Auty v National Coal Board, [1985] 1 WLR 784 , EWCA
Citation:Auty v National Coal Board, [1985] 1 WLR 784 , EWCA
Rule of thumb:Where a person’s life expectancy is reduced by an injury, can this be claimed as damages? Yes, this can be claimed, and loss of society can with existing family members can also be claimed.
Judgment:
Once the average life expectancy is calculated, the ‘multiplicand’ is calculated. This is the average wage and pension the deceased person would have received is calculated, and it is estimated that after tax a person usually spends about 25-33% of their income on themselves, with the rest going to their relatives. ‘Bereavement’ figures also have to be taken into account although the Act has to be read and followed carefully in working out the exact damages figure on a case by case basis, ‘Oliver LJ enjoins us, however, to observe the provisions of section 4(1) at both stages of the inquiry. When we do so, we are bound by Stanley v Siddique to hold that in so far as the value of the replacement services formed a benefit resulting from the death (like the stepmother’s services in that case) we must disregard them when assessing damages. In other words at the first stage of the inquiry we cannot say that the children have suffered no loss because the only way in which we could do so would be to take into account something which we are not allowed to take into account. The factual position is quite different from the factual position in Hayden v Hayden, in which the majority of the Court of Appeal held that the value of the tortfeasor father’s replacement services was not to be disregarded under section 4(1), whether because section 4(1) did not apply at all (Parker LJ) or because this situation was totally different from a case in which the replacement services are voluntarily provided by a third party (Sir David Croom-Johnson).
Warning: This is not professional legal advice. This is not professional legal education advice. Please obtain professional guidance before embarking on any legal course of action. This is just an interpretation of a Judgment by persons of legal insight & varying levels of legal specialism, experience & expertise. Please read the Judgment yourself and form your own interpretation of it with professional assistance.