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England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Decisions |
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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Decisions >> Ward v Allies and Morrison Architects [2012] EWCA Civ 1287 (10 October 2012) URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2012/1287.html Cite as: [2012] EWCA Civ 1287 |
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ON APPEAL FROM COVENTRY COUNTY COURT
HIS HONOUR JUDGE CLEARY
9CV02731
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL |
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B e f o r e :
LORD JUSTICE KITCHIN
and
SIR RICHARD BUXTON
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Ward |
Appellant |
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- and - |
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Allies and Morrison Architects |
Respondent |
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Rohan Pershad QC and Robert Lazarus (instructed by DWF) for the Respondent
Hearing dates : 14th of June 2012
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Crown Copyright ©
Lord Justice Aikens :
The Issues on appeal
The Judge's findings of fact and conclusions
"There is no hyper-sensitivity and she is able to touch the tip of the fingers with the thumb but pinch grip between the thumb and index is very poor. Function effectively is between thumb and middle finger and, as she says, the index finger is largely cosmetic. The rest of the hand is entirely normal with normal grip strength and she uses it in the normal way to demonstrate things. She tends to rely on the middle finger to position the hand when she is doing things in low light intensity. Examining the left middle finger this seems to have recovered very well from the dislocation but she does have some slight loss of movement…"[7]
The arguments and issues on appeal
Issue One: did the judge err in adopting the Blamire approach when awarding damages for loss of future earnings?
Issue Two: For the purposes of applying the conventional multiplicand/multiplier and Ogden 6, is the appellant to be regarded as suffering from a disability?
"There will be situations where it will be appropriate to use the factors as set out in the Section B tables to calculate a claimant's residual earning capacity on a multiplier/multiplicand basis. However, in many cases it will be appropriate to increase or reduce the discount in the tables to take account of the nature of a particular claimant's disabilities. There will also be some cases where the Smith v Manchester Corporation[29] or Blamire approach remains applicable. There may still be cases where a precise mathematical approach is inapplicable".
The point made in the last two sentences of paragraph 14 is repeated at the end of paragraph 31 of the Introduction.
The definition of employed/not employed, disabled/not disabled and educational attainment used in this analysis and which should be used for determining which factors to apply to the multipliers to allow for contingencies other than mortality are as follows:
……
Disabled: A person is classified as being disabled if all three of the following conditions in relation to the ill-health or disability are met:
has either a progressive illness or an illness which has lasted or is expected to last for over a year;
satisfies the Disability Discrimination Act definition that the impact of the disability substantially limits the person's ability to carry out normal day to day activities;
and
their condition affects either the kind or the amount of paid work they can do.
Not disabled: All others.
Issue Three: Did the judge err with regard to the award for psychiatric injury?
Issue Four: Did the judge err with regard to the award for the loss of past earnings?
Conclusions and Disposal
Lord Justice Kitchin:
Sir Richard Buxton:
Note 1 Blamire v South Cumbria Health Authority [1993] PIQR Q1 [Back] Note 7 [7] of the judgment. [Back] Note 25 See, eg. remarks of Ward and Keene LJJ in Bullock v Atlas Ward Structures Ltd [2008] EWCA Civ 194 at [17] and [21] respectively. Richards LJ agreed with both judgments. [Back] Note 27 There was evidence that these jobs were freelance for the most part. Mr Tindall had said he had been unable to carry on as a theatrical model maker through lack of a regular income. [Back] Note 29 (1974) KIR 1. Uncertainty of future employment and weaker position in the competitive labour market as a result of disability caused by the defendant’s negligence to be taken into account when awarding damages for loss of future earnings. [Back] Note 30 These indicate a range of £2,654.24 to £5,512.65 for “Minor” PTSD where “a virtually full recovery will have been made within one or two years and only minor symptoms will persist over any longer period”. [Back]