North Essex District Health Authority v Spargo
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 13 March 1997 |
| Date | 13 March 1997 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
Court of Appeal
Before Lord Justice Nourse, Lord Justice Brooke and Lord Justice Waller
Limitation of actions - date of plaintiff's knowledge of injury - subjective test to be applied
To establish the date of a plaintiff's knowledge as to the causation of his injury for the purposes of the Limitation Act 1980, a subjective test was to be applied: what the plaintiff himself knew and not what would have been the reasonable layman's state of mind in the absence of expert confirmation.
The Court of Appeal so held in reserved judgments allowing an appeal by the defendant, North Essex District Health Authority, from the judgment on the trial of a preliminary issue whereby Mr Justice Collins had declared that the claim of the plaintiff, Jose Ann Spargo, for damages for injury caused as a result of mistaken medical diagnosis was not statute barred by sections 11 and 14 of the 1980 Act.
Mr Terence Coghlan, QC, for the health authority; Mr Simeon Maskrey, QC and Mr Andrew Buchan for the plaintiff.
LORD JUSTICE BROOKE said that the plaintiff, now aged 67, complained that a negligent diagnosis made 22 years ago had led to her being detained in a psychiatric hospital from 1975 until 1981, much longer than was necessary, and had had a catastrophic effect on her life.
In April 1975, having been found wandering about in her nightdress in an emaciated state, she had been compulsorily admitted to hospital. The consultant psychiatrist had diagnosed the plaintiff as suffering from selective brain damage resulting from excessive purging and dieting. It was now common ground that that diagnosis was mistaken.
The writ in the action was issued in 1993, 12 years after the plaintiff's release from hospital. Her charge of professional negligence was based on failure, once the diagnosis was made, to refer her to a neurologist for further investigations including a brain scan.
The judge found that the plaintiff did not have the requisite knowledge for the purposes of section 11(4) of the 1980 Act until a date not more than three years before she issued her writ so that her action was not statute barred.
Section 14(1) provided that references to a person's date of knowledge were "references to the date on which he first had knowledge of the following facts - (a) that the injury in question was significant; and (b) that the injury was attributable in whole or in part to the...
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