Count Your Blessings

Sometimes it is really important to count your blessings in life and to concentrate on what you have, rather than think about what you don’t have.

Many of us dream of that lottery win and we spend the millions in our heads, but at the end of the day the most important thing is good health. Those of us who have it should be grateful. Apologies for the sermon but it was prompted by the very real and tragic story arising out of a case that was recently decided by the House of Lords.

The facts in simple terms are these. A man went to work one day, nothing unusual in that. However, during the day he suffered an accident in which he was almost decapitated. He survived the accident and underwent extensive physical reconstruction but the injury caused him to suffer psychiatric problems. Sadly, but perhaps totally understandably, he became extremely depressed. Six years after the accident, he committed suicide. All in all, a disaster for the man himself, his wife, family and friends.

Now to the law. The company the employee had worked for accepted liability for the accident. After the employee committed suicide his widow made a claim against the company for her husband’s loss of earnings.

The High Court’s decision was that although psychological trauma and depression were foreseeable results of the accident which the employers were liable for, suicide was not and so the wife lost.

The decision was appealed to the Court of Appeal. Their decision was that the employer was liable for the suicide. The psychiatric illness that resulted from the accident was foreseeable and, therefore, so was the suicide.

This decision was appealed to the House of Lords who agreed with the Court of Appeal and found in favour of the wife.

Employers who injure their employees can be liable if the employee as a result, suffers depression and ultimately commits suicide.

While I am sure that some insurers may be disturbed by this decision, on a human level few of us would begrudge the poor man’s wife some monetary compensation for what happened.

The lesson for employers is that you must look after the health and safety of your employees. Those employers who don’t take this obligation seriously, and there are a few, are treading a tightrope in more ways than one. 

For more information or advice, contact Jon Loney

Published 28/03/2008. The author of this article is Jon Loney