WRULD DB-Claimant: Miss Janet Warner

Case	Task	Injury	Date	Court	Judgment for
Warner -v- Boots Company plc	Handling cosmetics	Carpal Tunnel Syndrome	29 Nov 2013	Derby County	Claimant

Janet Warner claimed that she had suffered bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) as a result of her work as a warehouse based cosmetics stock line picker between 2004 and 2010. The Defendant's case was that the work had no history of any type of injury and was so stress free that no form of risk assessment was necessary.

In the opening paragraphs of this lengthy Judgment, HH Judge Pugsley states:

At the risk of being accused of reinventing the wheel I consider it is appropriate to restate the fundamental principle of the law of negligence. A claimant has to prove his or her case on the balance of probabilities. Once a claimant has discharged that burden there is no discount for the finding that a judge decided the case on a balance of probabilities rather than being 100% certain that the claimant's case was proved. There is therefore a difference of approach between that of the courts and a medical practitioner. For a medical practitioner it may be vital to determine the precise cause of a medical condition. For the court it suffices to prove that on the balance of probabilities a Claimant can identify a cause of the medical condition. The law treats that which is probable as certain.

HH Judge Pugsley preferred the evidence of the Claimant's lay and expert witnesses in virtually all respects and found that had an assessment taken place remedial action would have followed. He considered that the Claimant had established common law negligence and numerous breaches of statutory duty and was satisfied those breaches or a combination of them, on the balance of probabilities, contributed materially to the development or the worsening of the Claimant's agreed CTS.

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Last updated: 26/03/2014