Martin-Lowe v Sellens

The case of Martin-Lowe v Sellens involved a plaintiff, currently aged seven, who was seeking damages for mental harm following the death of his father in a motor vehicle accident. The defendant, Sellens, filed an application to strike out the plaintiff's proceedings for want of dispatch, arguing that the proceedings should be dismissed due to the lack of an assessment of damages. Notably, no Medical Assessment Scale (MAS) assessment had been conducted for the plaintiff, and the plaintiff's tutor, the mother, was unwilling to allow the plaintiff to be examined by an independent medical assessor.

The court was required to decide whether the application to strike out the proceedings should be granted, considering the lack of a MAS assessment and the mother's refusal to permit an examination by an independent medical assessor. The legal issues included whether the absence of a MAS assessment constituted a sufficient ground for striking out the proceedings and whether the court should consider alternative courses of action.

The court dismissed the application to strike out the proceedings, finding that the absence of a MAS assessment did not necessarily justify striking out the proceedings. The court considered that alternative courses of action were available and should be pursued instead. The court placed the matter on the not-ready list and ordered that the matter was not to be further mentioned before the Registrar or a Judge in less than one year. Each party was directed to bear their own costs of the motion.