Category: Damages

Cape Distribution Ltd v Cape Intermediate Holdings Plc: QBD 19 Jul 2016

Further judgment

Picken J
[2016] EWHC 1786 (QB)
Bailii
Civil Liability (Contribution) Act 1978
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Hanak v Green CA 1958
A builder was sued for his failure to complete the works he had contracted for. The buider sought a set-off against that claim of three of his one claims. One, under the contract, was for losses from the defendant’s refusal to allow his workmen . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 20 January 2022; Ref: scu.567289

Bracewell v Appleby: ChD 1975

The defendant wrongly used and asserted a right of way over a private road to a house which he had built.
Held: To restrain the defendant from using the road would render the new house uninhabitable. The court refused an injunction on the grounds of the plaintiff’s delay in commencing proceedings. The defendant was ‘liable to pay an amount of damages which so far as it can be estimated is equivalent to a proper and fair price which would be payable for the acquisition of the right of way in question.’
Graham J said: ‘I think that for the purposes of estimating damages [the plaintiffs] and the other servient owners in Hill Road, albeit reluctant, must be treated as being willing to accept a fair price for the right of way in question and must not be treated as if they were in the extremely powerful bargaining position which an interlocutory injunction would have given them if it had been obtained before the defendant started operations and incurred expense. Such is to my mind the penalty of standing by until the house is built.
On the evidence here the probable figure of notional profit which the defendant has made, being the difference between the overall cost of the new house and its present-day value seems to be somewhere between andpound;4,000 and andpound;6,000 and I think it is fair to take andpound;5,000 as about as accurate a figure as one can get. The circumstances here are very different from those in the Wrotham Park case and I think that the proper approach is to endeavour to arrive at a fair figure which, on the assumption made, the parties would have arrived at as one which the plaintiffs would accept as compensating them for loss of amenity and increased user [of the private road], and which at the same time, whilst making the blue land a viable building plot, would not be so high as to deter the defendant from building at all. . . . I think he would have been prepared to pay what is relatively to his notional profit quite a large sum for the right of way in question and to achieve the building of his new home. This was a time of rising property values and I think he would have been prepared to pay andpound;2,000 to get his right of way and if he had made such an offer, I think the other five owners in Hill Road ought also to have been prepared to accept it.. . . ‘

Graham J
[1975] Ch 408
England and Wales
Citing:
Distinguished – Wrotham Park Estate Ltd v Parkside Homes Ltd ChD 1974
55 houses had been built by the defendant, knowingly in breach of a restrictive covenant, imposed for the benefit of an estate, and in the face of objections by the claimant.
Held: The restrictive covenant not to develop other than in . .

Cited by:
Cited – Wrotham Park Settled Estates v Hertsmere Borough Council CA 12-Apr-1993
Land had been purchased under compulsory purchase powers. It had been subject to restrictive covenants in favour of neighbouring land which would have prevented the development now implemented. The question was how the compensation should be . .
Cited – Tito v Waddell (No 2); Tito v Attorney General ChD 1977
Equity applies its doctrines to the substance, not the form, of transactions. In respect of the rule against self dealing for trustees ‘But of course equity looks beneath the surface, and applies its doctrines to cases where, although in form a . .
Cited – Surrey County Council v Bredero Homes Ltd CA 7-Apr-1993
A local authority had sold surplus land to a developer and obtained a covenant that the developer would develop the land in accordance with an existing planning permission. The sole purpose of the local authority in imposing the covenant was to . .
Cited – Carr-Saunders v Dick McNeill Associates 1986
The claim was for interference with the plaintiff’s right to light.
Held: There is a need to approach infringements of easements of light with flexibility. The plaintiff’s subjective views as to the loss of light were not to the point. When . .
Cited – Severn Trent Water Ltd v Barnes CA 13-May-2004
The water company appealed an award of damages after it had been found to have laid a water main under the claimant’s land without his knowledge or consent. The court had awarded restitutionary damages.
Held: The judge fell into error in . .
Cited – Midtown Ltd v City of London Real Property Company Ltd ChD 20-Jan-2005
Tenants occupied land next to land which was to be developed after compulsory acquisition. The tenants and the landlords asserted a right of light over the land, and sought an injunction to prevent the development. The developer denied that any . .
Cited – Anchor Brewhouse Developments -v Berkley House (Docklands) Developments 1987
A crane which passes its boom over private land without permission creates an actionable nuisance. Damages could not be awarded so as to remove the plaintiff’s right to bring actions for trespass in the future if the trespass continued: ‘I find some . .
Cited – Small v Oliver and Saunders (Developments) Ltd ChD 25-May-2006
The claimant said his property had the benefit of covenants in a building scheme so as to allow him to object to the building of an additional house on a neighbouring plot in breach of a covenant to build only one house on the plot. Most but not all . .
Cited – Tamares (Vincent Square) Ltd. v Fairpoint Properties (Vincent Square) Ltd ChD 8-Feb-2007
The defendant had been found liable for infringing the claimant’s right of light. The court considered the proper measure of damages.
Held: The court should ask what might be the fair result of a hypothetical negiation for the sale of the . .
Cited – WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) and Another v World Wrestling Federation Entertainment Inc CA 2-Apr-2007
The parties had disputed use of the initals WWF, with a compromise reached in 1994 allowing primary use by the Fund with restricted use by the Federation. The Federation now appealed an award of damages made after a finding of a breach of the . .
Cited – Star Energy Weald Basin Ltd and Another v Bocardo Sa SC 28-Jul-2010
The defendant had obtained a licence to extract oil from its land. In order to do so it had to drill out and deep under the Bocardo’s land. No damage at all was caused to B’s land at or near the surface. B claimed in trespass for damages. It now . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land, Damages

Updated: 20 January 2022; Ref: scu.186372

Jefford v Gee: CA 4 Mar 1970

The courts of Scotland followed the civil law in the award of interest on damages. The court gave examples of the way in which they apply the ex mora rule when calculating the interest payable in a judgment. If money was wrongfully withheld, then the courts had power to award interest during the period of delay between the time the money was legally and ascertainably due and the time when the court ordered that it should be paid.
The court established the principles for awarding interest on damages awards in personal injuries cases: ‘Therefore if I could see my way to do so, I should certainly be disposed to give the appellants, or anybody in a similar position, interest upon the amount withheld from the time of action brought at all events.’ and ‘It should only be awarded to a plaintiff for being kept out of money which ought to have been paid to him’ and ‘We applied this principle very recently in Harbutt’s ‘Plasticine’ Ltd . . . where we all agreed in saying: ‘the basis of an award of interest is that the defendant has kept the plaintiff out of his money; and the defendant has had the use of it himself. So he ought to compensate the plaintiff accordingly’.’ The court used published short term interest rates. The half rate approach was used because interest was not large enough to warrant minute attention to detail. The half rate was a reasonable approximation. In relation to benefits, the plaintiff (whilst he received no interest on the moiety for which he gave credit against damages) did not have to give credit in the interest calculation in respect of his windfall receipt of the other moiety of benefits paid.

Lord Denning MR
[1970] 2 QB 130, [1970] EWCA Civ 8, [1970] 1 All ER 1202, [1970] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 107, [1970] 2 WLR 702
Bailii
Scotland
Citing:
Cited – London, Chatham and Dover Railway Co v South Eastern Railway Co HL 1893
The Lord Chancellor was considering the position of a creditor whose debtor refused to exchange accounts as agreed, thus preventing the creditor from quantifying the debt.
Held: The House declined to alter the rule in Page -v- Newman.
Cited by:
Cited – Lesotho Highlands Development Authority v Impregilo Spa and others CA 31-Jul-2003
The parties went to arbitration to resolve disputes in a construction contract. The award appeared to have been made for payment in currencies different from those set out in the contract. The question was asked as to whether the award of interest . .
Cited – Spittle v Bunney CA 1988
The plaintiff made a claim in damages for the loss of her mother’s services.
Held: In assessing a FAA claim on behalf of a child a judge, directing himself as he would a jury, was, in valuing the mothers services to take into account the . .
Cited – Eagle (By Her Litigation Friend) v Chambers CA 29-Jul-2004
The claimant had been severely injured, and a substantial damages award made. Cross appeals were heard as to the several elements awarded. The claimant sought as part of her award of damages for personal injuries the fees she would have to pay to . .
Cited – Adcock v Co-Operative Insurance Society Ltd CA 26-Apr-2000
The claimant claimed under his fire insurance with the defendants. He sought damages for their delay in processing the claim.
Held: The power to award interest on damages is discretionary. The judge had refused to allow interest, at a rate . .
Cited – Knight v Axa Assurances QBD 24-Jul-2009
The claimant was injured in a car accident in France. The defendant insurer said that the quantification of damages was to be according to French law and the calculation of interest also. The claimant said that English law applied.
Held: The . .
Cited – Dexter v Courtaulds Ltd CA 1984
The plaintiff had been injured at work, and awarded damages, including for loss of wages. The parties disputed the method of calculation of interest on the damages.
Held: To avoid the laborious detailed calaculations of interest from day to . .
Cited – Cookson v Knowles CA 1977
Lord Denning MR said: ‘In Jefford v Gee . . we said that, in personal injury cases, when a lump sum is awarded for pain and suffering and loss of amenities, interest should run ‘ from the date of service of the ‘writ to the date of trial’. At that . .
Cited – Pickett v British Rail Engineering HL 2-Nov-1978
Lost Earnings claim Continues after Death
The claimant, suffering from mesothelioma, had claimed against his employers and won, but his claim for loss of earnings consequent upon his anticipated premature death was not allowed. He began an appeal, but then died. His personal representatives . .
Cited – Revenue and Customs v Joint Administrators of Lehman Brothers International (Europe) SC 13-Mar-2019
The Court was asked whether interest payable under rule 14.23(7) of the Insolvency Rules 2016 is ‘yearly interest’ within the meaning of section 874 of the Income Tax Act 2007. If so, the administrators must deduct income tax before paying interest . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Scotland, Personal Injury

Updated: 17 January 2022; Ref: scu.185179

Halstead v Council of City of Manchester: CA 23 Oct 1997

Land had been compulsorily purchased, and the compensation agreed, but after long delays in payment, not as to the calculation of interest.
Held: Interest would be payable from the date of entry. The limitation period arose only once the amount of interest payable was agreed.

[1997] EWCA Civ 2555, [1998] 1 All ER 33
Bailii
Compulsory Purchase Act 1965 11(1), Limitation Act 1980 9(1)
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Riches v Westminster Bank Ltd HL 1947
The amount of interest payable on compulsory purchase of land depends upon the value given to the land and the length of the period from the time of entry until reinstatement, the period during which the claimant is dispossessed. During that time, . .
Cited – West Midland Baptist (Trust) Association (Inc) v Birmingham Corporation HL 1970
The mere fact that an enactment shows that Parliament must have thought that the law was one thing, does not preclude the courts from deciding that the law was in fact something different. The position would be different if the provisions of the . .
Cited – Director of Buildings and Lands v Shun Fung Ironworks Ltd PC 20-Feb-1995
Compensation is payable for losses properly anticipating resumption of possession of the land. The principle of equivalence gives rise to the statutory right to interest under section 11(1). The council explained the conceptual foundation of the . .
Cited – Moore and Another v Gadd and Another CA 5-Feb-1997
The normal limitation period applies to directors’ disqualification applications. . .
Cited – Hillingdon London Borough Council v ARC Ltd ChD 12-Jun-1997
The Council had taken possession of the company’s land under compulsory purchase powers, but the company delayed its claim for compensation, and the Council now said that the claim was time barred.
Held: The claim was indeed time barred. The . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land, Damages, Limitation

Updated: 17 January 2022; Ref: scu.142954

Target Holdings Ltd v Redferns (A Firm) and Another: HL 21 Jul 1995

The defendant solicitors had acted for a purchaser, Crowngate, which had agreed to buy a property from a company called Mirage for andpound;775,000. Crowngate had arranged however that the property would first be passed through a chain of two intermediate purchaser companies, Panther and Kohli, with Kohli then selling to Crowngate at a stated price of andpound;2,000,000. Crowngate applied to Target for a loan to fund the purchase from Kohli based on this higher sale price, supported by a valuation of the property at andpound;2m. The solicitors also acted for Target and were aware of the chain arrangement that inflated the purchase price, but did not disclose it to Target which agreed to lend andpound;1.7m on the security of the property, of which about andpound;1.5m was to fund the price payable to Kohli.
The solicitors received the andpound;1.5m on 28 June 1989. The following day they paid most of it to Panther (not Kohli) and on 30 June Panther used part of those funds to complete its purchase from Mirage at the agreed price of andpound;775,000.
Held: A solicitor, when he receives the money, does so as agent of the lending institution and holds it as bare trustee for the lending institution. Such a trustee acting in breach of trust is liable only for damages flowing from the breach itself. Trustees are not liable for a beneficiary’s loss if that loss is not a consequence of the breach. Damages payable for money paid out in breach of trust may be reduced by inevitable losses which would have run in any event.
Lord Browne-Wilkinson held the basic rule to be: ‘that a trustee in breach of trust must restore or pay to the trust estate either the assets which have been lost to the estate by reason of the breach or compensation for such loss. Courts of Equity did not award damages but, acting in personam, ordered the defaulting trustee to restore the trust estate. If specific restitution of the trust property is not possible, then the liability of the trustee is to pay sufficient compensation to the trust estate to put it back to what it would have been had the breach not been committed.’ and ‘Equitable compensation for breach of trust is designed to achieve exactly what the word compensation suggests: to make good a loss in fact suffered by the beneficiaries and which, using hindsight and common sense, can be seen to have been caused by the breach.’

