Lawyers for the company, Medtel, had argued the pacemaker had not actually failed while being used by Mr Courtney.
Mr Courtney's lawyer said today's decision is an important landmark for all the people with the Tempo pacemaker. "This judgment will obviously benefit the thousand or so people who were affected by this product, and I think it's very pleasing the court has accepted our argument that patients who receive defective medical devices are entitled to compensation," he said.
He says it sets a precedent for the other 500 people involved in a class action.
"The company argued that the devices were only defected after they failed and weren't defective simply because they had a propensity for failure."
All four judges have now accepted the fact that they were defective and had an added risk of failure that led to their withdrawal or removal was sufficient to render them unmerchantable and sufficient to entitle individual consumers to compensation."
Reference
ABC News [online] 7th July 2003.