ASSESSMENT OF DAMAGES IN FATAL ACCIDENT CASES

• Date: 07 September 2019

"Perhaps a convenient starting point would be grounds (d) and (e) regarding the general principles underlying the basis of assessment of damages payable to a deceased’s dependants under the Fatal Accidents Law 1956, S.7 of which is in terms equivalent to section 2 of the English Fatal Accidents Acts 1846-1908. With reference to the English Acts, Lord Wright suggested in Davies v. Powell Duffrym Associated Collieries Ltd. (1942) A.C. 601, the following text regarding the mode of assessment of damages, at p. 617: "There is no question here of what may be called sentimental damages, bereavement or pain and suffering. It is a hard matter of pounds, shillings and pence, subject to the element or reasonable future probabilities. The starting point is the amount of wages, which the deceased was earning, the ascertainment of which to some extent may depend on the regularity of his employment. Then there is an estimate of how much was required or expended for his own personal and living expenses. The balance will give a datum or basic figure, which will generally be turned into a lump sum by taking a number of years purchase. That sum, however, has to be taxed down by having regard to the uncertainties, for instance, that the widow might have again married and thus ceased to be dependant, and other like matters of speculation and doubt". It is clear that this formula is only appropriate where the deceased is the...