When is a financially interested party entitled to be joined to proceedings, asks Matthew Snarr
In Bottomley (by her litigation friend Helen Ryan) v East Midlands Strategic Health Authority [2010] EWCA Civ 756, [2010] All ER (D) 23 (Jul) the Court of Appeal considered the right of a local authority to be joined to proceedings involving a seriously injured claimant. The local authority wished to make representations as to the form of any settlement or judgment which was likely to significantly affect its own financial liabilities. In short, the case turned on whether or not the court ought to take into consideration the representations by a party who has a significant financial stake in the outcome of the decision to order periodical payments or a lump sum.
The facts
The claimant was a 16-year-old girl who had suffered hypoxic ischemia resulting in brain damage and associated spastic quadriplegia arising out of the defendant’s negligent mismanagement of her birth. Liability was admitted. The claimant’s litigation friend was the local authority’s director of social care and health due to difficulties obtaining instructions from the claimant’s