Lord Browne-Wilkinson
Gazette 06-Sep-1995, Times 21-Jul-1995, Independent 10-Aug-1995, [1996] 1 AC 421, [1995] UKHL 10, [1995] 3 All ER 785
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal From – Target Holdings Ltd v Redferns and Another CA 24-Nov-1993
Solicitors were liable to mortgagees for mortgage monies which had been out by them paid in advance of the completion of the purchase which would allow the mortgagee’s loan to be charged. The basic liability of a trustee in breach of trust was not . .

Cited by:
Cited – Hulbert and Others v Avens and Another ChD 30-Jan-2003
The claimant sought damages for breach of trust against the defendant solicitors, who had acted as trustees under deeds of trust. They claimed for losses incurred by way of penalties for the late payment of capital gains tax. The defendants said . .
Cited – Ultraframe (UK) Ltd v Fielding and others ChD 27-Jul-2005
The parties had engaged in a bitter 95 day trial in which allegations of forgery, theft, false accounting, blackmail and arson. A company owning patents and other rights had become insolvent, and the real concern was the destination and ownership of . .
Cited – Regina v Preddy; Regina v Slade; Regina v Dhillon (Conjoined Appeals) HL 10-Jul-1996
The appellants were said to have made false mortgage applications. They appealed convictions for dishonestly obtaining property by deception.
Held: A chose in action created by an electronic bank transfer was not property which was capable of . .
Cited – Don King Productions Inc v Warren and Others ChD 13-Apr-1998
Where partnership terms required benefit of all contracts to be assigned to the partnership, this included unassignable personal contracts which were to be held in trust for partnership, unless stated otherwise.
Lightman J said: ‘The existence . .
Cited – Barbados Trust Company Ltd v Bank of Zambia and Another CA 27-Feb-2007
The creditor had assigned the debt, but without first giving the debtor defendant the necessary notice. A challenge was made to the ability of the assignee to bring the action, saying that the deed of trust appointed to circumvent the reluctance of . .
Cited – Barbados Trust Company Ltd v Bank of Zambia and Another CA 27-Feb-2007
The creditor had assigned the debt, but without first giving the debtor defendant the necessary notice. A challenge was made to the ability of the assignee to bring the action, saying that the deed of trust appointed to circumvent the reluctance of . .
Cited – Harris v Kent and Another ChD 14-Mar-2007
The claimant said the defendant had failed to complete his promise to arrange for the issue of shares in a company in return for a loan. The defendant denied the contract.
Held: It had been agreed to treat the claimant as a fifty per cent . .
Cited – Lloyds TSB Bank Plc v Markandan and Uddin (A Firm) ChD 14-Oct-2010
The claimant sought damages saying that the defendant firm of solicitors had failed to deal properly with a conveyance having paid across the mortgage funds to a non-existent firm of solicitors and without obtaining the appropriate documents at all. . .
Cited – Cook v The Mortgage Business Plc CA 24-Jan-2012
The land owners sought relief from possession orders made under mortgages given in equity release schemes: ‘If the purchaser raises all or part of the purchase price on mortgage, and then defaults, the issue arises whether the mortgagee’s right to . .
Cited – AIB Group (UK) Plc v Mark Redler and Co Solicitors CA 8-Feb-2013
The defendant firm of solicitors had acted for the claimants under instructions to secure a first charge over the secured property. They failed to secure the discharge of the existing first charge, causing losses. AIB asserted breach of trust.
Cited – AIB Group (UK) Plc v Mark Redler and Co Solicitors SC 5-Nov-2014
Bank not to recover more than its losses
The court was asked as to the remedy available to the appellant bank against the respondent, a firm of solicitors, for breach of the solicitors’ custodial duties in respect of money entrusted to them for the purpose of completing a loan which was to . .
See Also – Target Holdings Limited v Redferns (a Firm) Alexander Stevens and Company Limited (T/a Alexander Stevens Druce) CA 16-Oct-1998
. .
Cited – Purrunsing v A’Court and Co (A Firm) and Another ChD 14-Apr-2016
The claimant had paid money for a property, but the seller was a fraudster and no money or title was recovered. The claimant sued both his conveyancers and the solicitors who had acted for the fraudster, in each case innocently. The defendants each . .
Cited – Revenue and Customs v Joint Administrators of Lehman Brothers International (Europe) SC 13-Mar-2019
The Court was asked whether interest payable under rule 14.23(7) of the Insolvency Rules 2016 is ‘yearly interest’ within the meaning of section 874 of the Income Tax Act 2007. If so, the administrators must deduct income tax before paying interest . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Legal Professions, Trusts, Damages

Updated: 17 January 2022; Ref: scu.89715

Riches v Westminster Bank Ltd: HL 1947

The amount of interest payable on compulsory purchase of land depends upon the value given to the land and the length of the period from the time of entry until reinstatement, the period during which the claimant is dispossessed. During that time, and possibly thereafter the owner has neither the land nor its value, and he is compensated for non-payment of its value by the award of interest. That is the classic function of such an award.
Lord Wright said: ‘the essence of interest is that it is a payment which becomes due because the creditor has not had his money at the due date. It may be regarded either as representing the profit he might have made if he had had the use of the money, or conversely the loss he suffered because he had not that use. The general idea is that he is entitled to compensation for the deprivation.’
The discretion under the 1934 Act applies regardless whether there is or is not a contractual right to interest which underlies the cause of action. Viscount Simon said: ‘The added amount may be regarded as given to meet the injury suffered through not getting payment of the lump sum promptly, but that does not alter the fact that what is added is interest.’
As to a submission to the effect that an order for interest under section 3 could not be interest within the meaning of the Income Tax Acts because the added sum only came into existence when the judgment was given and from that moment had no accretions under the order awarding it. Viscount Simon said: ‘But I see no reason why, when the judge orders payment of interest from a past date on the amount of the main sum awarded (or on a part of it) this supplemental payment, the size of which grows from day to day by taking a fraction of so much per cent per annum of the amount on which interest is ordered, and by the payment of which further growth is stopped, should not be treated as interest attracting income tax. It is not capital. It is rather the accumulated fruit of a tree which the tree produces regularly until payment.’
Addressing the submission that the payment under section 3 was, however described, in truth damages, Lord Wright said: ‘The appellant’s contention is in any case artificial and is in my opinion erroneous because the essence of interest is that it is a payment which becomes due because the creditor has not had his money at the due date. It may be regarded either as representing the profit he might have made if he had had the use of the money, or conversely the loss he suffered because he had not that use. The general idea is that he is entitled to compensation for the deprivation.’ Later he said: ‘It was said that the sum in question could not be interest at all because interest implies a recurrence of periodical accretions, whereas this sum came to existence uno flatu by the judgment of the court and was fixed once for all. But in truth it represented the total of the periodical accretions of interest during the whole time in which payment of the debt was withheld. The sum awarded was the summation of the total of all the recurring interest items.’
Lord Simonds addressed the same submission: ‘It was further urged on behalf of the appellant that the interest ordered to be paid to him was not ‘interest of money’ for the purpose of tax because it had no existence until it was awarded and did not have the quality of being recurrent or being capable of recurrence. This argument was founded on certain observations of Lord Maugham in Moss Empires Ltd v Inland Revenue Comrs [1937] AC 785, 795, in regard to the meaning of the word ‘annual’. It would be sufficient to say that we are here dealing with words in the Income Tax Act which do not include either ‘annual’ or ‘yearly’, but in any case I do not understand why a sum which is calculated upon the footing that it accrues de die in diem has not the essential quality of recurrence in sufficient measure to bring it within the scope of income tax. It is surely irrelevant that the calculation begins on one day and ends on another. It is more important to bear in mind that it is income.’

Lord Wright, Viscount Simon, Lord Simonds
[1947] AC 390, [1947] 1 All ER 469
Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1934 3(1)
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Halstead v Council of City of Manchester CA 23-Oct-1997
Land had been compulsorily purchased, and the compensation agreed, but after long delays in payment, not as to the calculation of interest.
Held: Interest would be payable from the date of entry. The limitation period arose only once the . .
Cited – Prudential Assurance Company Ltd v Revenue and Customs SC 25-Jul-2018
PAC sought to recover excess advance corporation tax paid under a UK system contrary to EU law. It was now agreed that some was repayable but now the quantum. Five issues separated the parties.
Issue I: does EU law require the tax credit to be . .
Cited – Revenue and Customs v Joint Administrators of Lehman Brothers International (Europe) SC 13-Mar-2019
The Court was asked whether interest payable under rule 14.23(7) of the Insolvency Rules 2016 is ‘yearly interest’ within the meaning of section 874 of the Income Tax Act 2007. If so, the administrators must deduct income tax before paying interest . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land, Damages

Updated: 17 January 2022; Ref: scu.187522

Manson v Skinner: SCS 7 Mar 2002

Effect of a tender when the sum ultimately awarded to the pursuer exceeds the amount of the tender, but only as a result of the accrual of interest.

Lord Justice Clerk
Lord Maclean

Lord Weir
[2002] ScotCS 61
Bailii
Scotland

Damages

Updated: 17 January 2022; Ref: scu.175382

Sheffield City Council v Oliver: CA 4 Apr 2017

The issue in this appeal is whether, when quantifying a service charge payable by a lessee under a long lease of residential property, credit must be given by the lessor in respect of a third party contribution towards the cost of carrying out repairs and improvements to the property, so as to avoid any element of double recovery by the lessor.

Longmore, Lewison, Briggs LJJ
[2017] EWCA Civ 225
Bailii
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Robinson (Formerly JR (Jamaica)) v Secretary of State for The Home Department SC 13-Mar-2019
Statutory right of appeal against decisions by the Secretary of State for the Home Department to refuse protection claims and human rights claims under Part 5 of the 2002 Act. Where a person has already had a human rights claim refused and there is . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Landlord and Tenant, Damages

Updated: 16 January 2022; Ref: scu.581346

Belkovic v DSG International Plc and Another: CANI 22 Sep 2015

The appellant appeals against the amount of damages awarded to him by Gillen LJ in an action for personal injuries and against the order in relation to costs subsequently made by the judge in the action.

