X v. Y

17/07/2023

Citation

Unreported

£2.5m settlement for a 55-year-old equity partner solicitor who sustained vestibular injury when she hit the back of her head in a slipping incident in her workplace. Causation was denied. Marcus, leading Simon Brindle of Deka Chambers was instructed to represent the Claimant.

She developed a cluster of debilitating vestibular symptoms including dizziness, vertigo, migraine headache, hyperacusis, photophobia, tinnitus and fatigue. When fatigued she developed an array of subsequent cognitive difficulties.

She was able to discharge the evidential burden of demonstrating damage to her left posterior semi-circular canal which was a cogent explanation for her enduring symptoms.

The Defendant pointed to findings of Intracranial Hypotension [“IH”] on an MRI 3½ years post-accident, that were not there on the post-accident scans. It was agreed that the IH findings were idiopathic and unrelated to the accident. The Defendant averred that they broke the chain of causation.

The Claimant’s experts rejected that contention, suggesting that the IH findings were incidental and a red herring because on thorough clinical assessment which they had conducted, there was no subjective report of the headaches being aggravated by standing up and relieved by lying down. Consequently, there was no orthostatic contribution to the debilitating headaches, which pointed to a continuum of causation from the slipping accident.

There were significant disputes between the parties as to the correct model to adopt in quantifying the loss of chance to optimise her share of equity partnership income on her ‘but for’ case.

The case settled through negotiation shortly before an 8 day trial.