Legal History - The highest, the first, the oldest, the best!
19/06/1999
The highest, the first, the oldest, the best!
Alexander Harris have set the standards, breaking all records along the way.
The Oldest Medical Negligence Case heard in Great Britain
Guy Parkes was born on 25th August 1962 a normal and healthy baby. Guy is now profoundly handicapped and confined to a wheelchair after his GP failed to notice that he had become severely dehydrated three weeks after his birth.
His mother had developed breast abscesses and was concerned about her capacity to continue breast-feeding. Her GP reassured her and failed to note that her baby was becoming seriously unwell. On September 17th 1962 Guy was admitted to hospital suffering from severe dehydration secondary to gastro-enteritis. As a result he suffered brain damage, which has left him with spastic quadriplegia, epilepsy, gross scoliosis, double incontinence and general postural abnormalities as a result of spasticity.
For more than 25 years Mrs Parkes did not realise that she could sue her GP, as she believed it to be impossible to obtain supporting medical evidence from other GPs. When Guy's leg had been broken whilst in residential care, she instructed Alexander Harris. After successful litigation we enquired how Guy had come to be so disabled. Mrs Parkes relayed the events described above and we began investigations in 1989. In November 1995 Alexander Harris made legal history when, at the age of 33, Guy Parkes was awarded £1.25 million in an out of court settlement.
Highest ever award for the oldest ever case
Alan Edwards was born on the 10th January 1963. Six months following his birth he developed breathing difficulties and was taken into hospital where, under general anaesthetic, a bronchogram was carried out. During the procedure Alan suffered cerebral anoxia and irreversible brain damage due to excessive amounts of dye being injected which had the result of drowning him.
Alan, the third of four children was left mentally retarded, spastic quadriplegic, blind, doubly incontinent and totally dependent upon his parents.
In 1987, Mrs Edwards instructed Alexander Harris to investigate. Liability was admitted in November 1990 and in October 1992 Alan Edwards at the age of 29 was awarded £800,000. At the time this case made legal history by being the highest ever award for the oldest ever case.
Little were we to know that we would be beating our own records…
First ever self funded structured settlement
Sian Boyd O'Toole was born in 1982 with cerebral palsy as a result of asphyxia at birth. Alexander Harris successfully settled the case and achieved a unique settlement for Sian then aged 10. The case of O'Toole made legal history as the first medical negligence case in Britain to be settled by a new way of paying damages - a self funded structured settlement. Although common place in personal injury cases, this case was of particular importance as this type of settlement was totally unique and paved the way for other medical accident cases. The High Court in London approved the settlement, which gave Sian's family a lump sum of £225,000. This was coupled with yearly payments of £20,000 and a lump sum every 5 years of £5,000 for the rest of her life.
1.65m for teenager injured in the womb
Eileen Burgess came to Alexander Harris after her daughter Heather was deprived of oxygen during birth. Staff at the hospital failed to act on warning signs and instead of performing an emergency caesarean operation allowed Heather to be delivered six hours later. Heather suffered perinatal asphyxia and as a result has cerebral palsy and cannot use her own voice. In 1994 she was awarded record damages of £1.65m. An incredible person, Heather who had just passed three GCSE's insisted on speaking at the court hearing through an electronic voice synthesiser. The money will never make up for what happened to Heather but it will mean that she can lead more of an independent life and has enough funds to provide for her future care.
Sarah Early vs Mackrell Turner Garret Solicitors
When Sarah Early by way of her mother as next friend initially instructed Mackrell Turner Garrett Solicitors (MTG) in relation to a medical negligence claim, the legal aid regulations meant that her parents income and capital were taken into account when assessing whether she qualified for legal aid. In 1990 - two months after the initial instruction, the regulations changed allowing a child to be assessed on the basis of their own income and capital. Under the new regulations Sarah was eligible for legal aid.
MTG did not properly advise the family and Mrs Early was encouraged to privately fund the case to trial. The case failed with combined costs of over £30,000. In 1994 Sarah instructed Alexander Harris to pursue a claim in professional negligence against MTG. It was determined that although Mrs Early had funded the previous medical negligence case, she did so as 'next friend' to Sarah and so Sarah was bound to indemnify her for her losses. This meant that Sarah was the proper plaintiff in this action and could apply for legal aid.