Weir LJ , Treacy J, Maguire J
[2015] NICA 59
Bailii
Northern Ireland

Damages, Personal Injury

Updated: 16 January 2022; Ref: scu.560573

The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime v Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co (Europe) Ltd and Others: SC 20 Apr 2016

The Court considered the quantification of damages to be awarded to a business suffering under riots under the 1886 Act, and in particular whether such recoverable losses included compensation for consequential losses, including loss of profits and loss of rent, under section 2 of the 1886 Act, and if so on what basis.
Held: MOPC’s appeal succeeded. Thewording of the Act alone was not able to give a full answer, and recourse was reuired to the earlier legislation. There was no general prinsiple involved to esablish a duty of indemnity from the appellant to the victims. The 1827 Act made it clear that compensation was limited to physical damage. Subsequent stautory amendments and re-eactments didnothing to suggest an extension of that principle. Other earlier statutes had made specific provision for payment of damages to anything beyond damage to buildings, but this was absent from the 1886 Act which had not been intended to alter the basis of payment.
It was difficult to use the public policy of the common law as an interpretative tool because the statutory compensation has never sought to mirror the common law, but has created a self-contained regime for compensation for property damage caused by rioters.

Lord Neuberger, President, Lord Clarke, Lord Hughes, Lord Toulson, Lord Hodge
[2016] UKSC 18, [2016] AC 1488, [2016] 2 All ER (Comm) 483, [2016] WLR(D) 208, [2016] Lloyd’s Rep IR 411, [2016] 4 All ER 283, UKSC 2014/0165
Bailii, Bailii Summary, SC, SC Summary
Riot (Damages) Act 1886 2(1) 3(1), Riot Act 1714, Remedies against the Hundred (England) Act 1827, Criminal Law Act 1722, Malicious Injury Act 1769, Compensation for Injuries to Mills etc Act 1801, Malicious Damage Act 1812, Malicious Damage Act 1816, Seditious Meetings Act 1817, Riotous Assemblies Act 1822, Remedies against the Hundred (England) Act 1827
England and Wales
Citing:
At ComC – Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co (Europe) Ltd and Another v The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime ComC 12-Sep-2013
In the lead case, Sony’s warehouse at Enfield had been severely damaged in what were said to be riots in August 2011. The court considered preliminary issues as to whether the events constituted a riot within the 1886 Act, and the extent of damages . .
At CA – Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co (Europe) Ltd and Others v Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime CA 20-May-2014
The appellant had suffered damage in a riot, and, under the 1886 Act, the respondent was liable to pay compensation.
Held: The MOPC was liable to pay compensation by way of indemnity. Analysis of section 2(1) suggested compensation for loss . .
Cited – Ratcliffe v Eden et al KBD 22-Nov-1776
There had been a riot by sailors in Liverpool. The cort was asked whether the victim of a riot could recover compensation not only for the damage to his house but for also the destruction of the furniture and household goods within his house. The . .
Cited – Hyde v Cogan And Others 22-Jun-1781
After the anti-Catholic ‘Gordon Riots’ in London in June 1780, which caused extensive damage and destruction of property, including Lord Mansfield’s house in Bloomsbury Square, damages were claied from the local hundred. The hundred argued that the . .
Cited – Mason v Sainsbury 19-Apr-1782
A claim was made upon insurance after a riot. The court asked asked ‘Who is first liable?’ This was not an issue of chronology but of establishing where the primary responsibility lay to make good the loss. The Act laid the primary responsibility . .
Cited – London Assurance Company v SainsburyWood Immigration 28-Jun-1783
An insurance office having paid the assured the amount of the loss sustained by him in consequence of a demolishing by rioters, sued the hundredors under the stat. I G. 1, at. 2, e. 5, s. 6, in their own names. HeId by Lord Mansfield and Butler, J. . .
Cited – Yarl’s Wood Immigration Ltd and others v Bedfordshire Police Authority ComC 30-Sep-2008
The owners of the Yarslwood Immigration centre sought damages under the 1886 Act after a riot at the centre caused substantial damage.
Held: The claim failed: ‘The fact that YWIL and GSL [the appellants] were acting as public authorities . .
Cited – The Kate 1899
The Kate was totally lost in a collision with the defendants’ ship, whilst on the ballast leg of a charterparty. The issue was whether in a case of total loss as opposed to partial loss of a ship without a cargo, the plaintiffs could recover only . .
Cited – The ‘Columbus’ 9-Mar-1849
Where a vessel is sunk in a collision, and compensation is awarded by the Court of Admiralty to the full value of the vessel as for a total loss, the plaintiff will not be able to recover anything in the nature of a demurrage for loss of the . .
Cited – Hanlon v The Law Society HL 1981
The House considered the impact of the statutory charge under the 1974 Act in matrimonial proceedings.
Held: The costs in respect of which the statutory charge bit were the costs of the whole divorce proceedings and not just the financial . .
Cited – Bedfordshire Police Authority v Constable and others ComC 20-Jun-2008
The authority insured its primary liability for compensation under the 1886 Act through the claimants and the excess of liability through re-insurers. The parties sought clarification from the court of the respective liabilities of the insurance . .
Cited – St Mary’s Kenmure and Another v East Dunbartonshire Council and Another SCS 27-Dec-2012
The Court was asked whether section 10 of the 1822 Act provides a remedy to the operators and/ or the heritable proprietors of a secure unit residential facility. . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Police, Damages

Updated: 13 January 2022; Ref: scu.562187

Cockburn v Edwards: CA 2 Aug 1881

A solicitor advanced money to his client on a second mortgage, in which was inserted a power of sale exerciseable at any time without the usual proviso requiring that notice should be given, or some interest should be three months in arrear; and it was not shewn that he explained to the client that the power was not in the usual form. The solicitor afterwards took possession, and for several years received the rents, which, together with some payments made by the mortgagor, exceeded the interest on both mortgages. He then sold the property without notice. Held (affirming the decision of Fry, J), in an action by the mortgagor against the solicitor, that the omission from the power of sale of the usual qualifying clause was a breach of duty, and that the mortgagee was liable in damages as for an improper sale, unless it could be shewn that some interest was three months in arrear ; and whether the absence of explanation did not make it improper even if there was interest in arrear, quaere.
Held, that the fact that the mortgagee had received rents to an amount more than sufficient to pay the interest would not by itself prove that there was no interest in arrear if no appropriation was shewn to have been made.
The dictum in Brocklehurst v. Jessop overruled.
But held, that, as in an account sent by the mortgagee to the mortgagor the interest was treated as satisfied up to a certain day out of the rents, there was evidence of an arrangement that the rents should be applied in discharge of interest, and that, as the final account shewed that if the rents were thus appropriated there would be no interest in arrear at the time of sale, the sale was improper.
Whether a mortgagee in possession having a balance of rents in hand more than sufficient for payment of the interest and all expenses he has incurred can be heard to say that interest is in arrear so as to justify a sale
because no account has been rendered and no appropriation made, qnaere.
Held (reversing the decision of Fry, J), that the difference between party
and party costs and solicitor and client costs of the present action could not
be given to the Plaintiff by way of damages.

Jessel MR
[1881] UKLawRpCh 203, (1881) 18 Ch D 449, 50 LJCh 181
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Ross v Caunters (a firm) ChD 1979
The court upheld a finding of negligence against a firm of solicitors for failing to ensure the correct attestation of a will, and also the award of damages in favour of a disappointed beneficiary.
A solicitor owes a duty of care to the party . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Negligence, Legal Professions, Damages

Updated: 13 January 2022; Ref: scu.654667

Dundee City Council v Malcolm: EAT 9 Feb 2016

EAT (Sex Discrimination: Other Losses) There were 3 appeals (2 by Dundee, the other by the Claimant) in relation to an ET’s assessment of the loss of wages the Claimant had suffered as a result of illness caused by discrimination against her in 2001. The ET decided in January 2015 that it did not accept the Claimant’s case that she would have become a Lab Technician employed by the University, losing the wages and pension that went with it, since the Claimant had produced too little evidence. In particular, there was nothing to show that there was a vacancy. She had not argued for any alternative job, though had said generally that she would do whatever was necessary. The ET noted that she had never been out of work, had taken part-time additional work at Asda as a check-out operative, had skills and qualifications, and needed to work to pay her mortgage and bills, and had had no problems at Asda working part-time over 5 years. It surmised that (on the basis there was no Lab technician post for her) she would have applied to Asda for full-time checkout work, would have been successful after some 3 years in obtaining such a job, and that loss of earnings should be assessed on that basis. Dundee sought a reconsideration because it had had no chance to meet the ‘full-time Asda’ case in evidence or submission, since the Claimant had never specifically advanced it. The ET granted the reconsideration, at which it confirmed its earlier decision, but in doing so allowed the Claimant to advance evidence as to a full-time Asda case which she had not advanced at the January hearing.
Dundee appealed against the January decision on the basis that the ET had impermissibly made a case for the Claimant she was not making for herself, that the decision was speculative, and there was insufficient proof of loss. It appealed against the decision to hold a reconsideration, because by doing so the ET permitted the Claimant to advance evidence which finality demanded should have been advanced in January and not as a second bite of the cherry at a later stage. The Claimant appealed on the basis that the ET should have awarded losses on the basis of a Lab technician’s post, had placed the burden and standard of proof too high, and had approached the issue as one which needed evidence of probabilities not (as it should have done) of chances.

Held: Contrary to Dundee’s submissions, the issue (as to what was the loss) was before the ET, having been remitted to it to determine. The ET was entitled to conclude at the January hearing and on the basis of the evidence then before it that there was a high likelihood that the Claimant would have done some work had she been fit. There was sufficient evidence before it to allow it to conclude that a proper, if conservative, evaluation of the loss of earnings by inability to do that work was on the basis of full-time check-out earnings at Asda over the relevant period. Although the ET was in error in not putting Dundee in a position to answer the full-time Asda case at the January hearing, it rectified the error by holding a reconsideration at which Dundee could put forward any evidence it wished as to Asda, and could make submissions. The ET should not have allowed evidence to be given in chief by the Claimant at that hearing, as it did, even though Dundee had asked to be able to cross-examine her, but it was not in error of law in ordering a reconsideration hearing. The error was, rather, a legal failure at that hearing, and no appeal was raised separately in respect of the hearing itself. In any event, the decision of the EAT was reached by considering whether there was an error in the January judgment on the basis of what was advanced before the ET on that occasion, and it held that sufficient.

Langstaff P J
[2016] UKEAT 0021 – 15 – 0902
Bailii
England and Wales

Employment, Damages

Updated: 12 January 2022; Ref: scu.560981

Walker v Geo H Medlicott and Son (a Firm): CA 19 Nov 1998

The claimant said that the defendant solicitor had negligently failed to include in the will a specific devise of property in his favour.
Held: A beneficiary who alleged negligent failure of a will draftsman to include a gift to him in a will should first establish whether rectification of the will was available, and only after failure then seek to claim under professional negligence. The solicitors had failed to carry out the testator’s express instructions, and a claim by a disappointed beneficiary might stand. However the claimant here also could seek rectification of the will. The recovery of damages against a negligent solicitor had the effect of enabling the beneficiaries under the Will to retain ‘adventitious benefits’, and accordingly fairness required that the beneficiaries share the cost of putting things right by means of rectification proceedings.

