The claimant sought damages alleging having been bullied and harassed at work.
Held: The questions to be determined when considering whether alleged bullying and harassment give rise to a potential liability in negligence were: ‘(i) whether the claimant has established that the conduct complained of in the Particulars of Claim took place and, if so, whether it amounted to bullying or harassment in the ordinary connotation of those terms. In addressing this question it is the cumulative effect of the conduct which has to be considered rather than the individual incidents relied on;
(ii) did the person or persons involved in the victimisation or bullying know, or ought they reasonably to have known, that their conduct might cause the claimant harm;
(iii) could they, by the exercise of reasonable care, have taken steps which would have avoided that harm and
(iv) were their actions so connected with their employment as to render the defendant vicariously responsible for them. ‘
Gray J
[2003] EWHC 50 QB
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Helen Green v DB Group Services (UK) Ltd QBD 1-Aug-2006
The claimant sought damages from her former employers, asserting that workplace bullying and harassment had caused injury to her health. She had had a long term history of depression after being abused as a child, and the evidence was conflicting, . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Employment, Personal Injury
Updated: 10 December 2021; Ref: scu.244173