Congratulations to Marcus Dignum KC of 12 King’s Bench Walk, who has successfully defended liability in a child pedestrian RTA claim in Gadsby v Hayes [2024] EWHC 2142 (KB), where the Claimant was represented by Satinder Hunjan KC, instructed by Affinity Law.
In her recent judgment, Ms Clare Ambrose sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge, dismissed the Claimant’s claim, with the usual QOCS order as to costs following a 4 day trial at the RCJ. In short, and where there was a stark conflict between the parties’ lay evidence, she found that the Defendant driver had reduced her speed to less than 20 mph on the approach to a pedestrian crossing where there were a number of school children waiting to cross at the end of the school day. She considered this to be sufficient to discharge her duty to take reasonable care in these circumstances and so held her blameless for the accident which occurred when the Claimant stepped into her path. She rejected the Claimant’s case both as to how she had crossed the road and as to an appropriate speed.
Marcus was acting on behalf of Markerstudy Insurance and was instructed by James Allen of DWF Manchester.
The judgment can be found here.
