First Reported Decision On A Secondary Victim Claim Involving A Child

Introduction

The recent English decision in the case of Megan Tanner (a child by her father and litigation friend) v Sarkar (2017) LTL 4 April (HHJ Buckingham, Hull CC) is the first reported secondary victim claim involving a child. The decision provides further insight on the proximity test arising from the Alcock control mechanisms particularly in clinical negligence cases.

Facts

The Plaintiff was a child (aged 16 at trial and aged 5 at the time of the relevant events). A claim was brought arguing that she sustained a psychiatric injury after witnessing the incidents surrounding her brother’s death between 16 and 19 December 2004. This included seeing an ambulance arrive to her house to take her brother away and seeing his body in the hospital mortuary and at the funeral home. This was after the Defendant GP’s was negligent in failing to urgently to refer her brother for hospital treatment for sepsis the day previous.