Damages

Public policy - unsuccessful sterilisation operation negligently performed - mother of subsequently born severely disabled child entitled to damages for special upbringing costsParkinson v St James and Seacroft University Hospital NHS Trust: CA (Lords Justice Brooke and Hale and Sir Martin Nourse):11 April 2001In 1993 the mother underwent an operation for sterilisation.

The defendant NHS trust admitted that it had been negligently carried out.

Subsequently the mother gave birth to her fifth child, who was born with significant disabilities.On her claim for damages the judge, dealing with a preliminary issue, held that the mother was entitled to recover the costs of providing for her child's special needs and care relating to the disability, but not the basic costs of the child's maintenance.

The defendant appealed and the mother cross-appealed.Jeremy Stuart-Smith QC and Christina Lambert (instructed by Hempsons) for the defendant.

Richard Hone QC and Margaret Bickford-Smith (instructed by Levi & Co, Leeds) for the mother.Held, dismissing the appeal and the cross appeal, that the House of Lords had held that parents were not entitled to damages for the costs of bringing up a healthy child conceived after the father's unsuccessful vasectomy, and the same applied to a failed sterilisation operation; that an exception existed in the case of a claim for the special upbringing expenses associated with the birth of a child with severe disabilities; and that the tests of foreseeability and proximity were satisfied and an award of compensation limited to the special upbringing costs which the mother would incur in rearing the child was justified as being fair and reasonable.

(WLR)