F1Part IIA Prescription of Obligations and Limitation of Actions under Part I of the Consumer Protection Act 1987
Limitation of actions
22C Actions under the 1987 Act where death has resulted from personal injuries.
(1)
This section shall apply to an action to enforce an obligation arising from liability under section 2 of the 1987 Act (to make reparation for damage caused wholly or partly by a defect in a product) where a person has died from personal injuries and the damages claimed include damages for those personal injuries or that death.
(2)
Subject to subsection (4) below, an action to which this section applies shall not be competent unless it is commenced within the period of 3 years after the later of—
(a)
the date of death of the injured person;
(b)
the earliest date on which the person seeking to make (or a person who could at an earlier date have made) the claim was aware, or on which, in the opinion of the court, it was reasonably practicable for him in all the circumstances to become aware—
(i)
that there was a defect in the product;
(ii)
that the injuries of the deceased were caused (or partly caused) by the defect; and
(iii)
that the defender was a person liable for the damage under the said section 2.
(3)
Where the person seeking to make the claim is a relative of the deceased, there shall be disregarded in the computation of the period mentioned in subsection (2) above any period during which that relative was under legal disability by reason of nonage or unsoundness of mind.
(4)
Where an action to which section 22B of this Act applies has not been brought within the period mentioned in subsection (2) of that section and the person subsequently dies in consequence of his injuries, an action to which this section applies shall not be competent in respect of those injuries or that death.
(5)
Where a person would be entitled, but for this section, to bring an action for reparation other than one in which the damages claimed are confined to damages for loss of or damage to property, the court may, if it seems to it equitable to do so, allow him to bring the action notwithstanding this section.
(6)
In this section “ relative ” has the same meaning as in the Damages (Scotland) Act 2011 .
(7)
For the purposes of subsection (2)(b) above there shall be disregarded knowledge of whether particular facts and circumstances would or would not, as a matter of law, result in liability for damage under the said section 2.