Negligence – Causation. The claimant broke his neck and was attended to by an ambulance crew, for whose actions the defendant was legally responsible. The assessment by the paramedic was negligent and it was only after he arrived at hospital that the correct diagnosis was made. The central issue to be determined was whether the admitted failure to immobilise the claimant's neck was responsible for at least part of his residual disability. The Queen's Bench Division held that, on the evidence, that there was evidence of both manhandling and deterioration in the case sufficiently compelling to support the conclusion that the manhandling was responsible for the deterioration. The claim therefore had to be quantified with reference to the 'but for' assessments of comparative function.