Collins v Jones

Damages for personal injury may be recovered where an accident accelerates the onset of pain or disability caused by a pre-existing condition. The claimant is compensated for the period by which the condition was brought forward, rather than for the entire underlying condition.

Psychiatric injury and loss of earning capacity are assessed on the evidence and the balance of probabilities. Where future business opportunities are real but their timing and value are too uncertain for a conventional multiplicand and multiplier, the court may award a global sum for the lost chance.

The claimant was a rear-seat passenger in a collision for which the defendant admitted liability. The accident aggravated severe pre-existing cervical degeneration, leading to surgery, continuing pain, post-traumatic stress disorder and depressive illness.

The principal issues were the extent to which the accident caused or accelerated the claimant’s physical and psychiatric consequences, his likely condition and career absent the accident, and the assessment of past and future loss of earnings and other damages.

1. The accident materially precipitated the claimant’s cervical symptoms and surgery. The pre-existing degeneration would probably have caused painful symptoms and surgery in about 10 years, but the accident brought those consequences forward. Damages were therefore awarded for the accelerated pain, suffering and loss of amenity.
2. The claimant’s post-traumatic stress disorder and depressive illness were causally connected with the accident and its physical consequences. Although he had psychological vulnerabilities, absent a strikingly traumatic event it was improbable that he would have developed a disabling depressive illness before pursuing his career.
3. The claimant was likely to make a substantial but incomplete recovery within about two years and thereafter to resume investment analysis and consultancy on a limited basis. His future earning capacity was assessed by reference to the evidence about his established career, contacts and likely income.
4. The prospect of remunerative directorships and share options was a significant but uncertain chance. Because its timing, amount and duration could not reliably be quantified, a multiplicand-and-multiplier calculation was inappropriate. A global award of £300,000 was made for that lost chance.
5. Damages were assessed at £1,407,523.16 inclusive. The defendant was ordered to pay the claimant’s costs.

First-instance decision. The judgment does not state any prior appellate decision.