Alain Choo Choy QC and Alex Polley acted for Network Rail in claims against the employers of heavy goods vehicle drivers who negligently collided with parts of the railway infrastructure (so-called “bridge strikes”). In each case the relevant line section was closed for a time after the accident, causing delays and knock-on delays across the rail network. There are over a thousand such accidents, costing Network Rail millions of pounds, every year. By the end of the trial the principal remaining issues related to the recoverability in tort of loss suffered by Network Rail, in the form of contractual liabilities to train operating companies incurred by Network Rail because of the delays to their rail services. The defendants argued that those liabilities were not sufficiently consequential on damage to Network Rail’s property to avoid the operation of the general rule against the recovery of pure economic loss in tort; that they represented irrecoverable types of loss in tort; and that they were not reasonably foreseeable. They therefore argued that the losses were not recoverable by Network Rail as a matter of law. Mr Justice Akenhead rejected these arguments and held that the losses were recoverable in the torts of negligence and trespass.
Alain Choo Choy QC and Alex Polley were instructed by Hay & Kilner on behalf of Network Rail.