The Claimant therefore took the issue to the Court of Appeal in July 2020 to seek an alternative approach. ... Charlotte Swift. Download PDF The appellant was the victim of a road traffic accident. For further information or advice, please get in touch with Accident and Injury Solicitor Associate Richard Green, at [email protected] or telephone 01275 858515. It allows you to stay up‑to‑date with what interests you most. The judge found that she was bound by the approach set out in Roberts and could therefore not award an additional sum to cover accommodation. The underlying cause of that outcome was the then current negative discount rate. The question was how to calculate that windfall. Case Information. At first instance, Mrs Justice Lambert accepted that the Claimant, a below knee amputee, had a reasonable need for alternative accommodation and that the increased capital costs of the new property over her existing property were £900,000. Irwin LJ concluded that the value of the reversionary interest (which would be a value based at the hypothetical date of death) provided the best answer. Adopting the JR approach, the award in respect of that additional cost was nil.   Lambert J accepted, however, that the Roberts approach was problematic in a number of circumstances and the claimant was given permission to appeal. A Collection is a selection of features, articles, comments and opinions on any given theme or topic. The new approach, which replaces the calculation provided in Roberts v Johnstone , aims to provide fairer compensation for claimants with accommodation needs. damages for accommodation claim = £-17,625.00 In Swift v Carpenter, the claimant suffered a below-knee amputation following a road traffic accident. Guest Article by Kate Nicklin, Senior Associate Solicitor at Sintons. Swift, Derek Sweeting QC and James Arney discuss the case from the claimant’s perspective. A more detailed discussion of the Court of Appeal's decision today in Swift -v- Carpenter [2020] EWCA Civ 1295 will follow. Following the successful outcome of the landmark decision in Swift v Carpenter, replacing the Roberts v Johnstone formula and securing over £800,000 for Mrs. Swift v Carpenter – Update The appeal in Swift v Carpenter was due to be heard on 23 and 24 July 2019. Severely injured claimants often require a new, more expensive property because their existing property no longer meets their post-injury needs.  However, if a claimant were to simply be awarded the additional sum required to purchase suitable accommodation, this would result in a windfall for their estate on death, contravening the fundamental principle laid down by the House of Lords in Wells v Wells [1998] that a claimant’s damages should put them back in the position that they would have been in but for the accident, or as close to that as possible, but do no more than that. He commented that the reasoning in Roberts was a means to an end rather than a principle, or end in itself and stated that Roberts does apply to this case, but in the form of authoritative guidance from the court, given in the specific conditions prevailing at the time of that (the Roberts) decision. However, in the meantime, we have attached a link to our accommodation costs calculator to help you calculate the costs following the Judgment. The court sought to establish the capital sum required to purchase the house needed by the appellant and then establish a practicable approach to the calculation of a sum to be deducted to represent the value of a reversionary interest in the windfall. It was found that the additional capital cost of appropriate accommodation would be £900,000 more than the value of the victim’s current home. The long-awaited decision of the Court of Appeal in Swift v Carpenter, which has become a test case for accommodation claims in personal injury litigation, was handed down on 9 October 2020. Comparing this new approach with the old, the figures assessed in Swift give rise to the following awards (“DR” – Discount rate): • Pre-2017 Roberts calculation (2.5%DR):  £900,000 x 2.5% x 26.54 = £567,150• Roberts calculation (-0.75% DR):              £900,000 x -0.75% x 55.02 = -£371,385, so NIL.• Roberts calculation (-0.25% DR):              £900,000 x -0.25% x 48.34 = -£108,765, so NIL.• New approach calculation:                        £900,000 – £98,087 = £801,913   (Based on a reversionary interest calculated on £900,000 x 1.05 -45.43 = £98,087). Posts about Swift v Carpenter written by BLM. the value of the interest that the compensator would have in the property if it was to revert to the compensator on death).  The approach sounds simple, but the difficulty with it is identifying an appropriate method of valuing that interest in the absence of any truly comparable market for such interests.Â, A number of other potential methodologies were dismissed by the parties as not being viable, including (a) a lump sum or Periodical Payments Order award based on the cost of an interest only mortgage (due to the unavailability of any suitable products), (b) a loan from the compensator (due to the regulatory and practical obstacles) and (c) shared ownership (due to the compensator not being able to offer such a solution).Â, Judgment was handed down on 9 October 2020.Â. Swift v Carpenter [2020] EWCA Civ 1295 The Court of Appeal has now clarified the approach to accommodation claims in complex personal injury matters. The guidance now given in Swift v Carpenter is expected to be “enduring”, particularly in long life cases during conditions of negative or low discount rates. Damages for accommodation are to calculated by… The delayed appeal in the case of Swift v Carpenter was heard remotely in the Court of Appeal last week. The case therefore has not necessarily brought greater clarity in respect of any universal approach to the calculation of accommodation awards. In recognising that there may be a windfall on the appellant’s death, the court had to consider whether it was possible to find a workable approach to establishing the value of that windfall. The judge accepted the appellant’s argument that it was not bound by Roberts on the basis that the reasoning in Roberts was a means to an end rather than a principle, or end in itself. Irwin LJ decided that the fair and reasonable approach to valuation relied on too many fixed assumptions. 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