Brain Damage Compensation Claim

Daglish V Ministry Of Defence (2004)

QBD (Michael Yelton) 29/10/2004

Personal Injury - Negligence

Causation : Effective Cause : Personality Disorders : Road Traffic Accidents : Effective Cause Of Mental Illness : Date Of Onset Of Schizophrenia : Organic Personality Disorder : Chronic Schizophrenia : Brain Injury : Psychotic Illness

On the evidence, the claimant had sustained an organic personality disorder as a result of suffering a brain injury in a road traffic accident.

The claimant (D) sought damages from the defendant (MOD) for injuries sustained in a road traffic accident. D was in the Royal Marines when he was injured in a road traffic accident. He sustained a severe head injury when a service car, driven by one of his colleagues, overturned. Some months after the accident, D began to exhibit signs of a mental illness that eventually led to him being unable to fulfil his military duties.

The MOD admitted liability and the only remaining issue related to whether the accident was relevant to the development of D's mental illness. D submitted that his mental illness directly resulted from the head injury he sustained in the accident. The MOD contended that D was already suffering from a condition of chronic schizophrenia before the accident.

HELD: On the evidence there was no possibility that D had been suffering from the early stages of development of his mental illness prior to the date of the accident. D had suffered a traumatic brain injury in the accident. As a consequence of the brain injury he had sustained an organic personality disorder leading to behavioural disturbance, impairment of his judgment and difficulties in solving problems. D had also developed a psychotic illness as part of the organic personality disorder.

Judgment for claimant.
LTL 4/11/2004 (Unreported elsewhere)
Document No. AC0101129