Wood v Bentall Simplex Ltd
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 27 February 1992 |
| Date | 27 February 1992 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
Court of Appeal
Before Lord Justice Fox, Lord Justice Staughton and Lord Justice Beldam
Damages - Fatal Accidents Act - benefits from estate disregarded
In assessing damages in a claim brought by a dependant under the Fatal Accidents Act 1976, as amended by the Administration of Justice Act 1982, it was irrelevant that there might be established a loss from one source which might be made good from another by using a benefit from the deceased's estate, since section 4 required the court to disregard those benefits accruing to the dependants from the estate.
The Court of Appeal so held in reserved judgments dismissing the appeal of Bentall Simplex Ltd against the judgment of Mr Justice Leonard on April 27, 1989, awarding Linda Mary Wood the sum of £224,593 in her claim for damages as the widow of of Roger Wood for her benefit and for the benefit of her two children under the 1976 Act.
Mr Bernard Livesey, QC, for the appellant; Mr Roger Hetherington for Mrs Wood.
LORD JUSTICE BELDAM said that an accident occurred in February 1983 at Land Farm, Hewish, near Weston-super-Mare on the family farm in which the deceased was a partner.
A farm employee, having entered an underground tank, part of a slurry storage system, to retrieve a core valve, was overcome by lack of oxygen and fell back into the tank. The deceased went to his rescue but was also overcome. Both died from asphyxia due to lack of oxygen probably as a result of gases in the tank.
The farm was run by the deceased and his brother efficiently and successfully as a dairy farm and had begun to diversify into beef production. The deceased was an experienced farmer and the profits were shared equally between him, the brother and their parents.
The judge found that the accident was solely the fault of the appellant, the maufacturers of a system for collection and storage of slurry.
He found was that the deceased did not know, nor should he as a reasonably prudent farmer have appreciated at that time, the risk from the concentration of gases.
The appellant contended that the amount calculated as the loss to the deceased's widow and two sons, as dependants, should be reduced by taking into account the income from assets which passed to them on the intestacy of the deceased and as a result of his death.
Moreover, Mr Livesey submitted, the court should read sections 3 and 4 of the 1976 Act together so that the court's first task was to assess the damages...
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Patricia Georgina Grant (widow and executrix of the estate of Douglas Michael Grant, deceased) v The Secretary of State for Transport
...as a result of his death shall be disregarded". 57 Mr Limb relied on three authorities. The decision of the Court of Appeal in Wood v Bentall Simplex Ltd [1992] PIQR P332 addresses the situation where the income on which the claimant is dependant is derived from assets that she stands to in......
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Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust v Williams
...the deceased had supported the dependant, passed to her under the deceased's will. He referred particularly to Wood v Bentall Simplex [1992] 1 PIQR 332 at pages 348–9. In that case, the deceased was a farmer in partnership with his parents and brother. The partnership assets were worth abou......
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Darby v National Trust
...should have been foreseen. Failures which are not causative do not give rise to a liability in negligence (see Wood v Benthal Cimpex [1992] 1 PIQR 332). 26In my judgement the risks to competent swimmers of swimming in this pond from which Mr Darby so unfortunately succumbed were perfectly o......
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Steve Hill Ltd v Mrs Sarah Witham (Widow and Executrix of the Estate of Neil Witham, deceased)
...court's approach to the assessment of loss under the FAA has been considered in a number of authorities. Wood v Bentall Simplex Limited [1992] PIQR 332 (CA) 15 Beldam LJ at p.342 stated: “No aspect of the law of damages has been found in practice to be more dependent upon the facts of each ......
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Latest Word On Fatal Accidents
...fall in earnings to reflect the effects of inflation.' This confirms a previous line of cases including Wood v Bentall Simplex Limited [1992] PIQR 332 (CA), Cape Distribution v O'Loughlin [2001] EWCA Civ 178, and Williams v Welsh Ambulance [2008] EWCA Civ 81. In Rix, the Court of Appeal und......
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Latest Word On Fatal Accidents
...fall in earnings to reflect the effects of inflation.' This confirms a previous line of cases including Wood v Bentall Simplex Limited [1992] PIQR 332 (CA), Cape Distribution v O'Loughlin [2001] EWCA Civ 178, and Williams v Welsh Ambulance [2008] EWCA Civ 81. In Rix, the Court of Appeal und......