Simon Brown LJ, Mummery LJ, Sir Christopher Slade
Times 25-Nov-1998, [1998] EWCA Civ 1806, [1999] 1 All ER, [1999] 1 WLR 727, [1999] PNLR 531
Bailii
Administration of Justice Act 1970 20
England and Wales
Citing:
Distinguished – White and Another v Jones and Another HL 16-Feb-1995
Will Drafter liable in Negligence to Beneficiary
A solicitor drawing a will may be liable in negligence to a potential beneficiary, having unduly delayed in the drawing of the will. The Hedley Byrne principle was ‘founded upon an assumption of responsibility.’ Obligations may occasionally arise . .
Distinguished – Ross v Caunters (a firm) ChD 1979
The court upheld a finding of negligence against a firm of solicitors for failing to ensure the correct attestation of a will, and also the award of damages in favour of a disappointed beneficiary.
A solicitor owes a duty of care to the party . .
Distinguished – Carr-Glynn v Frearsons (a Firm) CA 29-Jul-1998
The solicitors had failed to advise the testator to issue a notice of severance of a joint tenancy, with the result that the house passed outside the will.
Held: The plaintiff did have a remedy. ‘The duty owed by the solicitors to the testator . .
Cited – In re Morris Deceased ChD 1970
A mistake was made in the drafting of a codicil by which, inter alia, the testatrix had revoked cl 7 of her will. It was clear from the evidence that the testatrix had never intended to revoke the whole of that clause but only to revoke the . .
Cited – In re Segelman (dec’d) ChD 1996
The burden of proof which falls on a disappointed beneficiary who seeks rectification of the will, saying that the will did not give effect to a testator’s intentions, is an exacting one.
Chadwick J said: ‘Although the standard of proof . .
Cited – Mersey Docks and Harbour Board v Proctor HL 1923
Viscount Cave LC said: ‘In such a case . . it is the duty of the Court of Appeal to make up its own mind not disregarding the judgment appealed from and giving special weight to that judgment in cases where the credibility of witnesses comes into . .
Cited – Pilkington v Wood 1953
The plaintiff bought freehold land from a seller conveying as beneficial owner, the defendant acting as the plaintiff’s solicitor in the transaction. When the plaintiff later tried to sell the property he found the title was defective, the seller . .
Cited – Wintle v Nye HL 1959
Mrs Wells, the testatrix, was an elderly lady living on her own. She neither had business experience nor the benefit of independent professional advice. She made a complex will and a codicil prepared by Mr Nye, a solicitor. He was not a close friend . .

Cited by:
Cited – Powell v Haywards (a Firm) CA 18-Feb-1999
Solicitors appealed against an order for payment of damages for professional negligence. The solicitors said that the plaintiff should have mitigated her damages.
Held: The plaintiffs had not failed to take reasonable steps to mitigate their . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Wills and Probate, Professional Negligence, Damages, Costs

Updated: 12 January 2022; Ref: scu.90250

Ross v Caunters (a firm): ChD 1979

The court upheld a finding of negligence against a firm of solicitors for failing to ensure the correct attestation of a will, and also the award of damages in favour of a disappointed beneficiary.
A solicitor owes a duty of care to the party for whom he is acting but generally owes no duty to the opposite party.
Sir Robert Megarry VC held: ‘It also seems to me that there is ample authority for saying that a successful plaintiff cannot obtain, in the guise of damages, any costs which, on a party and party taxation of costs, are disallowed by the taxing master. It is not enough for the plaintiff to claim that such costs were incurred by him as a result of the defendants’ negligence. I think that this is sufficiently established by Cockburn v Edwards (1881) 18 Ch. D. 449. I am saying nothing about damages which fall outside the particular form in which they are claimed in this case, namely, the legal expenses of investigating the plaintiff’s claim up to the date of the issue of the writ. It seems to me that both on authority and on principle those legal expenses can be recovered by the plaintiff only as costs, and not in the form of damages. In so far as the plaintiff can persuade the taxing master that the items incurred should be allowed as costs on a party and party taxation, then the plaintiff can recover them; but so far as they are not allowed by the taxing master, then I think that they cannot be recovered in the shape of damages.
Accordingly, on the inquiry as to damages which counsel agree should be ordered, no head of damage for the legal expenses of investigating the plaintiff’s claim up to the date of the issue of the writ will be allowable as damages’.

Sir Robert Megarry V-C
[1980] Ch 297, 123 Sol Jo 605, [1979] 3 All ER 580, [1979] 3 WLR 605
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Cockburn v Edwards CA 2-Aug-1881
A solicitor advanced money to his client on a second mortgage, in which was inserted a power of sale exerciseable at any time without the usual proviso requiring that notice should be given, or some interest should be three months in arrear; and it . .

Cited by:
Cited – Humblestone v Martin Tolhurst Partnership (A Firm) ChD 5-Feb-2004
The solicitors sent a will to the client for execution, but failed to notice on its return that it had not been properly executed, the signature not being that of the client.
Held: The solicitors were under a duty to ensure that the will would . .
Cited – White and Another v Jones and Another HL 16-Feb-1995
Will Drafter liable in Negligence to Beneficiary
A solicitor drawing a will may be liable in negligence to a potential beneficiary, having unduly delayed in the drawing of the will. The Hedley Byrne principle was ‘founded upon an assumption of responsibility.’ Obligations may occasionally arise . .
Cited – Worby, Worby and Worby v Rosser CA 28-May-1999
Three potential beneficiaries sought payment from a solicitor of the costs of resisting the grant of probate to a will, saying that he had owed them a duty of care to ensure that the testator did not execute a later will in circumstances in which he . .
Applied – Gartside v Sheffield Young and Ellis 1983
(New Zealand) The court discussed the potential liability of a solicitor having failed to prepare an effective will: ‘To deny an effective remedy in a plain case would seem to imply a refusal to acknowledge the solicitor’s professional role in the . .
Approved – Smith v Eric S Bush, a firm etc HL 20-Apr-1989
In Smith, the lender instructed a valuer who knew that the buyer and mortgagee were likely to rely on his valuation alone. The valuer said his terms excluded responsibility. The mortgagor had paid an inspection fee to the building society and . .
Cited – JD v East Berkshire Community Health NHS Trust and others HL 21-Apr-2005
Parents of children had falsely and negligently been accused of abusing their children. The children sought damages for negligence against the doctors or social workers who had made the statements supporting the actions taken. The House was asked if . .
Distinguished – Walker v Geo H Medlicott and Son (a Firm) CA 19-Nov-1998
The claimant said that the defendant solicitor had negligently failed to include in the will a specific devise of property in his favour.
Held: A beneficiary who alleged negligent failure of a will draftsman to include a gift to him in a will . .
Cited – Blackpool and Fylde Aero Club Ltd v Blackpool Borough Council CA 25-May-1990
The club had enjoyed a concession from the council to operate pleasure flights from the airport operated by the council. They were invited to bid for a new concession subject to strict tender rules. They submitted the highest bid on time, but the . .
Cited – Steel and Another v NRAM Ltd (Formerly NRAM Plc) SC 28-Feb-2018
The appellant solicitor acted in a land transaction. The land was mortgaged to the respondent bank. She wrote to the bank stating her client’s intention to repay the whole loan. The letter was negligently mistaken and the bankers allowed the . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Professional Negligence, Wills and Probate, Damages

Updated: 12 January 2022; Ref: scu.185876

Kingsley v The United Kingdom (No 2): ECHR 28 May 2002

The finding that a party had been denied a fair trial may of itself be sufficient compensation. The applicant had been excluded from management of licensed casinos. The appeal board had been found to have given the appearance of bias against him. ‘The Court recalls that it is well established that the principle underlying the provision of just satisfaction for a breach of Article 6 is that the applicant should as far as possible be put in the position he would have enjoyed had the proceedings complied with the Convention’s requirements. The Court will award monetary compensation under Article 41 only where it is satisfied that the loss or damage complained of was actually caused by the violation it has found, since the State cannot be required to pay damages in respect of losses for which it is not responsible.’
Hudoc Judgment (Merits and just satisfaction) Violation of Art. 6-1; Non-pecuniary damage – finding of violation sufficient; Costs and expenses partial award – domestic proceedings

Wildhaber, Rozakis, Costa, Ress, Sir Nicolas Bratza, Ridruejo, Jorundsson, Bonello, Makarczyk, Turmen, Straznicka, Lorenzen, Fischbach, Casadevall, Tsatsa-Nikolovska, Levits, Kovler, Boer-Buquicchio
Times 04-Jun-2002, (2002) 35 EHRR 177, 35605/97, [2002] ECHR 464, [2002] ECHR 468, (2002) 35 EHRR 10
Worldlii, Bailii
European Convention on Human Rights 4.1
Human Rights
Citing:
See Also – Kingsley v The United Kingdom ECHR 7-Nov-2000
The judicial review procedure which restricted the matters which it considered so as to exclude consideration of the allegation by the applicant that the tribunal whose decision he challenged had not been impartial, was insufficient to support the . .

Cited by:
Cited – Davies v The United Kingdom ECHR 16-Jul-2002
The applicant had been subject to applications for his disqualification from acting as a company director. The Secretary of State waited until the last day before issuing proceedings, and the proceedings were then delayed another three years pending . .
Cited – Runa Begum v London Borough of Tower Hamlets (First Secretary of State intervening) HL 13-Feb-2003
The appellant challenged the procedure for reviewing a decision made as to the suitability of accomodation offered to her after the respondent had accepted her as being homeless. The procedure involved a review by an officer of the council, with an . .
Cited – Greenfield, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department HL 16-Feb-2005
The appellant had been charged with and disciplined for a prison offence. He was refused legal assistance at his hearing, and it was accepted that the proceedings involved the determination of a criminal charge within the meaning of article 6 of the . .
Cited – A, Regina (on the Application of) v London Borough of Croydon SC 26-Nov-2009
The applicants sought asylum, and, saying that they were children under eighteen, sought also the assistance of the local authority. Social workers judged them to be over eighteen and assistance was declined.
Held: The claimants’ appeals . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Human Rights, Damages

Updated: 12 January 2022; Ref: scu.172163

Robins v Kordowski and Another: QBD 22 Jul 2011

The claimant solicitor said he had been defamed on the first defendant’s website (‘Solicitors from Hell’) by the second defendant. The first defendant now applied to set aside judgment entered by default. The claimant additionally sought summary disposal under section 8 of the 1996 Act. The second defendant had settled admitting his claims were unjustified.
Held: The defendant’s proposed defence was hopeless, and judgment was confirmed with damages at andpound;10,000. In the absence of an undertaking not to repeat the allegation, an injunction was also given. The jurisdiction to grant summary disposal is available after the court has entered default judgment for damages to be assessed.
Discussing a statement of the lawyer of the opponent in the original proceedings in which the claimant had acted, Tugendhat J said: ‘Statements made by lawyers on behalf of their clients, are (or at least ought to be) based on the instructions that the lawyers receive from their clients, and are not made from the lawyers’ own knowledge. That is well understood by litigants. It follows that if such a statement turns out to be false, that raises no inference that the lawyer has lied . . If a client acts inconsistently, or the facts are ultimately proved to be different from the facts as stated by the lawyer, no inference adverse to the lawyer can be drawn unless there is evidence from the client or the papers that the lawyer did not act on instructions, or gave advice to the client to act in the inconsistent manner described. Without such evidence, any adverse inference would be equally applicable to the client as to the solicitor, and it would be impossible to conclude that it was more likely to be a lie or breach of duty by the solicitor rather than incorrect instructions, or a change in instructions, or some other conduct of the client.
Of course, lawyers are capable of lying. But an allegation of lying or any dishonesty is very serious, whether it is made against a lawyer or anyone else. Lawyers are entitled to no greater protection from the law for their reputations than anyone else. But they are entitled to no less protection than anyone else.
The court requires an allegation of dishonesty against anyone to be set out with particularity and proved by evidence.’

Tugendhat J
[2011] EWHC 1912 (QB)
Bailii
Defamation Act 1996 8 9 12
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Merivale v Carson CA 1887
A published criticism of a play made reference to one of the characters being ‘a naughty wife’, though in fact there was no adulterous wife in the play.
Held: The defence of fair comment is open to a commentator however prejudiced he might be, . .
Cited – Gardiner v Fairfax 1942
Complaint was made that the plaintiff had been libelled in the defendant’s book review.
Held: A publication is defamatory in nature if it ‘is likely to cause ordinary decent folk in the community, taken in general, to think the less of [the . .
Cited – Turner v Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Ltd (MGM) HL 1950
A letter was published which criticised a film critic’s review of the week’s films.
Held: A person (including a corporation) whose character or conduct has been attacked is entitled to answer the attack, and the answer will be protected by . .
Cited – London Artists Ltd v Littler CA 10-Dec-1968
The defence of fair comment on matters of public interest is not to be defined too closely. Lord Denning MR said: ‘Whenever a matter is such as to affect people at large, so that they may be legitimately interested in, or concerned at, what is going . .
Cited – Spiller and Another v Joseph and Others SC 1-Dec-2010
The defendants had published remarks on its website about the reliability of the claimant. When sued in defamation, they pleaded fair comment, but that was rejected by the Court of Appeal.
Held: The defendants’ appeal succeeded, and the fair . .
Cited – Pamplin v Express Newspapers Ltd (2) CA 1988
In considering what evidence can be used in mitigation of damages in defamation, it is necessary to draw a distinction between evidence which is put forward to show that the plaintiff is a man of bad reputation and evidence which is already before . .
Cited – Steel and Morris v United Kingdom ECHR 15-Feb-2005
The applicants had been sued in defamation by McDonalds. They had no resources, and English law precluded legal aid for such cases. The trial was the longest in English legal history. They complained that the non-availablility of legal aid infringed . .
Cited – Loutchansky v The Times Newspapers Ltd and Others (Nos 2 to 5) CA 5-Dec-2001
Two actions for defamation were brought by the claimant against the defendant. The publication reported in detail allegations made against the claimant of criminal activities including money-laundering on a vast scale. They admitted the defamatory . .
Cited – Burstein v Times Newspapers Ltd CA 20-Dec-2000
Where a defendant in a defamation action sought to reduce the damages payable by arguing that the claimant had a reduced or damaged reputation, he could include evidence about particular facts only where these were directly connected to the . .

