Pickford - v - Imperial Chemical Industries plc
| Plaintiff | Ann Margaret Pickford |
|---|---|
| Job title | Secretary (SOC 2000: 4215) |
| Task description | DSE use: word processing and secretarial duties |
| Injury | Cramp of the hand due to repetitive movements |
| Defendant(s) | Imperial Chemical Industries plc (SIC 2007: C20) |
| Court(s) | Court of Appeal |
| Case No. | QBENF 95/0120/C |
| Date | 18 Jul 1996 |
| Judge(s) | Lord Justice Stuart-Smith Lord Justice Swinton Thomas Lord Justice Waite |
| For Plaintiff (Appellant) | |
| All Plaintiffs | Ann Margaret Pickford |
| Solicitor | William Hood & Co (SK11 6AF) |
| Counsel | Mr M Redfern QC Mr Guy Vickers |
| Non-Medical expert(s) | Dr Dennis Thompson (Ergonomics) (At First Instance) |
| Medical expert(s) | Prof John K Stanley (Hand Surgery) (At First Instance) Dr Hay (Psychiatry) (At First Instance) |
| For Defendant (Respondent) | |
| Solicitor | Halliwell Landau (M2 2JF) |
| Counsel | Mr Benet A Hytner QC Mr P Stewart |
| Non-Medical expert(s) | Mr Brian G Pearce (Ergonomics) (At First Instance) |
| Medical expert(s) | Dr Yolande Lucire (Psychiatry) (At First Instance) Dr Emlyn Williams (Rheumatology) (At First Instance) |
| Outcome | |
| Judgment for: | Appellant (Plaintiff) |
| Injury found: | Yes |
| Work related: | Yes |
| Breach of Statutory Duty: | No finding |
| Defendant negligent: | Yes |
| Damages | |
| General: | |
| Special: | |
| Other: | |
| TOTAL: | |
| Observations | |
| Appealed | |
| References | |
| LAWTEL Case report | |
This case summary is published with the kind permission of Lawtel (www.lawtel.com). Lawtel subscribers can access the full report at www.lawtel.com or for a free trial of the service click here. Appeal against dismissal of plaintiff's claim for injury which the plaintiff contended she had contracted in the course of her employment as a secretary with the defendants' pharmaceutical section at Macclesfield. The plaintiff was suffering from PDA4, a complaint suffered by, amongst others, musicians and typists. The complaint was recognised in 1948 by the Department of Health and Social Security and is also known as repetitive strain injury. The injury was caused by excessive typing and had developed in 1988, coming to a head in 1989. HELD (Swinton Thomas LJ dissenting as he did not believe it was open to the court to reverse the various findings of fact made by the judge who had the advantage of seeing and hearing the witnesses): (1) The plaintiff's case was a straightforward one. The complaint was indisputably a rare one but it was sufficiently significant to justify statutory classification as a prescribed disease. It was significant enough for the defendants to draw attention to it in the memorandum prepared by the Chemicals and Polymer Group and for them to include in their training programme for their general typing staff advice to take rest pauses from typing work. (2) No equivalent advice was given to the plaintiff who (as was undisputed) did on occasions type without a break, sometimes for long periods. That gave rise to an inference that the plaintiff was one of the rare victims who develop PDA4 through typing. (3) It was easy to see how the duty to give a similar warning to that given to the Chemicals and Polymer Group, came to be overlooked. But the duty was there all the same, and the defendants were in breach of it. (4) The judge had misdirected himself in saying that the onus was upon the plaintiff to establish that the cramp in her hands had an organic cause, and his finding that her condition was psychogenic could not be supported. The plaintiff was entitled to damages. Appeal allowed. | |
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Last updated: 16/10/2009