Page v smith PDF

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Page v Smith 

C involved in a collision with the D whilst both were driving

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C suffered no physical injuries as a result of the crash but, several hours later, he felt exhausted & the exhaustion had not abated

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For a number of years prior to the accident C suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome, the symptoms of which manifested sporadically

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C brought an action claiming damages for personal injury caused by the negligence of D, in that, as a result of the collision, his condition had since become both chronic and permanent, making it unlikely that he would be able to pursue full-time employment in the future

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D was found liable and COA allowed his appeal on the ground that C’s injury was not reasonably foreseeable and leave was given to remit the case to HOL

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Issue-if in a claim brought in negligence for psychiatric damage caused by D, it was necessary to establish that this particular type of harm was a foreseeable consequence of D’s negligence, or whether would suffice merely that some form of compensatable harm was foreseeable, such as a physical injury

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Held-HOL in favour of C-provided it was reasonably foreseeable C would suffer some physical injury as a result of D’s negligence, it was not necessary the type of harm caused was itself reasonably foreseeable=C was thus within the ambit of Ds DOC

There was no need to establish psychiatric injury foreseeable. Also the fact that an ordinary person would not have suffered the injury was irrelevant as D must take his victim as he finds him under the thin skull rule....