Court of appeal awards additional £100,000 in claim against GHA

The Court of Appeal has awarded a man an additional £100,000 in an appeal against the GHA.

The claimant had dislocated his left shoulder in a traffic accident in 2019. 

The GHA failed to identify the problem for three months, resulting in him having to have three operations and a total shoulder replacement.

The claimant now has a permanent disability and only around 50% use of his shoulder. Experts agree the shoulder is likely to deteriorate in the future and that he will almost certainly require further  operations.  They found a 5% risk that he may lose total use of his shoulder altogether.

After a four day trial in the Supreme Court, the judge, Mr Justice Yeats, awarded the claimant total damages of £386,000.  This was made up of damages for past and future care; past financial loss; pain, suffering and loss of amenity;cost of future surgery; future loss of earnings; and future loss of pension contributions.

The GHA did not dispute liability and the appeal centred solely on the loss of earnings and future pension loss, which made up half the award.

The appellant argued Mr Justice Yeats had erred in law in his choice of methodology for the calculations.

The Appeal judges found Mr Yeats had acted correctly, describing his judgment as “impressive and thorough,” but they concluded this aspect of the award should have been higher, raising it to £295,000 from the original pay-out of £195,000, thereby increasing the overall award to £486,000.