Cited by:
See Also – QRS v Beach and Another QBD 26-Sep-2014
The court gave its reasons for granting an interim injunction to prevent the defendants publshing materials on their web-sites which were said to harrass the claimants.
Held: Whilst it was important to protect the identity of the claimants, . .
Cited – Brett Wilson Llp v Person(s) Unknown, Responsible for The Operation and Publication of The Website www.solicitorsfromhelluk.com QBD 16-Sep-2015
The claimant solicitors sought remedies against the unknown publishers of the respondent website which was said to publish material defamatory of them, and to ampunt to harassment.
Held: The alleged defamatory meanings were not challenged by . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Defamation, Damages

Updated: 12 January 2022; Ref: scu.442096

Brown ( A Minor) v Emery: QBD 4 Mar 2010

The court considered an application for an interim payment to fund the purchase of suitable accommodation in which the child claimant might spend periods of time with her parents and sibling and ultimately reside on discharge, at a cost of andpound;777,500. The defendants said that the application was premature in that it was not clear that accomodation would be included in the final award.
Held: The court refused the application in part, disallowing the application for capital provision because it was not yet clear that the final award would include such an element in the form proposed.

Teare J
[2010] EWHC 388 (QB)
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Stringman (a minor) v McArdle CA 1994
The young plaintiff, under a disability, had asked for an interim payment of andpound;100,000 to adapt a house already bought. McCullough J upheld the refusal of the district judge to make that interim payment, taking the view that the plans for the . .
Cited – Campbell v Mylchreest CA 23-Jan-1998
The claimant sough an interim award of damages.
Held: An ‘unlevel playing field’, in the sense that an interim award might prejudge arguments which might be run at a full trial, is not an absolute bar to making the requested order but only a . .
Cited – Swain v Hillman CA 21-Oct-1999
Strike out – Realistic Not Fanciful Chance Needed
The proper test for whether an action should be struck out under the new Rules was whether it had a realistic as opposed to a fanciful prospect of success. There was no justification for further attempts to explain the meaning of what are clear . .
Cited – Cobham Hire Services Ltd v Eeles CA 13-Mar-2009
The court was asked what is the correct approach to the making of an interim payment in a heavy personal injury claim where the damages, when finally assessed, are likely to include one or more periodical payments orders pursuant to section 2 of the . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Personal Injury, Damages

Updated: 12 January 2022; Ref: scu.402521

Knight v Axa Assurances: QBD 24 Jul 2009

The claimant was injured in a car accident in France. The defendant insurer said that the quantification of damages was to be according to French law and the calculation of interest also. The claimant said that English law applied.
Held: The assessment of damages is a procedural matter, and is governed by the law of the forum in which the case is brought. Articles 9(1)(b) and 11(2) of Brussels I (Council Regulation 44/2001 on jurisdiction and the enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters) entitle an injured party to sue an insurer direct on matters relating to insurance, in the place where the injured party is domiciled, provided that direct action is permitted under national law. Both French and English law are potentially relevant to the award of pre-judgment interest on those damages, depending on the facts. Damages are to be assessed by reference to English Law.

Sharp J
[2009] EWHC 1900 (QB), [2009] Lloyds Rep IR 667
Bailii
Brussels I (Council Regulation 44/2001, Supreme Court Act 1981 35A
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Raffelsen Zentralbank Osterreich Ag v Five Star General Trading Llc and Others CA 1-Mar-2001
An assigned marine insurance policy was subject to a claim. The issue was the ability of an assignee to claim as a claim in contract where the proper law was that under which the contract was made, or a claim of an intangible right to claim against . .
Cited – Maher and Another v Groupama Grand Est QBD 23-Jan-2009
The parties asked as to whether after a car accident in France the the assessment of damages and the calculation of pre-judgment interest was to be calculated according to French law. . .
Cited – FBTO Schadeverzekeringen v Jack Odenbreit ECJ 13-Dec-2007
ECJ Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 – Jurisdiction in matters relating to insurance – Liability insurance – Action brought by the injured party directly against the insurer – Rule of jurisdiction of the courts for the . .
Cited – Harding v Wealands HL 5-Jul-2006
Claim in UK for Accident in Australia
The claimant had been a passenger in a car driven by his now partner. They had an accident in New South Wales. The car was insured in Australia. He sought leave to sue in England and Wales because Australian law would limit the damages.
Held: . .
Cited – Criminal proceedings against Ruiz Bernaldez ECJ 28-Mar-1996
Europa In the preliminary-ruling procedure under Article 177 of the Treaty, it is for the national courts alone, before which the proceedings are pending and which must assume responsibility for the judgment to . .
Cited – Mendes Ferreira and Delgado Correia Ferreira v Companhia de Seguros Mundial Confianca SA ECJ 14-Sep-2000
ECJ Compulsory insurance against civil liability in respect of motor vehicles – Directives 84/5/EEC and 90/232/EEC – Minimum amounts of cover – Type of civil liability – Injury caused to a member of the family of . .
Cited – Macmillan Inc v Bishopsgate Investment Trust Plc and Others (No 3) CA 2-Nov-1995
The question of ownership of a company is to be decided according to law of country where the company is incorporated. Conflict of laws rules are to be used to look to the issue in the case not the cause of action.
Staughton LJ said: ‘In any . .
Cited – Macmillan Inc v Bishopsgate Investment Trust Plc and Others (No 3) ChD 1-Jul-1993
Bona fide chargees for value of shares situated in New York and held on trust for Macmillan were able, by application of New York law, to take the shares free of Macmillan’s prior equitable interest of which the chargees had had no notice. Where . .
Cited – Jefford v Gee CA 4-Mar-1970
The courts of Scotland followed the civil law in the award of interest on damages. The court gave examples of the way in which they apply the ex mora rule when calculating the interest payable in a judgment. If money was wrongfully withheld, then . .
Cited – Midland International Trade Services v Al Sudairy ChD 11-Apr-1990
The court had power to order the payment of interest on a judgment of a court in Saudi Arabia even though a Saudi court would have applied Sharia law. That law follows the teaching in the Koran forbidding the payment or receipt of interest. . .
Cited – Kuwait Oil Tanker Company SAK and another v Bader and others 17-Dec-1998
. .

Cited by:
Cited – Maher and Another v Groupama Grand Est CA 12-Nov-2009
Two English claimants respectively suffered injury in a French road accident. They brought claims for damages against the French insurer of the other driver. Judgment on liability was entered by consent. There were issues as to the assessment of . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Personal Injury, Damages, Jurisdiction

Updated: 12 January 2022; Ref: scu.375078

Botham v The Ministry of Defence: QBD 26 Mar 2010

The claimant had been employed by the MOD. He was summarily dismissed for gross misconduct, and he was then placed on the list of persons unsuitable for work with children. He succeeded at the Tribunal in a claim for unfair and wrongful dismissal. The employer had failed to follow the contractual procedure, and the dismissal was in any event unreasonable. Damages were limited to compensation for unfair dismissal and breach of the three-month contractual notice period. He now sought damages for breaches of the express and implied terms of his contract which were said to have caused him loss over and above his loss of earnings during the notice period. He said that putting his name on the register had prevented him from pursuing employment in his chosen field working with children. The MOD said that no cause of action arose because the claim arose from the manner of dismissal and was barred by Johnson v Unisys.
Held: The claim was for wrongful dismissal. The loss in respect of which the claimant was seeking damages arose out of his dismissal, not out of any prior breach of contract, and it fell within the Johnson exclusion area. The remedy for a wrongful dismissal which occurs as a result of a breach of disciplinary procedures is provided exclusively by the unfair dismissal provisions of the Employment Rights Act 1996.

Slade J DBE
[2010] EWHC 646 (QB)
Bailii
Employment Rights Act 1996
England and Wales
Citing:
See also – J Botham v Ministry of Defence EAT 1-Nov-2004
EAT Practice and Procedure – Appellate jurisdiction/Reasons/Burns-Barke. . .
See also – Botham v Ministry of Defence CA 14-Mar-2005
Leave given for appeal to the House of Lords . .
Cited – Henderson v Henderson 20-Jul-1843
Abuse of Process and Re-litigation
The court set down the principles to be applied in abuse of process cases, where a matter was raised again which should have been dealt with in earlier proceedings.
Sir James Wigram VC said: ‘In trying this question I believe I state the rule . .
Cited – Johnson v Unisys Ltd HL 23-Mar-2001
The claimant contended for a common law remedy covering the same ground as the statutory right available to him under the Employment Rights Act 1996 through the Employment Tribunal system.
Held: The statutory system for compensation for unfair . .
Cited – Eastwood and another v Magnox Electric plc; McCabe v Cornwall County Council and others HL 15-Jul-2004
The first claimants were long standing employees. Mr Eastwood fell out with his manager, who disciplined him using false statements. When Williams refused to provide a false statement he too was disciplined. Each claimed damages for the injury to . .
Cited – King v University Court of the University of St Andrews SCS 30-Jan-2002
The University had employed the pursuer on terms that it was entitled ‘for good cause shown to terminate the appointment of the employee by giving three months’ notice in writing’. He claimed on two bases, first, a breach of the alleged express term . .
Cited – Serco Ltd v Lawson; Botham v Ministry of Defence; Crofts and others v Veta Limited HL 26-Jan-2006
Mr Lawson was employed by Serco as a security supervisor at the British RAF base on Ascension Island, which is a dependency of the British Overseas Territory of St Helena. Mr Botham was employed as a youth worker at various Ministry of Defence . .
Cited – Berry v British Transport Commission CA 1961
The plaintiff had been prosecuted by the defendant for pulling the emergency cord on a train without proper cause. After acquittal and payment of part of her costs, she sued for malicious prosecution, saying the damages were the part of her defence . .
Cited – G, Regina (on The Application of) v X School and Others CA 20-Jan-2010
The claimant was a teaching assistant. A complaint had been made that he had kissed a boy having work experience at the school, but it had been decided that no criminal prosecution would follow. He sought judicial review of the school’s decision to . .
Cited – Union Discount Company Ltd v Robert Zoller and Others, Union Cal Ltd CA 21-Nov-2001
The claimant had incurred costs in defending an action brought by the respondents in breach of an exclusive jurisdiction agreement. They appealed a judgement against them.
Held: The claim for the costs must succeed. The jurisdiction in which . .
Cited – Malik v Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI); Mahmud v Bank of Credit and Commerce International HL 12-Jun-1997
Allowance of Stigma Damages
The employees claimed damages, saying that the way in which their employer had behaved during their employment had led to continuing losses, ‘stigma damages’ after the termination.
Held: It is an implied term of any contract of employment that . .

