(Hay or ) Bourhill V Young [1943] AC 92 - (1942) 2 All ER 396

Full Case Details

Facts

• Mr young had been negligently riding his motorcycle and was responsible for a collision with car in which he himself suffered fatal injuries
• At the time of the crash, Mr bounhill (c ) was in the process of leaving a tram about 50 feet away. C heard the crash and , after Mr Young's body had been removed from the scene, she approached and witnessed the immediate aftermath.
• C was 8 months pregnant at the time of the incident and later gave birth to a stillborn child.
• C subsequently brought an action against Mr Young's estate, claiming she had suffered nervous shock, stress and sustained loss due to the negligence of D

Principles

• Whether D owed a duty of care to C. in order for such a duty to be found it has to be said that C was both sufficiently proximate to the incident itself and it so that D ought reasonably to have foreseen that, in driving negligently , he might cause psychiatric damage to a person hearing the crash from C's position
• Held
  • D was not liable for any psychiatric harm that C might have suffered as a result of the accident .
• It was not foreseeable that C would suffer psychiatric harm as a result of D negligently causing a loud traffic accident , nor was C sufficiently proximate to the scene of the crash itself.

D therefore could owe no duty of care of C