Catherine Foster & Nadia Whittaker represent the ‘Atomic Veterans’ in the Supreme Court
AB & Others v Ministry of Defence [2012] UKSC 9, on appeal from [2010] EWCA Civ 1317.
The ‘Atomic Veterans’, represented by Catherine Foster and Nadia Whittaker received a landmark judgment of the Supreme Court on 14th March 2012, in which the Court considered the correct approach to ‘knowledge’ for the purpose of section 14 of the Limitation Act 1980 and the exercise of discretion under section 33. The main issues in the action were: (i) whether a Claimant could have knowledge of the attributability of an injury to the relevant act or omission where any belief of attribution, however firmly held, could not have been objectively verified by an expert at the relevant time and; (ii) where it was not possible to prove causation as at the date of issue of the claim; (iii) to what extent the merits of the claim were relevant to the exercise of discretion under 33; and (iv) whether the fact that this was a Group Action made any difference.
