The Court of Appeal has allowed Felix Moorehouse’s appeal against the dismissal of his personal injury claim over an accident involving a machine at Wheatfield Prison, and ordered the case returned to the High Court to continue to a conclusion.
In a judgment delivered on 31 July 2020, Ms Justice Donnelly agreed with the reasons set out in Mr Justice Edwards’s judgment. She said a court could infer causation where an honest plaintiff could not reliably describe the precise mechanism of an accident, if other evidence established that the defendant’s negligence caused the injury.
The appeal concerned the trial judge’s findings that Moorehouse had been allowed to operate a machine when the prison authorities knew or ought to have known it was unsafe, and that the machine lacked an adequate guard. The trial judge had also found that the plaintiff’s account of how the accident happened was not credible, but rejected the claim that he had intentionally given false or misleading evidence.
Justice Donnelly said the trial judge had found that if a prison officer had remained at or near the machine, it was nearly certain the accident would not have occurred. She also said the trial judgment implicitly found that the accident would not have happened but for breaches of statutory duty concerning the guard.
The court said inferring causation in those circumstances did not shift the burden of proof to the defendants. It also found no case had been made that the defendants were unable to address significant matters about primary liability at trial. The essential liability case—that Moorehouse was severely injured while permitted to use a dangerous, defective machine with an inadequate guard—had been pleaded, the judgment said.
The appeal was allowed on Grounds 1, 12 and 20. The court ordered the dismissal of the claim quashed and remitted the matter to the High Court to be resumed and progressed to a conclusion in light of that order. The judgment did not determine the final outcome of the claim or specify an award of damages. Justice Donnelly also agreed with the proposal concerning costs.