Page 289 - Motor Insurance Ebook IC 72

Guide for Motor Insurance

Nervous shock is considered to be a form of personal
injury. Loss of amenities of life results when the injured
is deprived of ordinary experiences and enjoyment of
life. The actual determination of the amount of damages
arrived at the courts on the merits of each case.

There is neither a quantities scale nor any mathematical
formula. It is the discretion of the courts to arrive at a
fair and reasonable figure, which would reflect the
pecuniary loss suffered from the act of the negligence.
However, this discretion is used according to the well
established principles and guidelines

Loss of expectation of life arises when the injuries lead
to shortening of the normal expectation of life of the
person. "A man has a legal right to normal life
expectancy, i.e. the life should not be shortened by
tortuous act of another. His expectancy of life is thing
of temporal value, so that its impairment is something
for which damage should be given.

This particular head of damages was awarded for the
first time in United Kingdom in 1935. In the case of
Flint V.s Lovell where the plaintiff, a man of 70 years
was awarded damages of 4,000 Sterling Pound on the
grounds that he had suffer "Loss of the prospects of
enjoyable, vigorous and happy old age, which had been

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