Yearworth and others v North Bristol NHS Trust
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
| Judgment Date | 04 February 2009 |
| Neutral Citation | [2009] EWCA Civ 37 |
| Date | 04 February 2009 |
Court of Appeal
Before Lord Judge, Lord Chief Justice, Sir Anthony Clarke. Master of the Rolls and Lord Justice Wilson
Yearworth and Others
and
North Bristol NHS Trust
Supplier of sperm sample has property interest in it
A sample of sperm from a person undergoing chemotherapy, which a hospital stored in case he became infertile after the treatment, was that person's property and its loss or damage was capable of establishing a claim in negligence.
Further, where the hospital's storage was undertaken gratuitously in the sense that it was a bailee of the sperm, any breach of duty in its safe storage causing loss or damage entitled the owner to recover damages in bailment for psychiatric injury and/or mental distress.
The Court of Appeal so held in a reserved judgment when it allowed the appeal of the claimants, Jonathan Yearworth, James Denslow, Martin Lee, Paul Ritchie, Julie Smith, as executrix of Jeremy Michael Smith, and Christopher Waddleton, against the judgment of Judge Griggs in Exeter County Court on M arch 12, 2008, when he held, inter alia, on preliminary issues that the claimants' sperm samples were not owned by them, and that they were not entitled to damages for loss of or damage to the samples or in respect of psychiatric injury. The Court of Appeal remitted the case to the county court for determination of further factual matters.
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17 cases
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Richard Holdich V. Lothian Health Board
...or female, intended for in vitro fertilisation as part of the subject's body, or possibly bodies in the case of unimplanted embryos? In Yearworth the Court of Appeal noticed the German law theory of the "functional unity" [eine funktionale einheit] of stored gametes with the living body. Th......
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Natixis S.A. v Marex Financial
...(as to the nature of a claim in bailment see East West Corpn v DKBS AF 1912 A/S [2003] QB 1509 at [24]–[32] and Yearworth v North Bristol NHS Trust [2010] QB 1 at [48]). Liability in bailment has been said to be sui generis and is separate from any liability in tort (and the measure of dama......
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Kimathi and Others v The Foreign and Commonwealth Office
...(1) – (2) below. 10 See (3) below. 11 Walkin v South Manchester Health Authority [1995] 4 All E.R. 132 at 139j. 12 Yearworth v North Bristol NHS Trust [2010] Q.B. 1 at para 23. The “not merely mental distress but a psychiatric injury, namely a mild or moderate depressive disorder” (para 10)......
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Hocking v Director-General of the National Archives of Australia
...Property Rights”, in Penner and Smith (eds), Philosophical Foundations of Property Law (2013) 219 at 233–234, discussing Yearworth v North Bristol NHS Trust [2010] QB 195 Leigh and Sillavan Ltd v Aliakmon Shipping Co Ltd [1986] AC 785 at 809, quoted in R G and T J Anderson Pty Ltd v Chambe......
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2 firm's commentaries
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Is human tissue 'property'? Jocelyn Edwards; Re the estate of the late Mark Edwards [2011] NSWSC 478
...Justice Hulme was assisted by the Court of Appeal of England and Wales' decision in Yearworth and others v North Bristol NHS Trust [2009] EWCA Civ 37 which held that sperm samples can be categorised as property. In Yearworth, six men were diagnosed with cancer and, prior to undergoing treat......
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Genetic Material As Property: Rethinking The Common Law View
...rethinking. One of the recent cases reviewed by the court was the U.K. case of Jonathan Yearworth & Ors v. North Bristol NHS Trust, [2009] EWCA Civ 37. In this case, six men who had stored sperm samples sued when the liquid nitrogen in the tanks used to store the samples fell below the ......
17 books & journal articles
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The ‘Chimera’ of Parenthood
...(2019) 68 EHRR 20 at [60].85 [2011] 1 FLR 1883.86 See for example J. Herring,Medical Law and Ethics (Oxford: OUP,8th ed, 2020) ch 8.87 [2009] EWCA Civ 37; [2010] QB 1.88 M. Johnson, ‘A Biomedical Perspective on Parenthood’ in A. Bainham, S. Day Sclater and M.Richards (eds), What is a Parent......
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Table of cases
...v Zhu, 2013 BCCA 352 .........................................................................348 Yearworth v North Bristol NHS Trust, [2009] 2 All ER 986 (CA)....................... 69 Yepremian v Scarborough General Hospital (1980), 28 OR (2d) 494, [1980] OJ No 3592 (CA) .......................
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Table of Cases
...19, 62 Yaxley v Gotts, [1999] EWCA Civ 3006, [2000] Ch 162 ................................... 227 Yearworth v North Bristol NHS Trust, [2009] EWCA Civ 37, [2010] QB 1 ........ 12 Yorkshire Railway Wagon Co v Maclure (1882), 21 Ch D 309 (CA) ..................111 Young v Hichens (1844), 6 Q......
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Negligence: Basic Principles
...It enacted the Damages (Asbestos-related Conditions) Scotland Act 2009 allowing liability for pleural plaques. 111 [2018] UKSC 18. 112 [2009] 2 All ER 986 (CA) [ Yearworth ]. 113 Yearworth has been followed in Canada. Human tissue, once removed from the body, has been characterized as perso......
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