Anthony Gold

Get in touch

020 7940 4060

  • People
  • Insights
  • What to Expect
  • Contact Us
Anthony Gold
  • Services
    • Housing And Property Disputes
      • Property Disputes
      • Leasehold Services
      • Services For Commercial Landlords, Tenants And Agents
      • Services For Residential Landlords And Agents
      • Housing And Tenancy Issues
      • Judicial Review
    • Injury And Medical Claims
      • Life Changing Injuries
      • Medical Claims
      • Personal Injury
      • Child Abuse
    • Family And Relationships
      • Starting Relationships
      • Ending Relationships
      • After Relationships End
      • Useful Contacts
      • Religious & Cultural Issues
      • Family Law FAQs
      • Family Dispute Resolution
      • Modern Families And Surrogacy Arrangements
    • Conveyancing, Property & Business Services
      • Business Agreements
      • Business Disagreements
      • Commercial Property
      • Commercial Property Disputes
      • Leasehold Services
      • Residential Property
    • Wills, Estates & Court Of Protection
      • Wills, Trusts And Estates
      • Claims Against Trusts And Estates
      • Capacity And Court Of Protection
    • Dispute Resolution & Employment Law
      • Personal Claims
      • Professional Negligence
      • Business Disagreements
      • Claims Against Trusts And Estates
      • Employment
    • People
    • Insights
    • What to Expect
    • Contact Us
  • Get in touch

    020 7940 4060

  • Housing and Property Disputes
  • Injury and Medical Claims
  • Family and Relationships
  • Conveyancing, Property & Business Services
  • Wills, Estates & Court of Protection
  • Dispute Resolution & Employment Law
  • Property disputes
  • Ownership disputes and shares in property
  • Challenging the decisions of councils and public bodies
  • Rights of way, boundaries, covenants and easements
  • Party wall disputes
  • Leasehold services
  • Lease extension
  • Collective enfranchisement
  • Service charge disputes
  • Repairs to leaseholds
  • Right to manage
  • Services for commercial landlords, tenants and agents
  • Breach of covenant
  • Forfeiture and recovery of possession
  • Dilapidations and failing to repair
  • Lease renewals
  • Services for residential landlords and agents
  • Regulatory issues
  • Repossession
  • Agents (including letting agreements)
  • Housing and tenancy issues
  • Repairs
  • Repossession and eviction
  • Rehousing and homelessness
  • Judicial review
  • Life changing injuries
  • Brain injury
  • Spinal cord injury
  • Amputation
  • Psychiatric injury
  • Fatal injuries and inquests
  • Medical claims
  • Surgical claims
  • Non-Surgical Claims
  • Birth injury
  • Child health and paediatrics
  • GP and primary care treatment
  • Private healthcare
  • Personal injury
  • Road traffic accidents
  • Accidents abroad
  • Accidents at work
  • Faulty products
  • Public liability and other accidents
  • Child abuse
  • Child abuse
  • Starting relationships
  • Pre nuptial agreements
  • Pre civil partnership and same sex relationship agreements
  • Cohabitation and living together agreements
  • Property ownership agreements
  • Ending relationships
  • Divorce and separation
  • Ending a civil partnership
  • Ending cohabitation
  • Agreeing child arrangements
  • Agreeing finance and assets
  • International arrangements
  • After relationships end
  • Abduction and leave to remove children
  • Changing and challenging parenting agreements
  • Changing and challenging financial agreements
  • Grandparents’ rights
  • Useful Contacts
  • Financial planners
  • Referral to Pension Actuaries and Pension on Divorce Experts (PODEs)
  • Tax Specialists
  • Financial Neutrals
  • Counselling
  • Conveyancing
  • Wills
  • Religious & cultural issues
  • Jewish family law
  • Islamic family law
  • Family Law FAQs
  • Children FAQs
  • Cohabitation Agreement FAQs
  • No-Fault Divorce and Separation FAQs
  • Financial Issues FAQs
  • Pre-Marital Contracts FAQs
  • Family Dispute Resolution
  • Roundtable Meetings
  • One Solicitor Solution
  • Mediation
  • Collaborative Practice
  • Arbitration
  • Second Opinions
  • Private FDR’s
  • Early Neutral Evaluation (‘ENE’)
  • Modern Families and Surrogacy Arrangements
  • Domestic Surrogacy
  • International Surrogacy
  • Business agreements
  • Business advice
  • Employment
  • Mergers and acquisitions
  • Supplier contracts
  • Business disagreements
  • Commercial property
  • Commercial Sale and Purchases
  • Commercial loans and mortgages
  • Property Investment: plot developers & plot buyers
  • Auction: sales and purchases
  • Commercial advice for landlords and tenants
  • Planning advice
  • Mortgage debentures and securities
  • Commercial property disputes
  • Breach of covenant
  • Dilapidations and failing to repair
  • Forfeiture and recovery of possession
  • Lease renewals
  • Leasehold services
  • Lease extension
  • Collective enfranchisement
  • Service charge disputes
  • Repairs to leaseholds
  • Right to manage
  • Residential property
  • Residential Sale and Purchases
  • Property Investment: plot developers & plot buyers
  • Remortgages
  • Auction: sales and purchases
  • Ownership matters and transfers
  • Wills, trusts and estates
  • Making a will
  • Applying for probate
  • Distributing the estate
  • Arranging lasting power of attorney
  • Trust advice
  • Tax planning and advice
  • Claims against trusts and estates
  • Contesting a will
  • Losses caused by trustees
  • Capacity and court of protection
  • Appointing a deputy
  • Removing a deputy
  • Arranging lasting power of attorney
  • Gifts and legacies
  • Managing assets under a deputyship
  • Care issues
  • Removing lasting and enduring power of attorney
  • Special educational needs
  • Capacity and court of protection
  • Personal claims
  • Debt recovery
  • Ownership disputes and shares in property
  • Civil and commercial mediation
  • Building disputes
  • Professional negligence
  • Professional Negligence
  • Property Fraud
  • Investment Fraud
  • Business disagreements
  • Building disputes
  • Civil and commercial mediation
  • Claims against directors
  • Contract disputes
  • Debt recovery
  • Directors personal liabilities
  • Employment
  • Professional negligence
  • Claims against trusts and estates
  • Contesting a will
  • Losses caused by trustees
  • Employment
  • Employment
  • Unfair or Wrongful Dismissal
  • Settlement Agreements
Anthony Gold > Blog > Young v Downey and claims for psychiatric injury by secondary victims
Amanda Hopkins

