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13 August 2009 / Sean Curley
Issue: 7382 / Categories: Opinion , Personal injury , Constitutional law
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Hard to beat

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The old saying that hard cases make bad law is one is not always true is a recent case in the Privy Council demonstrates in a laudable effort to do justice to a litigant in person the Privy Council (Lords Mance and Neuberger and Sir Jonathan Parker) appear to have extended the application of res ipsa loquitor.

This has been done without any detailed analysis or application of the facts of the case to the law in question which in the long run may undo their effort. The case is George v Eagle Air Services Limited [2009] UKPC 21, [2009] All ER (D) 33 (Aug) on appeal from The Court of Appeal of The Eastern Caribbean (St Lucia).

Mrs George was claiming as Administratrix of the estate of her late partner Hughes Williams. Mr Williams was a mechanic working for the respondents and was a passenger in one of the respondent’s aircraft that crashed killing both him and the pilot.

The accident occurred on 12 July 1990 and the crash was investigated by

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