Thompson & Ors v Arnold [2007] EWHC 1875 (QB), was a law on damages case where the existing case law (Read v Great Eastern Railway (1868) LR 3 QB 555)[4] reaffirmed that damages awarded for a claim for personal injury were deemed to have already been awarded, even if death ensued as a consequence of personal injury.

Her lifetime action was settled for the sum of £120,000 in "full and final satisfaction of her claim", however, she had first obtained judgment in default of defence because liability was not in question at that stage.

However, her legal representatives appeared to have been unaware that a Fatal Accidents Act claim could not be brought by dependants in the situation where the deceased had already been awarded damages.

[7] When the case came before the High Court on 7 April 2005, the defence sought direction on the preliminary issue that the action could not be brought since the damages claim of the deceased had been settled during her lifetime.

[3][12] Langstaff J stated that in effect, the fatality would be the circumstance which engaged the right of action under FAA 1976 in the first place and it followed that this would have given rise to the prospect of "impermissible double recovery"[2] which would have been an abuse of process.

[7] The mistake was that the legal representatives appeared to be unaware that a claim under the Fatal Accidents Act could not be brought where the deceased had already been awarded, or had agreed, damages for their injury.

Any action to recover damages in respect of the injury due to Dr Arnold's negligence was precluded from the point Wendy Thompson settled her claim.