Interest on Special camages

Wisely v John Fulton (Plumbers) Ltd, Wadey v Surrey County Council (H of L [2000] 2 All ER 545)

Although s17 of the Social Security (Recovery of Benefits) Act 1977 provides that the amount of any listed benefits paid or likely to be paid is to be disregarded in assessing damages in respect of any accident, injury or disease, should the benefits also be disregarded in the assessment of interest on the damages? In a Scottish case they had been disregarded but in an English case the judge’s disregard of the benefits before calculating interest had been reversed by the Court of Appeal. The House held that both the damages and the calculation of interest on those damages should be disregarded. If Parliament had intended an outcome to the contrary, it could have directed that, in assessing the amount of interest payable, the amount of the award of damages should be treated as reduced by a sum equal to the amount of the recoverable benefits. In the absence of such a provision the appropriate principle was that sums which were treated as irrelevant in assessing damages should not be treated as relevant when interest on the damages was calculated.