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Knauer v Ministry of Justice [2016] UKSC 9 (24 February 2016)
1. It is the aim of an award of damages in the law of tort, so far as possible, to place the person who has been harmed by the wrongful acts of another in the position in which he or she would have been had the harm not been done: full compensation, no more but certainly no less. Of course, there are some harms which no amount of money can properly redress, and these include the loss of a wife or husband. There are also harms which it is difficult to assess, especially those which will be suffered in the future, but the principle of full compensation is clear. The issue in this case is whether the current approach to assessing the financial losses suffered by the dependant of a person who is wrongfully killed properly reflects the fundamental principle of full compensation, and if it does not whether we should depart from previous decisions of the House of Lords.
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27. For these reasons, we would allow this appeal, and refuse to follow Cookson v Knowles and Graham v Dodds, on the basis that the correct date as at which to assess the multiplier when fixing damages for future loss in claims under the Fatal Accidents Act 1976 should be the date of trial and not the date of death.
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27. For these reasons, we would allow this appeal, and refuse to follow Cookson v Knowles and Graham v Dodds, on the basis that the correct date as at which to assess the multiplier when fixing damages for future loss in claims under the Fatal Accidents Act 1976 should be the date of trial and not the date of death.
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