Amanda Hopkins

amanda.hopkins@anthonygold.co.uk

Share
  • March 10, 2021
  • Blog
  • By  Amanda Hopkins 
  • 0 comments

Young v Downey and claims for psychiatric injury by secondary victims


The ability to claim for psychiatric injuries as a result of an accident/negligence/crime appears to have been progressing cautiously over the past decade although we are far from treating psychiatric injury on a par with physical injury.  I have previously blogged about the limits of claiming for psychatric injury in the absence of the physical and the high threshold secondary victims need to reach to succeed in their claims.  Small inroads have been made, for example see  Paul v The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust [2020] EWHC 1415 (QB).  My colleague Sam David analysed here the victory won by the secondary victims in this case (two daughters) in defining proximity to include witnessing the consequences of clinical negligence (their father’s fatal heart attack).  Master Cook had previously struck out their claims on the grounds that the negligent act occurred 14½ months prior to the “sudden and unexpected shock” of witnessing their father die.

However, the progression of this area of law often feels like two steps forward and one step back.  Although rehearsed well elsewhere, I will just remind the reader of the essential criteria for secondary victim claims:

  1. It must be reasonably foreseeable that a person of “normal fortitude” or “ordinary phlegm” might suffer psychiatric injury by shock. There must also be a recognised psychiatric injury suffered.
  2. There must have been a close tie of love and affection to the primary victim.
  3. The claimant must have been in close proximity to the event or its immediate aftermath (in time and space).
  4. The psychiatric injury must be caused by, and result from, a “sudden and unexpected shock”. It must be caused by seeing or hearing the relevant incident or its immediate aftermath

The two steps back follows the recent decision in Young –v- Downey [2020] (QB).  It is worth giving some background to the case.  Non legal commentary can be found in the mainstream press such as The Guardian and The Times (although the latter is behind a paywall).  The claimant, Sarah Young, was 4 years old when her father, Lance Corporal Jeffrey Young (who was only 19 himself), was killed by a bomb that had been concealed in a car boot.  He was one of four members of the Household Cavalry who died.  The bomb had been placed by the IRA.  A criminal trial did not take place until 2014 and this was cut short.  As part of the peace process, the bomber had mistakenly received a letter of assurance that he would not be prosecuted.  Ms Young was therefore motivated to bring a civil claim in the absence of a successful criminal prosecution.

