12KBW Silk makes it into the Racing Post
Article in full:
Stud make confidential pay-out to injured groom
STUD groom Robert Lacey on Tuesday won a confidential compensation pay-out at London's High Court in a case brought against the late Fahd Salman’s Newgate Stud in Dorset.
Lacey, 52, suffered head injuries and faced life in a wheelchair after he was kicked in the head while treating the hind legs of My Way at the stud near Gillingham in August 2001.
On Tuesday, on the second day of a High Court hearing, the Newgate Stud Company agreed to settle Lacey’s claim without making any admission of liability and on terms which have been kept confidential.
Given the extreme severity of Mr Lacey's injuries, his payout is likely to be very substantial. Millions of pounds have been awarded in similar cases.
Mr Lacey, who now lives near Yeovil, Somerset, was an expert stud groom with a key role and “lost the job he loved” as a result of his devastating injuries, his QC, Susan Rodway, earlier told Mr Justice McKinnon.
She said he had no recollection of the “straightforward but tragic” accident and claimed it occurred as Mr Lacey was treating the hind legs of My Way while another horse, Dayanata, stood close by.
The two horses’ handlers, she claimed, were at fault in failing to keep the mounts sufficiently far apart to prevent such a calamity, particularly as Mr Lacey was crouched down in the “absolute danger zone”.
She told the judge the “nub of her case” was that the groom’s employers “should have ensured the horses were kept a proper distance apart” and the horses' handlers had broken “a cardinal, golden rule that horses are to be kept out of kicking and biting distance”.
Newgate Stud Company, which has bred a number of top-class race horses including Oaks heroine Ramruma, maintained there was “no deficiency” in its system of work and it was a “tragic accident”.
Mr David Westcott QC, for the stud farm, said he had been deeply moved by seeing Mr Lacey in person and reading his diaries, in which the care lavished upon him by his wife, Jacqui, shone through.
The stud company was “happy it has been possible to resolve the case” and, wishing the couple all the best for the future, Mr Westcott told the judge: “Nobody who has read those diaries could be other than struck by the qualities of both Mrand Mrs Lacey.”
Mr Lacey's solicitor, Mr John Webster, said later: “We are pleased that we have been able to settle this case. Mr and Mrs Lacey are a marvellous couple and they're very relieved to be able to put all this behind them.”
Miss Rodway earlier told the court that, “by good fortune”, Mr Lacey had emerged with his intellect entirely intact, although he has been left with “severe motor problems”.
Allan Gore QC "down to earth and tremendously empathetic with clients" "great intellect, sound judgement and forthright advice" "one of the most in demand personal injury barristers of the moment" (Chambers and Partners 2009)
