Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Secondary victim clinical negligence claims curtailed: horrifying event must be linked to breach: Court of Appeal (England and Wales) in Paul v Royal Wolverhampton follows Taylor v A Novo

Published on: 18 January 2022

Published by a LexisNexis PI & Clinical Negligence expert

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Table of contents

What are the practical implications of this case?
What was the background?
What did the court decide?
Case details

Article summary

Paul and another v Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and others [2022] EWCA Civ 12

What are the practical implications of this case?

Before Paul, pinning down when a claimant could recover for a shocking event was problematic, as two Court of Appeal authorities—Walters v North Glamorgan NHS Trust [2002] EWCA Civ 1792 and Taylor v A Novo (UK) Ltd [2013] EWCA Civ 194—were difficult to reconcile. In Paul, the Court of Appeal determined that Taylor is controlling and that it requires the shocking event to be linked to the defendant’s breach of duty. That stance produces such manifest unfairness that the Court of Appeal has indicated it is minded to grant permission to appeal. Consequently, any claimant advancing a secondary victim claim affected by Paul would be well advised to defer issuing their...

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