Haxton v Philips Electronics UK Ltd [2014] EWCA Civ 4
The facts:
Philips admitted liability for exposing Mr Haxton to asbestos during the
course of his employment as an electrician over many years. He died from mesothelioma within a year of
diagnosis. Then, tragically, and before
her Fatal Accident Act claim was settled, his wife also contracted the same fatal
illness, from having hand washed her husband’s overalls. Her severely diminished life expectancy was
known by the time her dependency claim was quantified. It was common ground that her dependency
claim was properly reduced so as to take her reduced life expectancy into
account. In her own personal injury
claim, she sought to recover the loss in value of her dependency claim in the
first claim, assessed at £200,000. The
insurers disputed her right to recover in the second action what she was not
entitled to in the first.
The decision: The Court of Appeal found in Mrs
Haxton’s favour. An entitlement bestowed
under a statutory right such as the Fatal Accident Act 1976 is a chose in
action and as such any diminution in its value occasioned by the defendant’s
negligence is actionable.
Comment: this decision could also be relevant in
multi-casualty road traffic accident claims where more than one member of a
family are injured and where a dependent dies shortly after the main
breadwinner.
I provide a more detailed analysis of this case is published in the Journal of Personal Injury Law in issue 1 of 2014.
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