Psychiatric Harm Flashcards
(8 cards)
Hicks V CC of South Yorkshire 1992
Grief or anxiety does not suffice
It has to be an illness
Rothwell 2008
Claimant was exposed to asbestos and developed pleural plaques
There was no physical injury but concern about developing cancer caused clinical depression
Depression was not reasonably foreseeable and the pleural plaques would not have caused a person of ordinary fortitude to become mentally ill
Bourhill v Young 1943
Psychiatric injury suffered must be reasonably foreseeable in a person of ordinary fortitude.
Claimant heard the sound of collision but did not see it.
Dooley v Cammell Laird 1951
Claimant was operating a crane at the docks and due to an employees negligence the sling of load snapped.
Successful claim for psychiatric injury from thinking he had injured or killed some of his employees.
Page v Smith 1996
Claimant sued defendant when a car crash caused the claimants ME to reoccur.
Held that where physical harm is reasonably foreseeable that psychiatric harm should also be held to be reasonably foreseeable.
McLoughlin v O’Brian 1983
Claimant turned up at hospital two hours after a car crash involving family members.
Claimant had been at home at the time of the accident, claim was successful as she sufferer severe shock, organic depression and a personality change.
Alcock v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police 1992
- Classless of persons in terms of relationship to victim
- Proximity in time and space
- The means by which the shock is caused
White v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police 1988
Claims brought on by 6 police officers for psychiatric illness after the Hillsborough disaster.
Claimed a special position as rescuers or employees.
Rejected as police officers were not in any danger themselves so were not primary victims or secondary. No duty of care owed by employers in respect of psychiatric injury.
