The claimant said her mouse cable at her desk was tangled with other wires. She could not release it, so had to stretch to use it and was injured. Medical evidence confirmed this had caused a rotator cuff injury.
The defendant’s “best “point was that there were no written complaints. They accepted there was no workstation assessment. The Judge held that had one been carried out this would have identified the problem with the wires and it would have been resolved.
Bradford CC, 30 November 2007.
Lotto rapist decision by House of Lords: A -v- Hoare
On 30 January, The House of Lords decided to allow the claimant’s appeal on the six-year time limit for assault. An analysis of the case follows:
Limitation in cases of deliberate assault
The House of Lords has, today, given judgment in the case of A -v- Hoare and five related appeals. Hoare is the case much beloved of the tabloids as the ‘lottery winning rapist’ case. All six appeals involved deliberate assaults causing injury, all but Hoare being cases of childhood institutional sexual abuse.
The question in the appeals was: which limitation regime applied to cases of deliberate assault, section 2 (providing a six-year fixed limitation period running from the date of the accrual of the cause of action) or s11 (providing a three-year limitation period running from the claimant’s date of knowledge and subject to discretionary extension under s33 – the ‘special personal injury regime’)?
Previously, the House of Lords had decided (in Stubbings -v- Webb) that cases of deliberate assault were subject to the fixed six-year limitation period and not subject to the special personal injury regime.
The House of Lords have now decided that Stubbings was wrongly decided and should no longer be followed. On this, they were unanimous.
30 January 2008.