Second Thoughts

A mother came across the scene of a car accident, and later discovered the accident involved her son. Could she recover damages for nervous shock as a "secondary victim", significantly inflating her award? Martha Sarah Young v Arthur Macvean [2015] CSIH 70

The Issue

Regular readers will recall the earlier decision in this tragic case when the court ruled that Mrs Young could recover damages as a result of being a secondary victim, after happening across the aftermath of a car accident in which her son was killed.

Mr Macvean appealed on the basis that Mrs Young had wrongly been categorised as a secondary victim as the evidence indicated she had not been aware of her son being involved in the accident until she was advised later.

The Facts

Mrs Young was not a stranger to tragedy in her life. When she was twenty-one, her father had died of a sudden stroke. In 1992, her husband had died in a North Sea Helicopter accident. She told the court that before her husband had left for that job, he had reminded the then young David to look after his mother and sister while he was gone.

These tragedies had brought her and her son very close. David was, she said, "a model son" whom she...