The Supreme Court Sends Harmful Vaccine Case into Deadlock

The Supreme Court have sent a vaccine case into deadlock after the case became time-barred. Declan O'Byrne was given two anti-meningitis vaccines that his family claim have left him partially brain damaged. They initially made a medical negligence claim against Aventis Pasteur MSD, the distributor of the vaccine, within the strict ten year deadline for a claim to be made. However they were told that they needed to make the claim against the vaccine's manufacturer instead, and by the time they had the ten year limit had run out.

The claimant initially secured a substitution of the defendent in the Court of Appeals, however this was later overruled bybthe European Court of Justice, despite laws put in place thatallow the substitution of a claim to a parent company in cases such as these. This had left the claimant's personal injury solicitors baffled as the only explanation for the ruling is that, in O'Byrne's case, the manufacturer Aventis Pasteur SA is not considered the parent company of the distributor, Aventis Pasteur MSD.