Misa Zgonec-Rozej & Ors v Dr Stephen Pereira & Ors
[2023] EWHC 2501 (KB)
Paul and another v Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust
11 January 2024
[2024] UKSC 1
Supreme Court
Three families sued doctors for making them sick from witnessing loved ones die due to medical mistakes. The court said you can only sue if you saw the accident that caused the death, not just the death itself, even if it was very upsetting. So, the families lost.
Key Facts
- •Three conjoined appeals involving claims for psychiatric injury by close relatives of patients who died due to alleged medical negligence.
- •In Paul, daughters witnessed their father's sudden death from a heart attack after the hospital's alleged failure to diagnose coronary artery disease.
- •In Polmear, parents witnessed their daughter's death from pulmonary veno-occlusive disease, allegedly due to the hospital's failure to diagnose.
- •In Purchase, a mother found her daughter's body shortly after death from pneumonia, allegedly due to a doctor's negligent failure to diagnose.
Legal Principles
Common law generally does not recognize legally compensable interest in the well-being of another.
Baker v Bolton (1808) 1 Camp 493; Admiralty Comrs v SS Amerika [1917] AC 38; D v East Berkshire Community Health NHS Trust [2005] UKHL 23
Fatal Accidents Act 1976 allows certain dependants to sue for financial loss and bereavement but not for physical or psychological harm.
Fatal Accidents Act 1976
Common law recognizes damages for personal injury from witnessing wrongful death or injury of a loved one, typically psychiatric illness.
Common law
McLoughlin, Alcock, and Frost established requirements for psychiatric illness claims related to another's death or injury.
McLoughlin v O’Brian [1983] 1 AC 410; Alcock v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police [1992] 1 AC 310; Frost v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire [1999] 2 AC 455
A doctor owes a duty of care to their patient but the question is whether that extends to close relatives witnessing the patient's death or injury due to negligence.
Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562
Outcomes
Appeals dismissed.
Claims failed because claimants did not witness an accident (or its immediate aftermath) as required by established case law. The court found no duty of care extended from the doctor to the relatives witnessing a medical crisis.
Taylor v A Novo (UK) Ltd [2013] EWCA Civ 194 upheld.
The Court of Appeal's decision in Taylor v A Novo, which denied a claim for psychiatric injury caused by witnessing a death that followed an accident, was deemed correct. Witnessing the immediate aftermath of the accident causing the primary injury, not a subsequent separate event, is necessary.
Walters distinguished and implicitly overruled.
Walters, which allowed a claim where the claimant witnessed a drawn-out medical crisis, was distinguished and deemed wrongly decided based on the core principle that a witnessed accident is necessary.