Personal injury news

Care home worker claiming stress of job triggered mental breakdown stripped of compensation

A 63-year-old former care home worker, who claimed the stress of her job - and witnessing the aftermath of a road accident in which a child died - triggered a mental breakdown has been stripped of her £50,000 compensation pay-out.

In a vital test case, Appeal Court judges ruled Margaret Hartman's employers at the Orchard View home, Canvey Island, Essex, could not have reasonably been expected to foresee her job would cause her psychiatric injury.

The court exonerated the South Essex Mental Health and Community Care NHS Trust from all blame for Mrs Hartman's injuries - and stripped her of a £51,620 damages pay-out earlier awarded by a County Court judge.

Mrs Hartman's case was heard along with several other "work stress" cases and was considered of such importance that the nation's most senior civil judge - the Master of the Rolls, Lord Phillips - presided.

Lord Justice Scott Baker - sitting with Lord Phillips and Lord Justice Tuckey - said Mrs Hartman, of Canvey Island, had herself endured a difficult childhood. In 1965 her baby son died from meningitis and, during her first marriage, her husband had "subjected her to domestic violence".

She had a history of depression, anxiety, sleep disturbance and stress and had already suffered one nervous breakdown before getting a job as a nursing auxiliary at Orchard View, an assessment and respite care centre, in October 1989.

The judge said tragedy struck on 22 August 1996 when one of the children at Orchard View was run over and killed shortly after returning from an outing. Although she did not herself witness the accident, Mrs Hartman was present during the aftermath, escorted the child to hospital and had to deal with the child's family.

Mrs Hartman was "very upset" by the accident and her problems became more acute when, in late 1996 and early 1997, changes were made to recruitment policies and working practices at the home.

This put extra pressure on staff and significantly increased Mrs Hartman's workload. She began to suffer psychological problems in early 1998 and was later diagnosed with depression. Her sick pay ceased in February 1999 and, when she was unable to return to work, her employment was terminated on health grounds in May 1999.

She sued the NHS Trust, claiming her workload was "oppressive" and her employers should have foreseen it would cause her psychiatric injury. In June 2002, Judge Dedman upheld her claim at Southend County Court and awarded her £51,620 damages

However, that ruling was today reversed by the Appeal Court.

Rejecting claims the NHS Trust had breached the duty of care it owed Mrs Hartman because of inadequate staffing at the home, Lord Justice Scott Baker said: "We are unable to upholed Judge Dedman's decision on this or any other basis."

He concluded: "The judge should have rejected Mrs Hartman's claim on the ground that it was not reasonably foreseeable to the Trust that she would suffer psychiatric injury and, accordingly, they were not in breach of duty to her".