Hotson v East Berkshire Area Health Authority [1987] AC 750
Judgement for the case Hotson v East Berkshire Area Health Authority
Table Of Contents
Plaintiff was injured and taken to hospital where there was a negligent failure to treat him.
He later developed a more serious injury from the initial one, and the trial judge found that there was a 25% chance that if Plaintiff had been treated on time the latter injury would have been prevented. The trial judge had awarded him 25% of the value of his injury.
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HL reversed this and held that it was for Plaintiff to prove on the balance of probabilities that the negligence of Defendant caused his later more serious injury.
Since he had not, his claim for that injury was dismissed.
Lord Bridge
Since, if Plaintiff proved on the balance of probabilities (i.e. 51%) that the negligence caused his injury, he would be entitled to the full amount and not merely 51% of it.
Therefore it would be unjust to make Defendant pay a proportion of this where he had not reached the evidentiary threshold.
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