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SCMP Reporter

An 18-year gap would not necessarily deprive a doctor accused of negligence of a fair hearing, the Court of Appeal ruled yesterday.

 Former inspector of works for the Mass Transit Railway Corporation Nathaniel Hymer was given permission to bring Dr Richard Wood back into his multimillion-dollar lawsuit for damages.

 Mr Hymer, a Briton in his 50s, claims he suffered the bends - decompression sickness - while working underground for 18 months in the early 1980s.

 He is suing the MTRC, main contractors Kumagai Gumi and Nishimatsu Construction, Dr Wood and Dr Vio & Partners, the firm in which Dr Wood was then a partner.

 'It is no doubt the case that, generally, the passage of time dims memories. However, this does not necessarily mean that a fair trial cannot be conducted,' Mr Justice Robert Ribeiro said in the Court of Appeal.

 The court has heard Mr Hymer developed the symptoms at work between September 1982 and July 1984.

 He accused Dr Wood, who was then a doctor for MTR workers, of negligence in January 1984 for failing to examine his fitness to be in decompression chambers.

 The doctor and his former practice successfully applied to Mr Justice Azizul Suffiad last September to strike out Mr Hymer's action against them.

 But Mr Justice Ribeiro, with Mr Justice Gerald Godfrey and Mr Justice Anthony Rogers, reversed the decision.

  'I have considerable sympathy for the doctors,' Mr Justice Ribeiro said, noting that they would have suffered anxiety for 'a very long time as a result of having the case hang over their heads'.

 However, the anxiety would not cease but be prolonged for the doctors even if the claim against them was struck out, the judge said, as other defendants were likely to involve them in the case.



Fair hearing for doctor possible 18 years on, rules judge