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Neutral Citation Number:
Reported Number: R(A)3/94
File Number: CA 117 1991
Appellant: Mallinson v. Secretary of State
Respondent:
Judge/Commissioner: Mrs R. F. M. Heggs
Date Of Decision: 21/04/1994
Date Added: 26/06/2002
Main Category: DLA, AA: personal care
Main Subcategory: bodily functions
Secondary Category: DLA, AA: personal care
Secondary Subcategory: supervision: continual daytime
Notes: Attention - blind person requiring guidance - whether “attention .... in connection with his bodily functions” The claimant, who was blind, required assistance to bath and to cut up food. He was able to walk, but required guidance when walking out of doors in unfamiliar surroundings. A delegated medical practitioner acting on behalf of the Attendance Allowance Board found that the claimant did not satisfy either the day or night conditions for attendance allowance. There was no issue as to the night time conditions. On appeal the Commissioner (in decision on Commissioners’ file No. CA/117/1991) found that the DMP had not erred in law in that he had correctly considered the assistance required by the claimant when walking as “supervision” rather than “attention … in connection with his bodily functions”. On 1 April 1993 the Court of Appeal (Ralph Gibson and Mann LJJ, Nolan LJ dissenting) affirmed the decision of the Commissioner. On 21 April 1994 the House of Lords (Lord Templeman, Lord Browne-Wilkinson and Lord Woolf, Lord Mustill and Lord Lloyd dissenting) allowed an appeal by the claimant and Held that: 1. the guidance that a blind person requires when walking in unfamiliar surroundings constitutes “attention” and not “supervision”; 2. attention is “in connection with a bodily function” if it provides a substitute method of providing what the bodily function would provide if it were not totally or partially impaired; 3. the attention which the claimant received when walking was in connection with the bodily function of seeing.
Decision(s) to Download: A3_94.doc A3_94.doc