Cited by:
Cited – Edwards v Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust CA 26-May-2010
The claimant, a consultant doctor, sought damages saying that his employer had failed to follow the contract when disciplining and dismissing him. The GMC had dismissed as unfounded the allegation on which the dismissal was based. He sought damages . .
At First Instance – Edwards v Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust SC 14-Dec-2011
The claimant had been employed as consultant surgeon. He had been dismissed in a manner inconsistent with the extress terms of his employment contract. He sought common law damages for the manner of his dismissal. The employer appealed.
Held: . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Employment, Damages

Updated: 12 January 2022; Ref: scu.406530

Mosley v News Group Newspapers Ltd: QBD 24 Jul 2008

The defendant published a film showing the claimant involved in sex acts with prostitutes. It characterised them as ‘Nazi’ style. He was the son of a fascist leader, and a chairman of an international sporting body. He denied any nazi element, and claimed in breach of confidence.
Held: ‘The law [of confidence] now affords protection to information in respect of which there is a reasonable expectation of privacy, even in circumstances where there is no pre-existing relationship giving rise of itself to an enforceable duty of confidence. That is because the law is concerned to prevent the violation of a citizen’s autonomy, dignity and self-esteem. It is not simply a matter of ‘unaccountable’ judges running amok. Parliament enacted the 1998 statute which requires these values to be acknowledged and enforced by the courts.’ The clandestine recording of sexual activity on private property must be taken to engage Article 8. What requires closer examination is the extent to which such intrusive behaviour could be justified by reference to a countervailing public interest.
As to the application for exemplary damages, the extension of such awards to cases involving breach of confidence would no doubt have to be dealt with at the House of Lords. However, there was another factor which ‘probably’ had to be taken into account, namely vindication to mark the infringement of the right.
Eady J considered the criticism of CC v AB in its moral relativism. It was ‘largely because of a failure to appreciate the task which judges are now required to carry out in the context of the rights-based environment introduced by the Human Rights Act, hitherto largely unfamiliar in our common law tradition. In deciding whether a right has been infringed, and in assessing the relative worth of competing rights, it is not for judges to make individual moral judgments or to be swayed by personal distaste. It is not simply a matter of personal privacy versus the public interest. The modern perception is that there is a public interest in respecting personal privacy. It is thus a question of taking account of conflicting public interest considerations and evaluating them according to increasingly well recognised criteria. ‘

Eady J
[2008] EWHC 1777 (QB), [2008] EMLR 20
Bailii
European Convention on Human Rights 8 10
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Attorney-General v Guardian Newspapers Ltd (No 2) (‘Spycatcher’) HL 13-Oct-1988
Loss of Confidentiality Protection – public domain
A retired secret service employee sought to publish his memoirs from Australia. The British government sought to restrain publication there, and the defendants sought to report those proceedings, which would involve publication of the allegations . .
Cited – Douglas, Zeta Jones, Northern and Shell Plc v Hello! Limited (No 1) CA 21-Dec-2000
The first two claimants sold exclusive rights to photograph their wedding to the third claimant. A paparrazzi infiltrated the wedding and then sold his unauthorised photographs to the defendants, who now appealed injunctions restraining them from . .
Cited – D v L CA 31-Jul-2003
L and D lived together. Fearing the breakdown of the relationship, L used a voice activated recorder to record their conversations. D sought an order to restrain their publication after elements appeared in national newspapers. The court also . .
Cited – Campbell v Mirror Group Newspapers Ltd (MGN) (No 1) HL 6-May-2004
The claimant appealed against the denial of her claim that the defendant had infringed her right to respect for her private life. She was a model who had proclaimed publicly that she did not take drugs, but the defendant had published a story . .
Cited – In re S (a Child) (Identification: Restrictions on Publication) HL 28-Oct-2004
Inherent High Court power may restrain Publicity
The claimant child’s mother was to be tried for the murder of his brother by poisoning with salt. It was feared that the publicity which would normally attend a trial, would be damaging to S, and an application was made for reporting restrictions to . .
Cited – Ash and Another v McKennitt and others CA 14-Dec-2006
The claimant was a celebrated Canadian folk musician. The defendant, a former friend, published a story of their close friendship. The claimant said the relationship had been private, and publication infringed her privacy rights, and she obtained an . .
Cited – Aubry v Editions Vice-Versa Inc 9-Apr-1998
(Supreme Court of Canada) Publication in a magazine of an unauthorised photograph of a 17 year old girl sitting on the steps of a public building had violated her right to respect for private life conferred under Article 5 of the ‘Quebec Charter’ of . .
Cited – Peck v The United Kingdom ECHR 28-Jan-2003
peck_ukECHR2003
The claimant had been filmed by CCTV. He had, after attempting suicide, left home with a knife, been arrested by the police and disarmed, but then sent home without charge. The CCTV film was used on several occasions to advertise the effectiveness . .
Cited – Dudgeon v The United Kingdom ECHR 22-Oct-1981
ECHR (Plenary Court) Legislation in Northern Ireland that criminalised homosexual behaviour which was lawful in the rest of the UK.
Held: There was a violation of article 8, but it was not necessary to . .
Cited – Laskey, Jaggard and Brown v The United Kingdom ECHR 19-Feb-1997
A prosecution for sado-masochist acts was a necessary invasion of privacy to protect health. The Court found no violation where applicants were imprisoned as a result of sado-masochistic activities captured on video tape when police obtained . .
Cited – Fressoz and Roire v France ECHR 21-Jan-1999
Le Canard Enchaine published the salary of M Calvet, the chairman of Peugeot, (which was publicly available information) and also, by way of confirmation, photographs of the relevant part of his tax assessment, which was confidential and could not . .
Cited – Tammer v Estonia ECHR 6-Feb-2001
Freedom of expression constitutes one of the essential foundations of a democratic society and one of the basic conditions for its progress and the self-fulfilment of each individual. Criminal penalties imposed in respect of the reporting of a . .
Cited – PG and JH v The United Kingdom ECHR 25-Sep-2001
The use of covert listening devices within a police station was an infringement of the right to privacy, since there was no system of law regulating such practices. That need not affect the right to a fair trial. The prosecution had a duty to . .
Cited – Murray v Big Pictures (UK) Ltd; Murray v Express Newspapers CA 7-May-2008
The claimant, a famous writer, complained on behalf of her infant son that he had been photographed in a public street with her, and that the photograph had later been published in a national newspaper. She appealed an order striking out her claim . .
Cited – Theakston v MGN Ltd QBD 14-Feb-2002
The claimant, a celebrity sought to restrain publication by the defendant of information about his sex life, consisting of pictures of him in a brothel. The court considered the test for the grant of an injunction to restrain publication under the . .
Cited – Craxi (No. 2) ECHR 17-Jul-2003
Hudoc Judgment (Merits and just satisfaction) Violation of Art. 8 with regard to release of transcripts into the public domain ; Violation of Art. 8 with regard to reading out of transcripts at trial ; Pecuniary . .
Cited – ADT v United Kingdom ECHR 4-Aug-2000
The UK law which had the effect of prohibiting non-violent homosexual acts by groups of males, was a violation of the right to respect for his private life. The law went beyond that which might properly be required in a democratic society for the . .
Cited – Silver v United Kingdom ECHR 1980
(Commission) Complaint was made as to the censorship of prisoners’ correspondence. The censorship of prisoners’ correspondence was ancillary to prison rules restricting the contents of correspondence. The Commission, therefore, and the Court had to . .
Cited – Regina v Brown (Anthony); Regina v Lucas; etc HL 11-Mar-1993
The appellants had been convicted of assault, after having engaged in consensual acts of sado-masochism in which they inflicted varying degreees of physical self harm. They had pleaded guilty after a ruling that the prosecution had not needed to . .
Cited – Reynolds v Times Newspapers Ltd and others HL 28-Oct-1999
Fair Coment on Political Activities
The defendant newspaper had published articles wrongly accusing the claimant, the former Prime Minister of Ireland of duplicity. The paper now appealed, saying that it should have had available to it a defence of qualified privilege because of the . .
Cited – CC v AB QBD 4-Dec-2006
The claimant sought an order to prevent the defendant and others from making it known that the claimant had had an adulterous relationship with the defendant’s wife. . .
Cited – Polanski v Conde Nast Publications Ltd HL 10-Feb-2005
The claimant wished to pursue his claim for defamation against the defendant, but was reluctant to return to the UK to give evidence, fearing arrest and extradition to the US. He appealed refusal of permission to be interviewed on video tape. Held . .
Cited – Rookes v Barnard (No 1) HL 21-Jan-1964
The court set down the conditions for the award of exemplary damages. There are two categories. The first is where there has been oppressive or arbitrary conduct by a defendant. Cases in the second category are those in which the defendant’s conduct . .
Cited – Cassell and Co Ltd v Broome and Another HL 23-Feb-1972
Exemplary Damages Award in Defamation
The plaintiff had been awarded damages for defamation. The defendants pleaded justification. Before the trial the plaintiff gave notice that he wanted additional, exemplary, damages. The trial judge said that such a claim had to have been pleaded. . .
Cited – Leempoel and SA ED Cine Revue v Belgium ECHR 9-Nov-2006
‘In matters relating to striking a balance between protecting private life and the freedom of expression that the Court had had to rule upon, it has always emphasised . . the requirement that the publication of information, documents or photographs . .
Cited – Francome v Mirror Group Newspapers Ltd CA 1984
The defendant had acquired illegal tapes of telephone conversations which it said implicated the plaintiff. He sought to restrain publication of the material pending forthcoming discliplinary charges at the Jockey Club.
Held: The court had to . .
Cited – Kuddus v Chief Constable of Leicestershire Constabulary HL 7-Jun-2001
There is no rule of law preventing the award of exemplary damages against police officers. The fact that no case of misfeasance in public office had led to such awards before 1964, did not prevent such an award now. Although damages are generally . .
Cited – Kitetechnology v Unicor GmbH Plastmaschinen 1995
It would not be correct to describe a infringement of breach of privacy as a tort. . .
Cited – Z Ltd v A-Z and AA-LL CA 1982
The plaintiffs, an overseas company with an office in London had been defrauded here. They sought and obtained Mareva injunctions against defendants and against six clearing banks. The banks sought clarification of their duties.
Held: The . .
Cited – Maxwell v Pressdram Ltd CA 1987
The court was asked whether disclosure should be ordered in the context of the statutory privilege which was created by s.10 of the 1981 Act. The publisher defendant had deposed that it would justify the material. At trial, however, the defence of . .
Cited – Rowlands v Chief Constable of Merseyside Police CA 20-Dec-2006
The claimant succeeded in her claims for general damages against the respondent for personal injury, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution, but appealed refusal of the court to award aggravated damages against the chief constable.
Held: . .
Cited – Tolstoy Miloslavsky v United Kingdom ECHR 19-Jul-1995
The applicant had been required to pay andpound;124,900 as security for the respondent’s costs as a condition of his appeal against an award of damages in a defamation case.
Held: It followed from established case law that article 6(1) did not . .
Cited – John v MGN Ltd CA 12-Dec-1995
Defamation – Large Damages Awards
MGN appealed as to the level of damages awarded against it namely pounds 350,000 damages, comprising pounds 75,000 compensatory damages and pounds 275,000 exemplary damages. The newspaper contended that as a matter of principle there is no scope in . .
Cited – Jones v Pollard, Mirror Group Newspapers Limited and Bailey CA 12-Dec-1996
Articles in consecutive issues of The Sunday Mirror accused the plaintiff of pimping for the KGB, organising sex with prostitutes for visiting British businessmen and then blackmailing them. The defendants pleaded justification. The plaintiff . .
Cited – Ashley and Another v Chief Constable of Sussex Police HL 23-Apr-2008
The claimants sought to bring an action for damages after a family member suspected of dealing drugs, was shot by the police. At the time he was naked. The police officer had been acquitted by a criminal court of murder. The chief constable now . .
Cited – Chester v Afshar HL 14-Oct-2004
The claimant suffered back pain for which she required neurosurgery. The operation was associated with a 1-2% risk of the cauda equina syndrome, of which she was not warned. She went ahead with the surgery, and suffered that complication. The . .
Cited – Archer v Williams QBD 3-Jul-2003
The claimant brought an action for breach of confidence against a former employee. . .
Cited – Bonnick v Morris, The Gleaner Company Ltd and Allen PC 17-Jun-2002
(Jamaica) The appellant sought damages from the respondent journalists in defamation. They had claimed qualified privilege. The words alleged to be defamatory were ambiguous.
Held: The publishers were protected by Reynolds privilege. The court . .
See Also – Mosley v News Group Newspapers Ltd QBD 9-Apr-2008
The claimant sought to continue an interim injunction requiring the defendant not to publish a film on its website.
Held: A claimant’s Article 8 rights may be engaged even where the information in question has been previously publicised. . .

