The Case

Limitation of action Personal injury claim. Having regard to s14(2) and (3) of the the material to which the test for what counted as a 'significant injury' applied was generally 'subjective' in the sense that it was applied to what the claimant knew of his injury, rather than the injury as it actually was. Even then, his knowledge might have to be supplemented with imputed 'objective' knowledge under s14(3) of the 1980 Act. But the test itself was an entirely impersonal standard: not whether the claimant himself would have considered the injury sufficiently serious to justify proceedings, but whether he would 'reasonably' have done so. One asked what the claimant knew about the injury he had suffered, then added any knowledge about the injury that might be imputed to him under s14(3) and then one asked whether a reasonable person with that knowledge would have considered the injury sufficiently serious to justify his instituting proceedings for damages against a defendant who did not dispute liability and who was able to satisfy a judgment.