Law o tort Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Law o tort - Essay Example Stevenson 1932). The claimant should prove that the negligent behaviour of the defendant has caused injury or loss in order to win the case. in the case of North Glamorgan N.H.S. Trust v Walters, it can be seen that the defendant was negligent in that the â€Å"claimant's infant son developed an epileptic fit as a result of the admitted negligence of the defendant trust, which caused irreparable brain damage and death when the child's life support system was turned off.† The act of turning off the support system aggravated the problem and this led to the claimant suffering a pathological grief reaction. The claimant is a secondary victim and is entitled to claim damages as a result of the horrific experience she encountered at the hospital. The psychiatric injury experienced by the claimant is a direct result of the action of the medical staff at the hospital and this is the reason why she is entitled to get damages. Though the defendant does not directly accept the charges, t he facts are so glaring that it can be seen that they are responsible for the illness experienced by the claimant after the horrific incidence. 3. a. ... The harm is a direct result of the actions of the medical staff and these factors were taken into consideration by the trial judge. b. The control mechanism that was in dispute is that the 36 hour period involving all the events that transpired could be held in law as one horrifying event. The defendant also argues that the judge erred when he concluded that the case was sudden since it transpired over a certain period of time that was characterised by changing events. However, the judge upheld that the control mechanisms were satisfied by the claimant in this particular case. . 4. a. The ground for appeal by North Glamorgan N.H.S. Trust is that the judge expanded the control mechanism involved in the case. In other words, the defendants are saying that the judge did not take into account the provisions of the law with regards to the facts that should be considered in case of a secondary victim suffering psychiatric harm as a result of the actions of the defendant. The defendants als o argue that the mother appreciated the removal of the life support system from the child which led to his death. The dependents also tried to invoke certain sections of public policy but it was established that the judge did not take any incremental position in passing the judgement in favour of the claimant. b. The Lord Justice Ward considered the issues that constituted the necessary event in dismissing the appeal by the defendants. The events took place in a progressive way which led the judge to believe that there was an element of secondary causation of psychiatric injury to the claimant. The other issue that was taken into consideration by the judge is that the aspects of proximity in terms of time and relationship between the two