Death benefits disregarded

Arnup v MW White Ltd CA TLR 25 June

Parliament’s intention in passing s 4 of the Fatal Accidents Act 1976, as substituted by s3(1) of the Administration of Justice Act 1982 was to continue and complete the legislative trend towards greater disregard of benefits, culminating in the substituted section, which provided that all benefits resulting from the deaths were to be disregarded. Where a person who might be sued and held liable for a death wished to make an ex-gratia payment, but wished to have it taken into account when damages were assessed, he would have to make the payment subject to that stipulation, so that it would not be a benefit caught by s4, but a conditional payment on account. In the present case, payments to a widow from a death in service benefit scheme, and a trust fund established by her husband’s employer, were to be disregarded when assessing damages following an admission of liability.