In March 1999, two months before the trial, MTG, whom the SIF allowed to defend themselves, finally made offers to settle in full. Widely reported in the media when the initial medical negligence claim failed, Alexander Harris strove to get justice. There was clearly no justification for MTG not to have obtained a legal aid certificate for Sarah and the case was eventually settled on a full liability basis for a total of £41,000, which included the original Defendant's solicitors costs and interest, the Early's outlay to MTG on costs and the interest.
Highest medical negligence damages in British legal history
Sam Mansell was brain damaged at birth when he was starved of oxygen because the obstetrician in charge of his delivery failed to manage the birth properly.
Sam has athetoid cerebral palsy and is confined to a wheelchair and requires round the clock nursing care. He is unable to control his movements and even at rest his arms and legs move erratically and uselessly. Intellectually Sam is intact and attends a main stream school. He is a normal 11-year-old boy trapped within a useless body. Penny Mansell first sought legal advice in 1990, but after 3 years she realised that the case was not proceeding, so she appointed Alexander Harris and within 12 months legal proceedings had been started.
Despite having seen the medical evidence in 1995, the Health Authority did not admit liability until April 1998. In October 1998, Sam was awarded what were then record damages for a medical negligence case of £3.28million.
Parents given wrong dose of radiation
Over a nine-year period, radiation doses of up to a third less than prescribed, were given to patients at the North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary in Stoke, until the error was detected in 1991.
More than 1,000 cancer patients were given insufficient doses of radiotherapy because of a computer program error. Of those affected many had since died or had to have surgery.
Alexander Harris were brought in by local solicitors in the Stoke area to run the generic litigation due to our expertise. This was a particularly difficult litigation because it was necessary to determine what extent, the 'underdose' had on the patients tumours and life expectancy. We co-ordinated and negotiated settlement for 82 Plaintiffs in the group litigation against North Staffordshire Health Authority. The damages negotiated for the group totalled £2 million.
In both Myodil and North Staffordshire, David Harris developed the method of settlement by which a total sum of damages was negotiated and then shared amongst the group, according to an agreed formula.
Multi Party Action - paving the way…
The MPA department has focused on high profile litigation such as Listeria, Opren and Hillsborough and has acted in such leading authorities as Nash v. Lily Court of Appeal and Alcock v. Chief Constable South Yorkshire Police House of Lords.
We have enjoyed success this year in becoming one of only 18 firms nation-wide to be appointed to the very first Legal Aid Board Multi-Party Action Panel. Currently we act as lead solicitors in four multi-party litigation's as well as acting in several individual pharmaceutical product cases.
Our greatest successes have come from those where we have been able to identify successful actions early.
Time Bomb
Heart Valves
Between 1979 and 1986 hundreds of people worldwide were fitted with Shiley CC Heart Valves. During this seven-year period they were withdrawn twice due to fears regarding their safety, but they were then put back on sale.
In 1986 the manufacturers, Californian based Shiley, voluntarily withdrew them. A select number of the valves were prone to fracture inside the heart and as a result many patients fitted with the faulty valves had died. The media likened them to 'time bombs' waiting to explode.
Alexander Harris spearheaded the claims for compensation brought about by victims all over the country who were either enduring devastating emotional trauma, not knowing if their valve was going to suddenly break, or acting on claims where the valve had already fractured. We successfully recovered substantial damages in out of court settlements (confidentiality agreements prevent disclosure of the exact sums). This was, and still is, an emotionally charged litigation and we empathise with our clients who are angry with the manufacturers for continuing to sell the valves after they had been shown to be unsafe.
"One of the largest personal injury actions to be heard in the English courts"
The medical profession had been searching since the 1920's for a contrast medium which could be injected into the back to improve x-ray images of the spine. Many products were tried and tested but some had severe side effects including one with radiation implications. Against this background, Myodil was initially seen as a breakthrough and so there was no drive from the medical profession to search for anything else. The outcome was the wide use of Myodil - a dye which was toxic and caused inflammation of the spinal column nerve routes creating a condition known as lumbo-facral adhesive arachnoiditis. This crippling back condition leaves its victims in constant torment, enduring pain that even the most powerful drugs can only dull.
Following significant media interest, thousands of people flooded forward who believed that their lives had been wrecked by the effects of the dye and David Harris, became Chairman of the Steering Committee. Shortly before trial, £7million was successfully recovered from Glaxo Laboratories Ltd. for 425 claimants who had been injected with Myodil between 1962 and 1984.
This litigation pre-empted by several years the views that have now found favour in the Woolf reforms in that the experts on both sides whilst accepting instructions from Claimants and Defendants always considered themselves and were treated as independent.
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