Ms Young’s main claim (in terms of value) was for loss of dependency under the Fatal Accidents Act 1976.  It is outside the remit of this blog to discuss the claim for exemplary damages but it is well explained within the judgment itself beginning at paragraph 35.  This blog concerns the claim for psychiatric injury as a secondary victim.  Spencer J’s consideration of this begins at paragraph 22.  It was Ms Young’s case that she had suffered PTSD as a result of her witnessing the circumstances and direct aftermath of the bombing which killed her father which had blighted her life.  The evidence of her psychiatric expert supported this.  The defendant was unrepresented and there was no evidence offered in rebuttal.

On the day of the bombing, Ms Young saw her father leave for work, she heard the explosion and the aftermath including soldiers returning wounded and covered in blood.  It was her evidence that she remembered the incident clearly.

Spencer J did not accept that Ms Young as a 4 year old appreciated that her father was at risk of injury and therefore she failed to prove causation as defined in the 4th criterion. At paragraph 29 Spencer J reasoned,  “my interpretation of the evidence suggests that it never occurred to this four-year-old’s mind at all that her father might have been injured, or killed, or involved at all in what she had heard and seen. She does not say so and her remark to her mother later “Daddy should be coming now” indicates clearly, as it seems to me, that she had no appreciation that her father had been involved”.

I agree with much of the surrounding legal commentary on this point.  If the claimant has no subjective awareness that the primary victim is at risk, then they will fail to establish themselves as a secondary victim.  What I and many others find problematic is Spencer J’s rejection of the expert evidence that there was subjective awareness.  The judge used his own interpretation of the claimant’s comment “Daddy should be coming home now” as evidence that Ms Young did not perceive any risk to her father.   This appears to be a narrow interpretation and for those of us keen to progress psychiatric claims, it is difficult not to see it as a purposeful move to retain strict control over secondary victim claims.

*Disclaimer: The information on the Anthony Gold website is for general information only and reflects the position at the date of publication. It does not constitute legal advice and should not be treated as such. It is provided without any representations or warranties, express or implied.

Amanda Hopkins

Amanda Hopkins

amanda.hopkins@anthonygold.co.uk

Get in touch

Call, email or use a contact form – whichever suits you. We’ll let you know the best person to help you get started.

Call or Email

020 7940 4060

mail@anthonygold.co.uk

No comments

Add your comment

We need your name and email address to make sure you’re a real person. We won’t share your email address with anyone else or send you spam. Please complete fields marked with *.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

code

Related Services

  • Birth injury

  • Brain injury

  • Psychiatric injury

  • Spinal cord injury

  • Accidents abroad

  • Accidents at work

  • Amputation

  • Child health and paediatrics

  • Faulty products

  • Non-Surgical Claims

  • Public liability and other accidents

  • Road traffic accidents

  • Special educational needs

  • Surgical claims

About the author

  • Amanda Hopkins

Meet the team

  • Injury and Medical Claims

You might also like...

  • Stages of a Clinical Negligence Case

  • High Court approval for brain injured man

  • Protecting vulnerable parties and witnesses in civil proceedings

Contact Us

Request a Call Back

About Us

  • Accessibility
  • Compliance
  • Responsible Business
  • Equality & Diversity
  • History
  • Our Beliefs
  • List of LLP members

Careers

  • Trainee Solicitors
  • Vacancies

Social Media

  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on LinkedIn
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • View our YouTube channel

Online Payments

  • Payment page through Worldpay

Accredited by

Lexel Parctice
76000Award

Copyright © Anthony Gold Solicitors LLP. All rights reserved. Anthony Gold Solicitors LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales with registered number OC433560 and is authorised and regulated by the by the Solicitors Regulation Authority with registration Number 810601