Description
The Claimant in this case claimed that she had suffered injury when surgeons in the employment of the Defendant had detached her deltoid muscle from the acromion and failed subsequently to repair it. The Defendant denied liability and in any event argued that the Claimant had issued outside the primary limitation period.
The Claimant claimed that she had not had knowledge for the purposes of ss. 11 & 14 of the
Limitation Act 1990 until June 2009 when another procedure had been carried out on her shoulder and the operating surgeon discovered that the deltoid was detached. The Defendant argued that the Claimant had the requisite knowledge by August or November 2006.
The issue in this instance was whether the Claimant's claim was statute barred. On the facts, the Claimant was not statute barred. It was held that - while she had, before expiry of the primary limitation period, undergone investigations and contacted a solicitor, the precise nature of her injury had not been discovered until investigations in 2009. The relevant date of knowledge was therefore June 2009 and the claim was not statute barred.
