Dulieu v White & Sons
A person who suffers nervous shock from reasonable fear of immediate personal injury to herself, caused by the defendant's negligence, can recover damages.
Facts
Mrs Dulieu, who was pregnant, was working behind the bar of her husband's public house, when the defendants' servant negligently drove a van and horses into the pub. She was not physically injured, but she suffered severe shock, became ill, and later gave birth prematurely. She claimed damages for her illness.
Legal principle
The Divisional Court held that she was entitled to damages. Kennedy J said that shock, where it operates through the mind, must be a shock which arises from a reasonable fear of immediate personal injury to oneself. Mrs Dulieu was in fear for her own safety, so she could recover. He doubted whether a person could recover for shock caused by fear for the safety of another person. That limit was later relaxed in Hambrook v Stokes.
Related cases on psychiatric injury
- Alcock v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police [1992] 1 AC 310
- Barber v Somerset County Council [2004] UKHL 13, [2004] 1 WLR 1089
- Bourhill v Young [1943] AC 92
- Chadwick v British Railways Board [1967] 1 WLR 912
- Greatorex v Greatorex [2000] 1 WLR 1970
- Hambrook v Stokes Brothers [1925] 1 KB 141
- Hatton v Sutherland [2002] EWCA Civ 76, [2002] ICR 613
- McLoughlin v O'Brian [1983] 1 AC 410
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