Hospital applied to strike out clinical negligence claim brought by roofer treated after accident at work
- Aug 3, 2016
- EmmaArnold
The claimant fell through a skylight at work and sustained serious injuries including spinal fractures. That was bad enough but then, very sadly, negligent hospital treatment left him paraplegic and in a wheelchair.
He claimed the whole of his losses (over £3,000,000) from the roofing company but settled that claim for £400,000 as he accepted a deduction of 80% for him being partly to blame for the accident and because there was a risk that his claim might fail altogether.
He then started court proceedings against the negligent hospital to obtain the rest of his damages. Somewhat late in the day, the hospital issued an application to strike out the claim as an abuse of court process.
Happily, the judge dismissed the application, noting the general principle that a settlement with one concurrent wrongdoer does not release the others unless it is clear that the settlement was intended to have that effect, or unless the payment clearly satisfies the whole claim. That did not apply here as the settlement was for only 20% of the full value of the claim.
Jeremy Smith, solicitor at PotterReesDolan, said:
This is a situation we come across quite often. Our approach would usually be to start proceedings against both at the same time and reach a universal settlement to avoid any such arguments.