Today, the UK Supreme Court corrected a historic injustice, permitting at long last, by majority decision (four to one), children injured by medical negligence to recover damages for the years of their life lost by reason of the negligent care. In doing so the UK’s highest court found a 1981 Court of Appeal decision, which disallowed just such a claim, to be “incorrect”.
“Damages for Lost Years” is compensation awarded to living personal injury plaintiffs whose life expectancy has been reduced by a defendant’s negligence, compensating them for projected financial loss, including earnings and pension, during the period they would have lived but for the injury.
The decision comes after an 11-year-old child, known as CCC for the purposes of the proceedings, sued Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust after developing cerebral palsy following a severe brain injury.
In 2023, a High Court judge awarded CCC £6.8 million in damages but declined to award damages for the years of CCC’s life that would be lost because of the negligence. The child’s mother appealed that refusal leading ultimately to today’s decision.
In recognising the right to claim such damages, reflecting amongst other matters loss of earnings, the Court took the view distinguishing cases taken by adults, who could recover in those circumstances, with children, who could not, “has no basis in legal principle”.
“…(T)here is no principled basis for drawing a distinction between claimants with and without dependants. Lost years damages are designed to compensate the claimant for her own loss, not anyone else’s, and the claimant’s right to damages does not depend on how she might choose to use them…”
The Judgment and the press summary can be found at the following link – https://lnkd.in/er-DKEia