Author(s)
In a case believed to be the first of its kind, a South Wales coroner has ruled that a death from COVID-19 constitutes death from an industrial disease.
The inquest, listed before the Senior Coroner for South Wales Central, and enquiring into the deaths of two nurses, Gareth Roberts and Domingo David, each of whom died from COVID-19 whilst working at a hospital in the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board region.
Gareth Roberts died from COVID-19 in the early stages of the pandemic and was an elderly man suffering from type 2 diabetes. Issues arose as to whether appropriate personal protective equipment was made available to him. Mr Roberts worked long shifts at a time when a number of otherhospital workers developed symptoms of COVID-19 or otherwise testing positive, enabling the Coroner to conclude that Mr Roberts had contracted COVID-19 through his work.
Submissions were made on behalf of the family and the Health Board as to whether a verdict of death by industrial disease was open to the Coroner in the particular circumstances. The Senior Coroner ruled that it was and so recorded a verdict of death from industrial disease. This is believed to be the first case in which COVID-19 has been recognised as an industrial disease when contracted in a workplace setting.
On 10 April 2024, the High Court handed down its decision in Williams-Henry v Associated British Ports Holdings Ltd [2024] EWHC 806 (KB). In that judgment the presentation of the Claimant’s claim for personal injury was considered fundamentally dishonest and so was dismissed under section 57 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 (“the 2015 Act”). In considering whether…
After the introduction of the reforms to the Civil Procedure Rules in 2013, you may recall some judges becoming, at least initially, excited about the prospect of experts giving evidence concurrently (so-called “hot tubbing”). Since that early flush of excitement, I have been involved in only one trial in which it was used and I…
Provisional damages operate as an exception to the general rule that damages are assessed on a once-and-for-all basis. Where a claimant finds themselves at a risk of developing a disease or deterioration in their physical or mental condition in the future, the general rule would require the court to assess that risk and compensate the…