Cited by:
Cited – Callaghan v Independent News and Media Ltd QBNI 7-Jan-2009
callaghan_inmQBNI2009
The claimant was convicted in 1987 of a callous sexual murder. He sought an order preventing the defendant newspaper publishing anything to allow his or his family’s identification and delay his release. The defendant acknowledged the need to avoid . .
Cited – Lumba (WL) v Secretary of State for The Home Department SC 23-Mar-2011
The claimants had been detained under the 1971 Act, after completing sentences of imprisonment pending their return to their home countries under deportations recommended by the judges at trial, or chosen by the respondent. They challenged as . .
See Also – Mosley v The United Kingdom ECHR 22-Oct-2009
. .
See Also – Mosley v The United Kingdom ECHR 10-May-2011
The claimant complained of the reporting of a sexual encounter which he said was private.
Held: The reporting of ‘tawdry allegations about an individual’s private life’ does not attract the robust protection under Article 10 afforded to more . .
Cited – CTB v News Group Newspapers Ltd and Another (1) QBD 16-May-2011
A leading footballer had obtained an injunction restraining the defendants from publishing his identity and allegations of sexual misconduct. The claimant said that she had demanded money not to go public.
Held: It had not been suggested that . .
Cited – Goodwin v NGN Ltd and VBN QBD 9-Jun-2011
The claimant had obtained an injunction preventing publication of his name and that of his coworker with whom he had had an affair. After widespread publication of his name elsewhere, the defendant had secured the discharge of the order as regards . .
Cited – Ferdinand v MGN Limited QBD 29-Sep-2011
The claimant, a famous footballer, complained that an article by the defendant relating an affair he had had, had infringed his right to privacy. The defendant relied on its right to freedom of expression. The claimant had at an earlier stage, and . .
Cited – Hannon and Another v News Group Newspapers Ltd and Another ChD 16-May-2014
The claimants alleged infringement of their privacy, saying that the defendant newspaper had purchased private information from police officers emplyed by the second defendant, and published them. The defendants now applied for the claims to be . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Defamation, Media, Human Rights, Damages

Leading Case

Updated: 12 January 2022; Ref: scu.271044

Duke of Brunswick v Harmer: QBD 2 Nov 1849

On 19 September 1830 an article was published in the Weekly Dispatch. The limitation period for libel was six years. The article defamed the Duke of Brunswick. Seventeen years after its publication an agent of the Duke purchased a back number containing the article from the Weekly Dispatch’s office. Another copy was obtained from the British Museum. The Duke sued on those two publications. The defendant contended that the cause of action was time barred, relying on the original publication date.
Held: The delivery of a copy of the newspaper to the plaintiff’s agent constituted a separate publication in respect of which suit could be brought, and it was not necessary to tell the jury, in estimating the damages as to such matter, to take into consideration the fact that the only publication proved had been the sale to the agent: ‘The defendant, who, on the application of a stranger, delivers to him the writing which libels a third person, publishes the libellous matter to him, though he may have been sent for the purpose of procuring the work by that third person. So far as in him lies, he lowers the reputation of the principal in the mind of the agent, which, although that of an agent, is as capable of being affected by the assertions as if he were a stranger. The act is complete by the delivery: and its legal character is not altered, either by the plaintiff’s procurement or by the subsequent handing over of the writing to him.’

Coleridge J
(1849) 14 QB 185, [1849] EngR 915, (1849) 117 ER 75
Commonlii
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Loutchansky v The Times Newspapers Ltd and Others (Nos 2 to 5) CA 5-Dec-2001
Two actions for defamation were brought by the claimant against the defendant. The publication reported in detail allegations made against the claimant of criminal activities including money-laundering on a vast scale. They admitted the defamatory . .
Cited – Gutnick v Dow Jones 10-Dec-2002
(High Court of Australia) The Court rejected a challenge, in the context of Internet libel, to the applicability of such established principles as that vouchsafed in Duke of Brunswick: ‘It was suggested that the World Wide Web was different from . .
No longer Good law – Dow Jones and Co Inc v Jameel CA 3-Feb-2005
Presumption of Damage in Defamation is rebuttable
The defendant complained that the presumption in English law that the victim of a libel had suffered damage was incompatible with his right to a fair trial. They said the statements complained of were repetitions of statements made by US . .
Mentioned – Steinberg v Pritchard Englefield (A Firm) and Another CA 3-Mar-2005
The defendant appealed dismissal of his defence to an action in defamation.
Held: The court proceeded in his absence, discerning two grounds of appeal from the papers. He had suggested that he awaited pro bono representation but was by . .
Cited – Berezovsky v Forbes Inc and Michaels; Glouchkov v Same HL 16-May-2000
Plaintiffs who lived in Russia sought damages for defamation against an American magazine with a small distribution in England. Both plaintiffs had real connections with and reputations in England. A judgment in Russia would do nothing to repair the . .
See Also – The Duke Of Brunswick v Harmer 21-Jun-1850
If JH and MY be registered at the stamp office as ‘the sole proprietors’ of a newspaper, ‘that is to say, the said JH as legal owner as mortgagee, and MY as owner of the equity of redemption,’ this is sufficient to fix JH as a proprietor of the . .
Cited – Times Newspapers Ltd (Nos. 1 And 2) v The United Kingdom ECHR 10-Mar-2009
The applicant alleged that the rule under United Kingdom law whereby each time material is downloaded from the Internet a new cause of action in libel proceedings accrued (‘the Internet publication rule’) constituted an unjustifiable and . .
Outmoded – Gregoire v GP Putnam’s Sons 1948
(New York Court of Appeals) A book had been placed on sale in 1941, but was still being reprinted and sold in 1946.
Held: The rule in Duke of Brunswick v Harmer was formulated ‘in an era which long antedated the modern process of mass . .
Cited – Flood v Times Newspapers Ltd QBD 2-Oct-2009
The defendant had published a story in its newspaper. At that time it attracted Reynolds qualified privilege. After the circumstances changed, the paper offered an updating item. That offer was rejected as inadequate.
Held: The qualified . .
Mentioned – Hays Plc v Hartley QBD 17-May-2010
Mr Hartley operated a news agency, and provided to the publisher of the Sunday Mirror, MGN Ltd, allegations of racism that had been levelled at the claimant company by former employees. The allegations were reported in an article headed ”KKK . .
Cited – Reed Elsevier Uk Ltd (T/A Lexisnexis) and Another v Bewry CA 30-Oct-2014
Appeal from a decision granting the claimant’s application made pursuant to section 32A of the Limitation Act 1980 to disapply the limitation period in his proceedings for libel and dismissing the defendants’ application to strike out the claimant’s . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Defamation, Limitation, Damages

Leading Case

Updated: 12 January 2022; Ref: scu.181216

Teacher v Calder: HL 24 Jul 1899

The mere fact that the defendant’s breach of his contract with the plaintiff has enabled him to enter into a more profitable contract with someone else should also not be sufficient to justify departing from the normal rules for calculation of damages.
A advanced pounds 15,000 to B, to be used in B’s business for a period of five years, receiving in return, besides interest, three-eighths of the profits. It was agreed that B’s books should be audited annually by a particular firm of accountants, whose certificates as to the amount of profits were to be binding on both parties. Notice of this agreement and of its terms was given by A to one of the partners of the firm of auditors, but they were not communicated by him to the partner who actually conducted the audit. While aware that A had an interest in the profits, the latter did not know the terms of the agreement, and in particular did not know that his audit was intended to bind the parties.
In an action for a judicial accounting at A’s instance, the Court of Session ( aff. the judgment of Lord Low- diss. Lord Adam) held, as the result of a proof, that it would have made no substantial difference in the result of the audit had the auditor been aware of the agreement, and refused the accounting. Judgment reversed in the House of Lords on the ground (1) that there had been mutual error as regards the auditor’s knowledge of the agreement, and that in the absence of such knowledge the audit could not he regarded as binding; and (2) that it was not substantiated by the evidence that the want of this knowledge did not affect the audit.
A advanced to B pounds 15,000, to be used in B’s business of timber merchant for a period of five years, receiving in return 5 per cent. interest and three-eighths of the annual profits. The agreement did not provide that A should become a partner of the business, but it was agreed that B should always keep a like sum of pounds 15,000 of his own in the business. In breach of the latter engagement B withdrew from time to time from the business part of this sum of pounds 15,000, and used it in a distillery business where large profits were earned.
In an action of damages for breach of contract, at A’s instance, he maintained that the damages ought to be assessed at the amount made by the diverted capital in the distillery, on the ground that the defender must be treated as a trustee for or a partner of the pursuer.
Held that this method of assessment was inapplicable, and that the appropriate method was to assess the damages by ascertaining the extra profit which might have been made in the timber business with the aid of the diverted capital.
Judgment affirmed in the House of Lords.

Lord Watson (in the Chair) and Lords Shand and Davey
[1899] AC 451, [1899] UKHL 1, (1899) 7 SLT 153, (1899) 1 F (HL) 39, [1899] UKHL 949, 36 SLR 949
Bailii, Bailii
Scotland
Citing:
Appeal From – Teacher v Calder SCS 25-Feb-1898
An agreement was entered into between T and C, whereby, as interest for an advance made by T for the purpose of carrying on and extending the business of C’s firm, he was to receive a certain percentage of the profits of the business. It was . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Contract

Updated: 10 January 2022; Ref: scu.631841

Alcoa Minerals of Jamaica Inc v Herbert Broderick: PC 20 Mar 2000

(Jamaica) Damage had been caused to the claimant’s property, but, because of his lack of funds, he was dependent upon the receipt of the damages to carry out the works of repair necessary. By the time the matter came to trial, inflation meant that the cost had quadrupled.
Held: The right level of damages payable was the cost at the time when he became able to carry out the work. The general rule that damages were to be assessed as at the date of the breach, was subject to exceptions, including particularly where it would cause injustice. The duty to mitigate his damages was overridden by his impecuniosity.

Lord Slynn of Hadley, Lord Mackay of Clashfern, Lord Jauncey of Tullichettle, Lord Hope of Craighead, Lord Clyde
Times 22-Mar-2000, [2002] 1 AC 371, [2000] UKPC 11, (Appeal No 68 of 1998), [2000] 3 WLR 23
Bailii, PC, PC
England and Wales
Citing:
Distinguished – Liesbosch Dredger (Owners of) v Owners of SS Edison, The Liesbosch HL 28-Feb-1933
The ship Edison fouled the moorings of the Liesbosch resulting in the total loss of the dredger when it sank. It had been engaged on work in the harbour under contract with the harbour board. All the owners’ liquid resources were engaged in the . .
Cited – Compania Financiera v Hamoor Tanker Corporation (‘the Borag’) CA 1981
The managers had taken on the management of the ship. In the course of a dispute, the managers had the ship arrested whilst in Capetown. The owners had to obtain a bank guarantee to secure its release, and sought the interest payments on the . .
Cited – Johnson v Agnew HL 1979
The seller had obtained a summary order for specific performance of a contract for the sale of land against the buyer.
Held: The breach was continuing and was still capable of being remedied by compliance with the order for specific . .
Cited – Radford v De Froberville 2-Jan-1977
A contract was made for the sale of a plot of land adjoining a house belonging to the plaintiff (the vendor) but occupied by his tenants, under which the defendant (the purchaser) undertook to build a house on the plot and also to erect a wall to a . .
Cited – Miliangos v George Frank (Textiles) Ltd HL 1975
The issue was whether an English court was able to award damages in Sterling only.
Held: The House distinguished clearly between the substance of the debtor’s obligations and the effect of English procedural law when a debt in a foreign . .
Cited – Dodd Properties (Kent) Ltd v Canterbury City Council CA 21-Dec-1979
The defendants had, in the course of building operations, caused nuisance and damage to the plaintiff’s building. The dispute was very lengthy, the costs of repair increased accordingly, and the parties now disputed the date at which damages fell to . .
Cited – Ramwade Ltd v W J Emson and Co Ltd CA 1987
The plaintiffs had been obliged to hire vehicles to perform the work carried out by their skip lorry which had been damaged beyond repair in a road accident. Their insurance brokers had, contrary to instructions, failed to procure a comprehensive . .

