WRULD DB-Defendant: British Telecommunications plc

Case	Date	Court	Claimant	Task	Injury	Judgment for
McSherry & Lodge - v - British Telecommunications plc	16 Dec 1991	Mayor's & City of London County	McSherry	DSE use: data processing	Tenosynovitis, Osteoarthritis	Plaintiff

This is earliest Judgment that has been identified which deals with a personal injury claim associated with computer use.

Both Plaintiffs were employed as Data Processing Officers: Mrs McSherry in Cardiff, Mrs Lodge in Swindon. However, it is clear from the opening paragraph of the Judgment of HH Judge Byrt QC that this case had wider implications:

At the outset of this hearing, there were listed claims by 11 plaintiffs, for damages for personal injuries alleged to have been caused by the negligence and breach of statutory duty of the defendants, their employer. Since the issues of fact and law were similar in each case, counsel for the parties sought to simplify and shorten the proceedings by inviting the court to give judgment in only two cases, namely those of Mrs McSherry and Mrs Lodge. The explanation is that, once the court's findings in those two cases are known, the remaining claims will probably be settled on terms agreed between the parties. This way of proceeding seemed eminently sensible, and as such was approved by the court. The hearing, accordingly, has been conducted on this basis, and I now give judgment in those cases only.

It is perhaps no coincidence that this is also the earliest Judgment that has been identified which explicitly refers to "RSI". However, it is clear from the Judgment that the Judge uses the term RSI in its generic sense, as a synonym for WRULDs, when he states: "In both cases, I have found that each Plaintiff suffered RSI as a result of her work". It is also clear from the Judgment the Defendant conceded that "the injuries of both Mrs McSherry and Mrs Lodge were caused in the course of and as a result of their work for the Defendants".

This Judgment was extensively reported in the national press on the 17th December 1991 as a watershed for WRULD claims, inspiring headlines such as: RSI victory threatens flood of cases in The Times and Keyboard injury awards may lead to thousands of claims in The Daily Telegraph.

V2.01

Last updated: 26/03/2014