R v Croydon Health Authority
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 25 November 1997 |
| Date | 25 November 1997 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
Court of Appeal
Before Lord Justice Kennedy, Lord Justice Morritt and Lord Justice Chadwick
Duty of care - employment health test - plaintiff's domestic life outwith scope of duty
Where a health authority radiologist examining a woman as a prospective employee failed to report a serious heart condition, whose symptoms could be exacerbated by pregnancy, and the woman went on to conceive and give birth to a healthy wanted child, there was no loss which could give rise to a claim for damages in respect of the normal expenses of pregnancy and the cost of bringing up the child.
Even if the conception and pregnancy could be regarded as a form of damage, the connection between the breach of duty and the damage was too remote as the radiologist's duty did not extend to the woman's private life.
The Court of Appeal so stated in a reserved judgment when allowing the appeal by Croydon Health Authority against part of the award by Mr Justice Astill of May 15, 1997 of damages to Mrs R.
Mr Robin Stewart, QC and Miss E A Gumbel for Mrs R; Mr Adrian Whitfield, QC and Miss Mary O'Rourke for the health authority.
LORD JUSTICE KENNEDY said that Mr Whitfield submitted that in every case in England in which damages had been awarded for a "wrongful birth" the child had been either not wanted at all or not wanted in its disabled condition.
Partly because of the width of the field it was not possible to devise an approach which would indicate in any given case when the damage was done which enabled the cause of action for personal injuries to accrue. The problem was addressed in Walkin v South Manchester Health AuthorityWLR ([1995] 1 WLR 1543, 1550C, 1553C).
Conception could not always be the touchstone because sometimes in that class of case it preceded the breach of duty, but when the mother wanted both the pregnancy and the healthy child, there was simply no loss which could give rise to a claim for...
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