Kelly v Glasgow Corporation
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Lord Simonds,Lord Normand,Lord Morton of Henryton,Lord MacDermott,Lord Reid |
| Judgment Date | 07 February 1951 |
| Judgment citation (vLex) | [1951] UKHL J0207-2 |
| Date | 07 February 1951 |
| Court | House of Lords |
| Docket Number | No. 2. |
[1951] UKHL J0207-2
House of Lords
Lord Simonds
Lord Normand
Lord Morton of Henryton
Lord MacDermott
Lord Reid
Upon Report from the Appellate Committee, to whom was referred the Cause Corporation of City of Glasgow against Kelly, that the Committee had heard Counsel on Tuesday the 5th day of December last, upon the Petition and Appeal of the Corporation of the City of Glasgow, of City Chambers, George Square, Glasgow, praying, That the matter of the Interlocutor set forth in the Schedule thereto, namely, an Interlocutor of the Lords of Session in Scotland, of the First Division of the 17th of June 1949, might be reviewed before His Majesty the King, in His Court of Parliament, and that the said Interlocutor might be reversed, varied or altered, or that the Petitioners might have such other relief in the premises as to His Majesty the King, in His Court of Parliament, might seem meet; as also upon the printed Case of Patrick Kelly, lodged in answer to the said Appeal; and due consideration had this day of what was offered on either side in this Cause:
It is Ordered and Adjudged, by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, in the Court of Parliament of His Majesty the King assembled. That the said Interlocutor of the 17th day of June 1949, complained of in the said Appeal, be, and the same is hereby, Affirmed, and that the said Petition and Appeal be, and the same is hereby, dismissed this House: And it is further Ordered, That the Appellants do pay, or cause to be paid, to the said Respondent the Costs incurred by him in respect of the said Appeal, the amount thereof to be certified by the Clerk of the Parliaments: And it is also further Ordered, That unless the Costs, certified as aforesaid, shall be paid to the party entitled to the same within one calendar month from the date of the certificate thereof, the Cause shall be, and the same is hereby, remitted back to the Court of Session in Scotland, or to the Judge acting as Vacation Judge, to issue such Summary Process or Diligence for the recovery of such Costs as shall be lawful and necessary.
My Lords,
This is an appeal which has nothing to commend it. The facts are not in dispute: the only question arises on the amount of damages by way of solatium awarded by the learned Judges of the First Division of the Court of Session to the husband and the children of an unfortunate woman who met her death as the result of an accident for which the Appellant corporation was partly liable. I say "partly liable", for the Lord Ordinary held that the deceased and the driver of the Appellant's omnibus were both in fault and that the negligence of each contributed in equal measure to the accident.
The deceased was survived by her husband and 5 children, Mary, John, Rossina, Arthur and Timothy whose ages were 13, 9, 8, 7 and 5. The husband died within a year of his wife after he had commenced proceedings on behalf of himself and his infant children and the proceedings were continued by his brother the first Respondent to this appeal. The Lord Ordinary assessed the damages in the case of the husband at £150 and in the case of each child at £100, a total of £650 which was halved as the result of the previous finding of equal fault.
Upon appeal to the First Division of the Court of Session the damages were increased to a total of £1.500 made up of £250 for the husband and £150, £200, £250, £300 and £350 for the children starting from the eldest and going down to the youngest. These sums also had to be halved as the finding of equal fault was not challenged.
My Lords, I have, I hope, given every consideration to the arguments advanced by the Appellant for disturbing the decision of the Court of Session and in the result am satisfied that your Lordships would have no justification for doing so. It is apparent from the opinions of the learned Lord President and Lord Russell (with whom Lord Carmont and Lord Keith concurred) that all material factors were taken into account and that, properly applying the broad principles which are applicable to such a case, they arrived at a figure which could not by any means be described as excessive or extravagant. In doing so they did not infringe any principle or rule of practice in regard to the interference by an Appellate Court with the assessment of damage by the trial Judge. Since we are affirming their decision. I do not think it...
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