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Law Cases
Tort Law Cases
Nervous Shock Cases

Greatorex v Greatorex [2000] 4 All ER 769

Country:
United Kingdom
By Oxbridge Law Team
CA

  • Defendant caused a car crash and Plaintiff, his father, was one of the firemen called to get Defendant out of the car, as a result of which Plaintiff suffered a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and sued Defendant for negligently causing him the illness.

  • CA held that a person does not owe a duty of care to a 3rd party who might suffer psychiatric illness from seeing the self-inflicted injuries. 

CA

  • To impose such a duty would be to limit individual freedom too far (and deter people from using the emergency services, even in an emergency where they have severe injuries).

  • It would also make litigation within the family very common (e.g. I am fixing the roof and negligently fall off - law shouldn’t disrupt the accidents which are part of family life), which is undesirable.

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