Poisoned meal leads to £1.2 million damages
10 Nov 05
Severe arthritis results in payment for lost earnings and care costs
A former midwife has been awarded £1.2 million damages after contracting salmonella from a Chinese restaurant.
Margaret-Ann Reynard, 40, developed a rare form of arthritis after she was poisoned by a meal she ate at the Latours restaurant in East Kilbride in October 2000, when celebrating her 35th birthday with her fiancé. She was admitted to hospital several days after having eaten the meal and given antibiotics intravenously, but the pain and swelling spread to her joints.
She was forced to retire from her job as a midwife with Ayrshire and Arran Health Board last year and will need to sell her first-floor flat to buy a modified bungalow.
Exquisite Cuisine, the owners of the restaurant which has since closed down, admitted liability but disputed the extent to which Mrs Reynard's condition was the cause of her continuing problems.
In the Court of Session Lord Hodge found that Mrs Reynard's arthritis had materially contributed to the rupture of her Achilles tendons. He also accepted that although an earlier depressive episode increased her vulnerability to depression, it was her physical disability caused by the reactive arthritis which precipitated and prolonged her depression between 2000 and 2004. It was her physical and not her mental state that prevented her returning to work.
Lord Hodge said that Mrs Reynard had a "progressive severe illness" which affected different areas of her body at different times. She suffered low back pain and pain in her knees, hips, heels, wrists, hands, elbows, shoulders and neck. She also suffers pain in her toes, a sore mouth and sore, dry eyes. She suffered pain and discomfort when walking. A carer visited daily to make her lunch, do housework and sometimes shop.
The damages awarded included £85,000 for Mrs Reynard's constant and continuing pain and suffering, £627,730 including interest for lost earnings and pension, and £397,304 for care costs and services.
Mrs Reynard said she would glady have exchanged the money for her health. The illness had destroyed her dreams to have a family, as the painkilling drugs she needs to take for the rest of her life are too toxic.
Lord Hodge's opinion can be read at http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/opinions/2005CSOH146.html .