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27.10.11

Horse Solicitor wins veterinary negligence claim for wrongful insemination

HorseSolicitor wins veterinary negligence claim for wrongful insemination

The circumstances of the case were that a mare was sent to stud (accompanied by her filly) on the 18 July 2011 to be put in to foal with frozen semen with the stallion X.

X was chosen for this mare in line with a specific breeding programme that our client had been pursuing for a number of years. The aim was to breed a homozygeous colt and as such our client had purchased 3 doses of the stallion X’s semen to give her a good chance.

The vet tagged the mare’s head collar so that he would know with which stallion the mare was to be put in foal. He also wrote it in his folder to which he referred prior to inseminating the mare.

Our client paid for 3 doses of frozen semen of Sanyo, transport and also health papers costing her £700 and the insemination fee in the sum of £270.00.

On the 23 June 2011 our client was informed that there had been a mistake and that the vet had wrongfully inseminated her mare with the wrong stallion. The vet was not sure at this stage whether or not the mare was in foal. On 3 July 2011 he contacted our client to say that the mare was not in foal. Then on the 6 July 2011 our client was again contacted to say that he had missed the pregnancy and that she was in fact in foal.

HorseSolicitor sent a letter of claim to the practice detailing our client’s financial losses that arose as a result of his negligence. Our client sent a container to collect the 3 doses of semen that she had paid for. On 19 September 2011 HorseSolicitor received a telephone call from our client informing us that the vet was unreasonably refusing to release her property to her. HorseSolicitor notified the Veterinary Defence Society and they rightly advised the vet to release our client’s property to her immediately. The vet released the 3 doses of semen but upon receipt the doses were ruined due to the container being dry.

Liability was denied in relation to the semen that was destroyed. It was further argued by the Defendant that there was no financial loss given the value of the semen that had been wrongfully inseminated. They argued that an expensive foal was going to be produced in any event. This argument was rejected and HorseSolicitor threatened court proceedings.

HorseSolicitor successfully pursued the practice for the cost of the Stallion’s covering fee in respect of the semen that had been wrongfully inseminated, the cost of the covering certificate and a further £700 to cover our client’s losses in relation to the semen that was destroyed.