Tort

Diminution of life expectancy - negligent failure to diagnose tumour - negligence not causative of claimant's loss

Gregg v Scott: CA (Lords Justices Simon Brown, Mance and Latham): 29 October 2002

The defendant, a medical practitioner, failed to diagnose the claimant's tumour.

On the claimant's action in negligence, the judge found that the defendant's negligence had resulted in a delay in the treatment of the tumour which had reduced the claimant's chances of survival to 25%, but held that the claimant was not entitled to recover damages against the defendant.

The claimant appealed.

Simeon Maskrey QC and Julian Matthews (instructed by Park Woodfine, Bedford) for the claimant; William Edis (instructed by the Medical Defence Union) for the defendant.

Held, dismissing the appeal (Lord Justice Latham dissenting), that the class of loss in respect of which the claim was made was diminution of life expectancy; that the claimant had failed to show, as required by Hotson v East Berkshire Health Authority [1987] AC 750, that the defendant's negligence had caused his loss, in the sense that he was not already going to suffer the loss, independently of the defendant's negligence; and that, therefore, the claim failed.