Kent v Lamb – QBD 29 April 1997

Claimant: Kathleen Kent, 67

Incident: Road traffic accident

Injuries: Claimant, mother of three grown-up children who has grand- and great-grand children knocked from cycle while riding between jobs as a household cleaner when she was 64. She suffered life threatening head injuries in the accident and now needs 24-hours-a-day attention from her 68-year-old husband, to whom she has been married for 50 years. Brain damage received in the accident said to have transformed her from a sprightly woman into an irritable and incompetent shadow of her former self

Award: £172,000 (agreed damages)

Judge: Judge Geddes

Plaintiff's counsel: Graham Platford

Plaintiff's solicitor: Kershaws, SW

Loney v Commercial Ground Cover – QBD 28 April 1997

Claimant: Tony Loney, 31

Incident: Accident at work

Injuries: Claimant, who is deaf, dumb and partially blind and suffers severe learning difficulties, lost his main means of communicating when both hands were caught in a garden woodchipping machine After the accident he was no longer able to use sign language which was his main means of making himself understood to other people His hands were also rendered virtually useless for other purposes as a result

Award: £175,000 (agreed damages)

Judge: Mr Justice Poole

Plaintiff's counsel: Guy Sankey QC

Plaintiff's solicitor: Knowles Benning

Cain v MoD – QBD 23 April 1997

Claimant: Ross Cain, 3Incident: Road traffic accident

Injuries: Claimant was passenger in army Land Rover when it crashed into lorry as Land Rover driver was attempting to overtake it. Claimant left with head and facial injuries and had to give up career in the army

Award: £137,500 (agreed damages)

Judge: Judge Robin Laurie

Plaintiff's counsel: Matthias Kelly

Plaintiff's solicitor: Hawkins Greenwood, Poole