Man in tree tragedy wins £2.5m damages

Royal Mail worker Jason Thatcher’s situation was particularly tragic as, although the severe injury to his brain stem had affected his mobility, independence and communication, his cognition was largely if not completely intact, Chris Bright QC said.

Before the January 2007 incident in Woodcote, Oxfordshire, Mr Thatcher, 38, was a normal family man, the lawyer told Mr Justice Eady at London’s High Court.

After months of rehabilitation in hospital and in Leonard Cheshire homes, it was now his very strong desire to return to his wife Sharon, and two young daughters – and the compensation would allow that to happen with the purchase of a specially-adapted house and a lifelong care package.

Mr Bright said that the whole extended family had been unfailing in the selfless care and devotion they had shown Mr Thatcher since the accident, visiting him almost every day. Mr Thatcher and his wife were tenants of Sovereign Housing Association, which acquired the land around Walker Close in 1998, which had been the site of an arboretum.

Mr Bright said that Sovereign, of Newbury, Berkshire, had consistently denied liability and, if the case had gone to trial, there would have been a significant risk of Mr Thatcher recovering nothing.

Mr Thatcher’s case on breach of duty and causation was not straightforward and would have been pitched against the background that the enormous Atlantic cedar was otherwise healthy.

The judge approved the agreed settlement, which includes a £100,000 payment to the family for its past care and which Mr Bright said would fund holidays and an enhanced quality of life.