Theoretical overview
This branch of law is comparatively of recent origin It provides relief when a person may get physical injury not by an impact, e.g., by stick, bullet or sword but merely by a nervous shock through what he has seen or heard.
In English law, a nervous shock is a psychiatric/mental illness or injury inflicted upon a person by intentional or negligent actions or omissions of another.
It is a shock which arises from a reasonable fear to immediate personal injury to oneself. Often it is a psychiatric disorder triggered by witnessing an accident, for example an injury caused to one’s parents or spouse.
Nervous shock literally means shock and brain structure of the body. The common law gives no damages for grief, emotional distress, anxiety and depression.
Under nervous shock a claim for damages can be made without showing the direct impact or fear of immediate personal injuries. It provide relief when a person may get physical injury not by stick , bullet etc but merely by a nervous shock through what he has seen or heard.
The plaintiff has to prove the following things:
- He has to show the necessary chain of causation b/w his psychiatric illness( nervous shock) and the death or injury of one or more parties caused by the defendants wrongful act.
- Physical injury is not necessary.
- The plaintiff need not to b e in the are of physical injury to himself, it is enough that he is so placed that a shock could be caused to him by his seeing or hearing something .
- The plaintiff will have to show a close relationship of love and affection with the primary victim and also that his proximate to the accident was sufficient close in time and space.
There are two types of victims-
Primary Victim: A victim who is directly hurt in an accident due to the negligence of a tortfeasor is said to be a primary victim.
Secondary Victim: A secondary victim is someone who experiences nervous shock as a result of the accident that caused the initial victim, without being physically put at risk.
Important case laws
King v. Phillips:
Defendant was negligently backing his car. He dashed against a tricycle rider boy. The boy was slightly injured but the tricycle was damages. The boys mother heard the screaming of the boy saw through the window the damaged tricycle but not the boy. She suffered a nervous shock. So Defendant, held liable.
Wilkinson v. Downton, (1897)
the defendant was held liable when the plaintiff suffered nervous shock and got seriously ill on being told falsely, by way of practical joke, by the defendant that her husband had broken both the legs in an accident.
Bourhill vs. Young
Facts of the case: – The question of mental illness liability first came up before the House of Lords. It will be recalled that this relates to a pregnant woman who heard the sound of a road accident at some distance while getting off the tram. She later attended the accident scene, saw blood on the road, and later suffered a shock-induced miscarriage.
Judgement of the case: – The House of Lords actually held that the woman was not a “foreseeable claimant”. In other words, she could not base her action on a wrong done to someone else.
In McLoughlin v O Brian (1982) 2 All ER 298,
the plaintiff’s husband and three children were involved in an accident caused by the defendant’s negligence, in which one child was killed and others were seriously injured. After being told or the accident, the plaintiff was taken to the hospital where she saw the injured husband and children and heard about the death of her daughter. She suffered nervous shock. She was allowed damages even though she was not at or near the scene of the accident at that time or shortly afterwards.
Ownes v Liverpool Corpn. (1939)
A funeral procession was going along a road, a tram-car violently collided with a hearse and caused the coffin to be overturned as a result of which the mourners at the funeral suffered shock. The mourners were allowed damages for mental shock, although there was no apprehension, or actual sight, of injury to a human being.
POINTS TO REMEMBER
- a nervous shock is a psychiatric/mental illness or injury inflicted upon a person by intentional or negligent actions or omissions of another.
- It provide relief when a person may get physical injury not by stick , bullet etc but merely by a nervous shock through what he has seen or heard.
- A victim who is directly hurt in an accident due to the negligence of a tortfeasor is said to be a primary victim.
- A secondary victim is someone who experiences nervous shock as a result of the accident that caused the initial victim, without being physically put at risk.
