Farmers' not to blame for hormonal cow's unbalanced behaviour

A WOMAN whose fiancé was killed when their car collided with a hormonally unbalanced cow will go without a penny in compensation after an Appeal Court ruling.

Helen McKenny was driving home on the A614 near Driffield from Manchester Airport with fiancé Derek Shaw, 53, when they ran into a cow which had escaped from a nearby field.

The cow had just been put in a field on the opposite side of the road to a shed in which her recently-weaned calf was being kept, judges were told at the Court of Appeal (Civil Division) in London.

Driven to extraordinary behaviour by maternal hormones, the animal had 'high jumped' over a fence and 'long jumped' a cattle grid in a desperate attempt to get back to her calf, only to collide with Miss McKenny's car when it reached the road.

Miss McKenny, from Bridlington, suffered non life-threatening injuries in the crash on the evening of April 22, 2002, but Mr Shaw died.

The couple had just arrived back in the country following a holiday in Gran Canaria.

Miss McKenny and Mr Shaw's son, Andrew, sued Nafferton farmers Chris, Mark and Peter Foster, trading as C Foster Partnership, for £120,000 in damages for her injuries and Mr Shaw's death, claiming they should have known the cow was disturbed and taken steps to restrain it.