Hylton Armstrong helps secure settlement of £4.6m in liability disputed clinical negligence birth injury claim

In the case of PTH (by his mother and litigation friend MJS) v Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Hylton was led by Henry Pitchers KC of No.5 Chambers and instructed by Anna Sari and Roisin Hulme of Morrish Solicitors. 

The Claimant, who has the benefit of an anonymity order, sustained a profound and life changing hypoglycaemic brain injury in the first days of his life.  As a result, the Claimant has global developmental delay, no visual function, microcephaly, drug resistant epilepsy, and poor oromotorskills.   The Claimant is also non-verbal, doubly incontinent, and fully gastrostomy fed.   Overall, the Claimant is classified as having the most severe level of neuro-disability (GFMCS Level 5).  

The Claimant’s case was that immediately after birth he was not properly breastfeeding, that he should not have been discharged, and that if he had remained in hospital he would have been treated with IV dextrose and avoided any injury.   

The Defendant’s case was that there were no problems with the Claimant’s feeding, it was reasonable to discharge, and that the Claimant’s deterioration and brain injury occurred after he was discharged and so was unavoidable.   

Proceedings were issued in the Leeds District Registry.  An order was made for a split trial on the issue of liability. The parties obtained like-for-like expert evidence in the fields of midwifery, neuroradiology, neonatology, endocrinology, and paediatric neurology.  The matter was listed for a 7-day liability trial.  Save for the neuroradiologists, all the experts would have been expected to give oral evidence at trial.  However, at a second Joint Settlement Meeting the partiesexchanged offers and managed to reach an agreement to settle the claim for a lump sum of £4.6m.  

On 23 March 2026, which would have been the first day of trial, HHJ Mark Gargan (sitting as a Judge of the High Court) approved the settlement and stated “I take the view the approach to overall quantification taken by Mr Pitchers and Mr Armstrong is very sensible. They have applied their wealth of experience and also some judicial reasoning in a similar case to obtain a ballpark figure for quantum.  They have then looked at the prospects of success and evaluated the risks and come to the conclusion that this settlement of £4.6m is appropriate.  I endorse that view.  It seems to me this is a case where for the family such a substantial sum of money gives them a real opportunity to provide for the Claimant’s care in the future to enable him to have the best quality of life open to him, in circumstances where refusing the offer could leave him in a difficult situation indeed”.  

In anticipation of the approval hearing the Claimant made anexpedited application to the Court of Protection to appoint Ruth Wright and Jemma Morland of EMG Solicitors to be his professional deputies.  The Claimant’s mother and litigation friend had also managed to find and agree a price for the purchase of a fully adapted single story level access property.  The settlement damages therefore represent a lifechanging amount of money for a Claimant who sustained life changing injuries.