Personal injury news

Solicitors settle professional negligence claim with mechanic injured in motorbike accident
A man who says he was denied the chance of working for a multi-million pound family business because of injuries suffered in a motorbike accident today won £375,000 in High Court compensation.

Ian Jardine, in his late 30s, of Carlisle - who suffered a shattered right ankle when a motorbike on which he was riding pillion crashed in 1993 - sued solicitors who handled his initial damages claim for professional negligence.

Judge Stephen Oliver-Jones QC heard that, had it not been for Mr Jardine's disabling injuries, he would have either been a success in his own right or joined family business Denton Tyres, of Denton, Carlisle.

That company was set up in the 1970s by his father, William Jardine, and grew rapidly in the 1990s to have a turnover of around £2.3million in 1999.

Mr Jardine's damages claim against the car driver involved in the accident was struck out because of solicitors' failure to set his case down for trial within a strict legal deadline.

And, on the second day of trial at London's High Court, the law firm concerned - McKenna and Co - agreed to settle his professional negligence claim for £375,000.

As he had been formally offered the same sum just before Christmas, Mr Jardine - who was legally aided - will have to pay legal costs bills up to a maximum of £20,000.

Barrister Patrick Blakesley, for Mr Jardine, earlier told the court the trained mechanic had just set up his own partnership at the time of the accident - which occurred in August 1993 - and was management material.

He effectively had had an apprenticeship with various companies, said Mr Blakesley, and had managed a team who serviced Volvo trucks prior to forming his own firm, Tyres and Components.

"It was a highly natural and likely outcome, if his own business had not taken off, that Mr Jardine would have ended up working for his father," he told the judge.

Denton Tyres, said the barrister, had a "strong family ethic" and Mr Jardine's brother Graham, as well as their mother, also worked there.

However, Bernard Livesey QC, for McKenna & Co, said it was precisely because his brother worked for Denton Tyres that Mr Jardine would never have gone there.

The pair didn't get on at all, said the barrister, and in a witness statement Mr Jardine admitted as much.

In the witness box, Mr Jardine - who also had to give up his job as a part-time doorman following the crash - insisted that although he resented his older brother when they were young, they were now good friends and he had recently lived with him.

Even if they had not got on, he added, their paths would probably not have crossed as he would have managed a plant in Dumfries while his brother would have worked in Carlisle, some 60 miles away.

After being told of the settlement, Judge Oliver-Jones said: "I'm sure the parties have been well advised. It is always a good thing when parties come to terms; everyone is to be congratulated."

Mr Jardine, who has had a number of operations on his injured ankle and still takes morphine-based medication to manage his pain, declined to comment after the settlement of his case was announced.

www.butterworths.co.uk 01/03/2005