criminal trial and give evidence
R v Department of Health ex parte Source Informatics Limited
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 264
Judicial review — Department of Health Guidance — Supply information to data collecting company — Confidentiality — General practitioners — Pharmacists — European Convention on Human Rights
R v Mental Health Review Tribunal & Ors ex parte Russell Hall
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 274
Mental Health Act 1983 — Duty to provide aftercare under section 117 — When duty arises — Meaning of “the local social services authority” — Deferred conditional discharge under section 73 — Likelihood of implementing conditions — Obligation of Mental Health Review Tribunal to consider relevant factors — Article 5 ECHR — Considerations when exercising discretion
R v Secretary of State for Health ex parte Pfizer Ltd
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 289
General practitioners — Statutory and professional prescribing obligations under the NHS — Judicial review — Department of Health circular advising general practitioners on prescribing of Viagra — Lawfulness of circular under domestic and European law
Ali v Courtaulds Textiles Limited
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 301
Limitation — Personal injury — Industrial deafness — Knowledge of that deafness was attributable to work — Section 14(1)(b) of the Limitation Act 1980 — Whether medical opinion required before claimant had knowledge that deafness was attributable to work — Whether consulting a solicitor was sufficient to fix the claimant with knowledge
R v North and East Devon Health Authority, ex p Coughlan
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 306
Judicial Review — Legitimate expectation — National Health Service — Social Services — Closure of facility — Promise of home for life — Scope of power to review decision — Provision of nursing care as health service or social service provision
Woolgar v Chief Constable of Sussex Police
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 335
Disciplinary proceedings — Confidentiality of information provided to police in interview under caution — Whether and in what circumstances nursing disciplinary body entitled to disclosure of such information in course of investigation of possible disciplinary offences — Public interest in disclosure — Procedure to be adopted where disclosure of such information proposed
Garamella v New York Medical College
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 343
Personal injury — Sexual abuse of a minor by psychiatric resident — Resident undergoing psychoanalysis as part of training — Paedophile tendencies notified to instructor prior to abuse — Whether instructor under duty to disclose tendencies — Public policy of confidentiality — Whether plaintiff within foreseeable class of victim to whom instructor owed a duty of care
Palmer v Tees Health Authority
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 351
Negligence — Duty of care — Abduction, sexual assault, murder and mutilation of child by psychiatric patient — Alleged failure to diagnose risk of committing such offences — Failure to adequately treat and/or prevent release into community whilst at risk of committing such offences — Appeal against strike out pursuant to RSC Order 18, rule 19 — No cause of action — Whether duty of care owed to primary and secondary victim — Proximity — Whether damages for nervous shock recoverable by secondary victim
R v Portsmouth Hospital NHS Trust
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 367
Judicial review — Medical treatment of child without parental consent — Facts not susceptible to judicial review — Use of declaration as to best interests procedure — Application for leave to appeal
R v Family Health Services Appeal Authority ex p Tesco Stores Ltd
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 377
Judicial review — Pharmaceutical services — National Health Service (Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 1992 — Application to open a new NHS pharmacy — Definition under Regulations of “neighbourhood” — Consideration of requirement of “adequate provision” of pharmaceutical services — Test of “necessary” or “desirable” — Basis of interference by Divisional Court
Tan v East London and City HA
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 389
In utero death — Stillbirth — Psychiatric injury to father — Nature of the shocking event — Aftermath — Limitation — Section 33
North West Lancashire HA v A, D & G
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 399
Judicial review — Challenge by three transsexual patients to decision by Health Authority refusing treatment based on policy allocating low priority for public funding to procedures considered to be of no or little clinical gain — Lawfulness of policy under domestic and European law
R v Mental Health Review Tribunal, ex p Russell Hall
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 417
Mental Health Act 1983 — Deferred conditional discharge under section 73 — Reasonableness of conditions implemented by tribunal — Burden of implementation falling on relevant authorities — Tribunal having no power to require relevant authorities to implement conditions — Art 5 ECHR
Kent v Griffiths and Ors
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 424
Negligence — Asthma — Prophylactic therapy — Steroid — Advice and treatment by general practitioners — Duty of care — Ambulance service — Whether ambulance under a duty of care to respond to call — Failure to attend promptly — Proximity — Quantum — Damages for pain, suffering and loss of amenity
Athey v Leonati
[1999] Lloyd's Rep Med 458
Torts — Negligence — Causation — Appellant involved in road traffic accidents caused by the negligence of the defendants — Appellant subsequently suffered disc herniation — Negligence only minor contributing factor to injury — Defendants nevertheless liable for full loss