Polmear and another (Appellants) v Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust (Respondent)

Case summary

Case ID

UKSC/2022/0044

Parties

Appellant(s)

Lynett Polmear

Mark Polmear

Respondent(s)

Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust

Issue

Can an individual make a claim for psychiatric injury caused by witnessing the death or other horrifying event of a close relative as a result of earlier clinical negligence?

Facts

These are three conjoined appeals. Each appeal relates to a claim by an Appellant for psychiatric illness caused by viewing a traumatic event which was caused by a Respondent's negligence. In each case, the Appellant witnessed or attended shortly after a death caused by the Respondent's negligence.Following existing law, the Paul and Purchase claims were dismissed by the High Court and County Court respectively, with permission given to appeal. Following Paul, an application to dismiss the claim in Polmear was rejected and permission given to appeal.The cases were conjoined and heard together before the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal found for the Appellants in Paul and Polmear, and for the Respondent in Purchase.All three cases come before the Supreme Court as a conjoined appeal.

Date of issue

18 February 2022

Judgment appealed

Linked cases

Judgment details

Judgment date

11 January 2024

Neutral citation

[2024] UKSC 1

Judgment links

Judgment summary

11 January 2024

Appeal

Justices

Lord Briggs

Lord Sales

Lord Leggatt

Lord Burrows

Lady Rose

Lord Richards

Lord Carloway

Hearing dates

Full hearing

Start date

16 May 2023

End date

18 May 2023

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