Cousins, Genetic Diagnosis and Liability of Clinicians: Smith & Another V University of Leicester NHS Trust [2016] EWHC 817 (QB).

This comment analyses the recent High Court decision in Smith & Another v University of Leicester NHS Trust. In this case, the court struck out a claim brought by a patient's second cousins regarding their failure to provide the patient with an accurate diagnosis, which would have resulted in the claimants being diagnosed with hereditary disease earlier than they in fact were. The claimants argued that the doctors' failure to conduct the test caused harm and a duty of care was owed in respect of the patient's relatives. The defendant conceded the issue of foreseeable harm but argued a duty was not fair, just, and reasonable when treating the patient and no other, or, alternately, if the duty was to inform then the cousins was insufficiently proximate. It is argued in this comment that the judge was correct to reject the claim but that aspects of the judgment demanded greater analysis.