-----Original
Message-----
From: Andrew Tettenborn
Sent: 16 December 2005 13:31
Subject: ODG: doctors' duties
Some
people like to build florilegia of when duties are, and aren't,
owed in tort. Others just need ideas for exam questions. In either
case, you might care to lighten the pre-Xmas week by looking at
West
Bromwich Albion Football Club Ltd v El-Safty [2005] EWHC
2866 (QB) (14 December 2005)
Football
club sends its injured player to see physician, and pays the physician.
Physician misadvises treatment: as a result player can't play, and
club sues physician for its losses (no doubt in the same spirit
as a slave-owner deprived of services might have sued a sawbones
in the Southern US pre-1861).
Nothing
doing. There's no contract between club and surgeon. Nor is there
proximity; and for good measure, not just and equitable.
And
another thought. This was a preliminary issue as to duty: but I'd
have loved to see how WBA pleaded its schedule of losses. Loss of
a chance of extra income from possibly beating Man U? Wages of the
injured player [even though they'd have been paid anyway]? Unfortunately
we'll now never know.