Gary James Webster & Ors v Treloars Trust
| Court | King's Bench Division |
| Judge | SENIOR MASTER COOK |
| Judgment Date | 11 March 2025 |
| Neutral Citation | [2025] EWHC 516 (KB) |
| Date | 11 March 2025 |
| Year | 2025 |
| Counsel | Smith Kc,Celia Oldham,Toby Riley Smith Kc |
Neutral Citation Number: [2025] EWHC 516 (KB)
Case No: QB-2022-000236
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
KING’S BENCH DIVISION
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
Date:11 March 2025
Before :
SENIOR MASTER COOK
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Between :
GARY JAMES WEBSTER & OTHERS
Applicants
- and -
TRELOARS TRUST
Respondent
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Andrew Goddard KC (instructed by Collins Solicitors) for the Claimants
Toby Riley-Smith KC and Celia Oldham (instructed by Veale Wasbrough Vizards LLP)
for the Defendants
Hearing date: 26 February 2025
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Approved Judgment
This judgment was handed down remotely at 10.30am on 11 March 2025 by circulation to the
parties or their representatives by e-mail and by release to the National Archives
(see eg https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2022/1169.html).
.............................
SENIOR MASTER COOK
SENIOR MASTER COOK
Approved Judgment
Gary James Webster & Ors v Treloars Trust
Senior Master Cook:
The application
1. This is the hearing of the Applicants’ application for a Group Litigation Order [GLO].
The GLO is sought on behalf of a group of 63 prospective claimants who are either
former pupils of Treloar’s College who were infected with HIV and/or hepatitis by
NHS blood products; or are people infected with such viruses by a former pupil; or are
their estates or dependents.
2. The application is made by way of Part 23 application notice issued on 24 January
2022, at a point prior to the issue of any claim form, as is permitted by CPR 19.22 (1),
which provides that a court may make a GLO where there are or are likely to be a
number of claims giving rise to GLO issues.
3. The Court has been provided with the following evidence:
(i) Witness statement of Desmond Collins (1) dated 21 January 2022 on behalf of the
applicants.
(ii) Witness statement of Natalie Wargent dated 17 February 2025 on behalf of the
Respondent.
(iii) Witness statement of Desmond Collins (2) dated 21 February 2025 on behalf of the
applicants.
The parties and the background to these potential claims
4. The Respondent is a charity which operates the Treloar School and College in Alton
Hampshire [the College]. It is common ground that the College was established as the
Lord Mayor Treloar Hospital and College in 1908. At its inception it was a hospital to
treat children of both sexes up to the age of 12 who were suffering from tuberculosis
disease of the bones or joints. The NHS took over running the hospital in 1948,
acquiring 75% of the Trust’s funds in the process. The institution continued until the
hospital closed in 1994.
5. It is helpful at this stage to provide some context for what occurred at the college to
give rise to these potential claims. The following is a summary of content from the final
report of Sir Brian Langstaff Chairman of the Infected Blood Inquiry [the IBI Report]
which was published on 20 May 2024, as set out in the Applicant’s skeleton argument.
This Inquiry was set up in 2018 to undertake a detailed investigation into the
circumstances in which men, women and children treated by national Health Services
in the United Kingdom were given infected blood and infected blood products, in
particular since 1970.
“(ii) By the 1960s the school had attracted a number of
haemophiliacs children, which increased to the extent that, by
the late 1970s, the school came to house a haemophilia centre.
A distinguishing feature of this centre was that the pupil cohort
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