An interesting little vignette today from the English CA on assignment. If you think your husband has been badly done by in hospital, can you teach the hospital a lesson it won't forget by buying a cause of action off-the-shelf for £1 from another badly-treated patient from the same hospital who wouldn't otherwise complain, and bringing suit on it yourself? No, say the CA. But interestingly, on a narrow ground. Personal injury actions aren't, as such, in their very nature unassignable: it's just that you don't have a sufficiently good reason for taking the assignment under Trendtex v Credit Suisse.

Interesting. Take the case of an employer who's paid his injured employee while he convalesces. I wonder whether he might have a legitimate interest in taking an assignment of the employee's right of action and suing the tortfeasor, thus getting round the English courts' long-standing refusal to allow him to sue direct. No doubt the insurance industry would scream blue murder: but come to think of it, that tactic didn't work in the Supreme Court in AXA v Lord Advocate [2011] UKSC 46.

For those interested, see Simpson v Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital NHS Trust [2011] EWCA Civ 1149.



Andrew