Psychiatric illness

Two general pre-condition for
recovery
 Recognisable psychiatric illness
 Example –hinz v berry (morbid depression)
chronic fatigue syndrome –page v
smith
 Test of reasonable foreseeability- Dulieu v white
& sons

Who can recover
 Primary victims
 Involuntary participants
 Secondary victims
 Rescuers
 Employees
 Bystander
 Psychiatric illness induced through work related
stress

Primary victim
 Someone in zone of immediate danger created
by defendants negligence
 Examples
 Dulieu v white
 Page v smith
 British steel plc v simmons- negligence caused
skin disease which lead to depression

Involuntary participants
 Dooley v cammell laird- defective rope, although
no one injured, claim for psychiatric illness
allowed since reasonably believed employees in
danger
 Contrast for with mcfarlene v EE celedonia ltd
 Claim was not allowed since in reasonable
distance away from danger, court later formulated
requirement for involuntary participant to succeed
in claim. The requirement are
 The plaintiff is in the actual area of danger but
escapes physical injury
 Reasonably believes that he or she is in danger

Secondary victims
 Must prove four elements
 1. Close tie of love and affection-parent child,
husband wife, although exception in McCarthy v
CCSYP-half brother allowed to claim
 2. Physical and temporal proximity – McLoughlin
v O’brian (u take a look at this case)
 3. Means of perception- must come through sight
or hearing of the events and its aftermath
 4. manner of which psychiatric illness was caused

Rescuers
 Chadwick v BRB-british railway board, rescuers
can generally claim for compensation
 Although not every involvement will qualify as a
rescue attempt
 Mcfarlene v EE Celedonia
 White v CCSYP