Re: Anton Dochev

Jamie Clarke acted in this employer’s liability fatal accident claim brought by the widow of Anton Dochev.

Mr Dochev was struck by a scaffolding pole as he was waiting in the designated smoking area at a development site, whilst scaffolding was being dismantled above him.

Only quantum was in dispute at trial, and issues of wider interest would have included the status of the proceedings where there was no grant of probate and the application of the Ogden tables to a claim brought by the dependent of a Bulgarian national who had spent most of his life in Bulgaria and who may have repatriated at or before retirement.

In projecting Mr Docheva’s future earning capacity for the purposes of her financial dependency claim, his widow’s schedule relied on the Ogden Tables.  As is clear from the introduction to the Ogden Tables, the multipliers are based on mortality rates data taken from the National Census of England and Wales. Jamie was set to argue on behalf of the employer and its insurer that the shorthand for calculating future losses using Ogden multipliers, rather than bespoke evidence, cannot apply where the Claimant had not been born (or at least spent a substantial period of his life) in England and Wales. Data published by the UN shows that mortality rates in Bulgaria may be as much as 10 years lower than those for men in the UK (so not just England and Wales) of equivalent age to Mr Dochev.

This argument in relation to the application of the Ogden Tables, in particular following the upwards revisions of the multipliers in the 7th edition, may be of more general interest in claims for accidents on construction sites in London, which commonly feature claims by non-UK nationals.

Following Jamie’s input in preparation for a High Court trial, the case settled on the eve of trial.