Cited by:
Applied – Smith and Another v South Gloucestershire Council CA 31-Jul-2002
The claimants purchased land. The local search did not reveal a planning permission which affected the value of the property by applying an occupancy condition. He claimed compensation. Compensation was eventually agreed to be payable, but the . .
Cited – Lagden v O’Connor HL 4-Dec-2003
The parties had been involved in a road traffic accident. The defendant drove into the claimant’s parked car. The claimant was unable to afford to hire a car pending repairs being completed, and arranged to hire a car on credit. He now sought . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 10 January 2022; Ref: scu.159398

Betteridge v The United Kingdom: ECHR 29 Jan 2013

The applicant prisoner complained of a delay in his release pending a review by the Parole Board.
Held: The violation of article 5(4) resulted from a delay in the holding of a review by the Board following the expiry of an IPP prisoner’s tariff. The court proceeded on the basis that the Board would not have ordered the applicant’s release had the review taken place speedily. It nevertheless made an award on the basis that the delay ‘gave rise to feelings of frustration which . . were not sufficiently compensated by the findings of violations of the Convention’

1497/10 – HEJUD, [2013] ECHR 97
Bailii
European Convention on Human Rights
Human Rights
Citing:
At First Instance Court – Betteridge, Regina (On the Application of) v the Parole Board Admn 23-Jun-2009
Application was made for damages after a wrongful delay in the prisoner’s release.
Held: Collins J urged practitioners not to pursue actions which are ‘not likely to achieve any sensible redress’. Claims in damages cannot be brought unless it . .

Cited by:
Cited – Creasey and Another v Sole and Others ChD 24-May-2013
The parties, brothers and sisters, disputed ownership of lands to be inherited from the estates of their parents, and whether parts of the farm purchased in several lots under different ownerships descended as part of the farm. . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Human Rights, Prisons, Damages

Updated: 09 January 2022; Ref: scu.470645

Thakrar v The Secretary of State for Justice: Misc 31 Dec 2015

County Court sitting at Milton Keynes. The claimant prisoner sought damages saying that his personal property had been damaged whilst in the care of the defendant.
Held: The claims succeeded in part. Some damage was deliberate. There was a history of failures by the defendant to comply with court orders in relation to the Claimant: ‘It is not, however, necessary to go beyond the bare fact of a finding that deliberate damage has been caused to a prisoner’s property by those who had the responsibility of looking after it to justify a conclusion that an award of exemplary damages is warranted. Even if I am wrong about that, a similar sized award of aggravated damages would be appropriate.’

[2015] EW Misc B44
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Bullen v Swan Electric Engineering Co 1907
The duty of a bailee is to take reasonable care of the goods concerned, the bailee bearing the burden of proof of absence of fault. . .
Cited – Houghland v R R Low (Luxury Coaches) Ltd CA 1962
A passenger’s bag had been placed in one coach that had broken down was intended to be transferred to a second coach. When the second coach arrived at the passenger’s destination the bag was not in the hold.
Held: The duty of care of a bailee . .
Cited – Port Swettenham Authority v T W Wu and Co (M) Sdn Bhd PC 19-Jun-1978
A gratuitous bailee assumes a duty to take reasonable care of the chattel: ‘This standard, although high, may be a less exacting standard than that which the common law requires of a bailee for reward [but] the line between the two standards is a . .
Cited – Raymond v Honey HL 4-Mar-1981
The defendant prison governor had intercepted a prisoner’s letter to the Crown Office for the purpose of raising proceedings to have the governor committed for an alleged contempt of court.
Held: The governor was in contempt of court. Subject . .
Cited – Huckle v Money 1763
An action for false imprisonment brought by a journeyman printer who apparently had played no part in printing the famous issue No. 45 of ‘The North Briton ‘ but had been arrested under a warrant issued by a Secretary of State authorising a King’s . .
Cited – Wilkes v Wood CCP 6-Dec-1763
Entry by Force was Unconstitutional
The plaintiff challenged a warrant of commitment to the Tower of London addressed to John Wilkes by name. The plaintiff sought damages after his property was entered by force on behalf of the Secretary of State.
Held: The case was decided on a . .
Cited – Rookes v Barnard (No 1) HL 21-Jan-1964
The court set down the conditions for the award of exemplary damages. There are two categories. The first is where there has been oppressive or arbitrary conduct by a defendant. Cases in the second category are those in which the defendant’s conduct . .
Cited – Thompson v Commissioner of Police of Metropolis; Hsu v Same CA 20-Feb-1997
CS Damages of 200,000 pounds by way of exemplary damages had been awarded against the police for unlawful arrest and assault.
Held: The court gave a guideline maximum pounds 50,000 award against police for . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Prisons, Damages

Updated: 09 January 2022; Ref: scu.558302

Gibbons v Westminster Bank Ltd: 1939

For a non-trading customer of a bank whose cheque has been wrongfully dishonoured, injury to credit in law must be pleaded and proved as special damages.

Lawrence J
[1939] 2 KB 882, [1939] 3 All ER 577
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Kpohraror v Woolwich Building Society CA 1996
The Society, acting as a bank, had at first failed to pay its customer’s cheque for andpound;4,550, even though there were sufficient funds. The bank said that it had been reported lost. The customer sought damages to his business reputation.
Banking, Damages

Updated: 08 January 2022; Ref: scu.448096

Sony Computer Entertainment UK Ltd v Cinram Logistics UK Ltd: CA 8 Aug 2008

Various items were deemed to have been lost whilst being transported by the defendants. The claimants sought damages based on the price for which they would have been sold. The defendants appealed a judgment on that basis.
Held: The carrier’s appeal failed.

Lord Justice Rix, Lord Justice Wilson and Lord Justice Rimer
[2008] EWCA Civ 955, Times 10-Sep-2008, [2009] Bus LR 529
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – Sony Computer Entertainment UK Ltd v Cinram Logistics UK Ltd ComC 2008
The defendant took the claimant’s memory cards for transport, but they were lost. The claimant sought damages calculated on the eventual selling price.
Held: The claimants were entitled to damages on this basis if they discharged the burden of . .
Cited – Charter v Sullivan CA 25-Feb-1957
. .
Cited – Datec Electronics Holdings Ltd and others v United Parcels Services Ltd HL 16-May-2007
The defendants had taken on the delivery of a quantity of the claimant’s computers. The equipment reached one depot, but then was lost or stolen. The parties disputed whether the Convention rules applied. UPS said that the claimant had agreed that . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Contract, Damages

Updated: 08 January 2022; Ref: scu.272279

Sony Computer Entertainment UK Ltd v Cinram Logistics UK Ltd: ComC 2008

The defendant took the claimant’s memory cards for transport, but they were lost. The claimant sought damages calculated on the eventual selling price.
Held: The claimants were entitled to damages on this basis if they discharged the burden of proof of lost sales which fell on them.

Judge Knight, QC
[2008] EWHC 14 (QB)
England and Wales
Cited by:
Appeal from – Sony Computer Entertainment UK Ltd v Cinram Logistics UK Ltd CA 8-Aug-2008
Various items were deemed to have been lost whilst being transported by the defendants. The claimants sought damages based on the price for which they would have been sold. The defendants appealed a judgment on that basis.
Held: The carrier’s . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Contract, Damages

Updated: 08 January 2022; Ref: scu.276516

Esso Petroleum Co Ltd v Hall Russell and Co Ltd (The Esso Bernicia): HL 1989

Lord Goff of Chieveley said: ‘In normal cases, as for example under contracts of insurance, the insurer will on payment request the assured to sign a letter of subrogation, authorising the insurer to proceed in the name of the assured against any wrongdoer who has caused the relevant damage to the assured. If the assured refuses to give any such authority, in theory the insurer can bring proceedings to compel him to do so. But nowadays the insurer can short-circuit this cumbrous process by bringing an action against both the assured and the third party in which (1) he claims an order that the assured shall authorise him to proceed against the third party in the name of the assured and (2) he seeks to proceed (so authorised) against the third party. But it must not be thought that, because this convenient method of proceeding now exists, the insurer can without more proceed in his own name against the third party. He has no right to do so, so long as the right of action he is seeking to enforce is the right of action of the assured. Only if that right of action is assigned to him by the assured can he proceed directly against the third party in his own name.’
The vessel Esso Bernicia was involved in an accident while berthing at Sullom Voe terminal under the control of tugs. The failure of a piece of equipment on board one of the tugs caused the vessel to come into contact with the jetty as a result of which both the vessel and the jetty sustained damage and the foreshore in the area of the terminal was contaminated by fuel oil. Esso paid compensation to the owners of the jetty and to crofters whose sheep had been injured by the pollution of the foreshore and sought to recover from the builders of the tug, Hall, Russell and Co., on the grounds that they had been negligent in its design and construction. Esso contended that it was entitled to be subrogated to the claims of the jetty owners and the crofters against Hall Russell in tort and could pursue those claims in its own name.
Held: Esso it could pursue the claims of the jetty owners and the crofters only in their names. Esso’s payment did not discharge Hall Russell’s liability, and for the same reason Esso could not make a claim in restitution because Hall Russell had not been enriched at its expense. An indemnifier who is subrogated to the rights of someone whom he has indemnified can only pursue those rights in the name of that person.

Lord Jauncey, Lord Goff of Chieveley
[1989] 1 AC 643, [1989] AC 643, [1989] 1 All ER 37, [1989] 1 Lloyds Rep 8, [1989] 1 All ER 37
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Caledonian North Sea Ltd v London Bridge Engineering Ltd and Others HL 7-Feb-2002
Substantial personal injury claims had been settled following the Piper Alpha disaster. Where a contractual indemnity had been provided under a contract, and insurance had also been taken out, but the insurance had not been a contractual . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Insurance

Updated: 08 January 2022; Ref: scu.191164

Teacher v Calder: SCS 25 Feb 1898

An agreement was entered into between T and C, whereby, as interest for an advance made by T for the purpose of carrying on and extending the business of C’s firm, he was to receive a certain percentage of the profits of the business. It was provided that the books of the firm should be audited annually by a particular firm of accountants, whose certificates ‘shall be binding on both parties as finally fixing the amount of the profits in each year.’ Notice of this agreement and of its terms was given by T to one of the partners of the firm of auditors, but they were not communicated by him to the partner who actually conducted the audit. While aware that T had an interest in the profits, the latter did not know the terms of the agreement, and in particular did not know that his audit was finally binding on the parties. T had access to the books of the firm, and had frequent meetings with the auditor.
In an action for a judicial accounting raised by T at the termination of the agreement, he maintained that the auditor’s certificates were not binding on him, because the audits made were not such as were contemplated under the agreement.
Held, on a proof ( diss. Lord Adam), that the certificates of the auditor were certificates under the agreement, and that accordingly the pursuer was not entitled to an accounting.

Lord Low
[1898] SLR 35 – 517
Bailii
Scotland
Cited by:
Appeal From – Teacher v Calder HL 24-Jul-1899
The mere fact that the defendant’s breach of his contract with the plaintiff has enabled him to enter into a more profitable contract with someone else should also not be sufficient to justify departing from the normal rules for calculation of . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Contract, Damages

Updated: 08 January 2022; Ref: scu.612185

Representative Claimants v MGN Ltd: CA 17 Dec 2015

The claimants complained that the appellant newspaper had hacked into their mobile telephones over a period of time. The newspaper now appealed against the level of damages awarded (between andpound;72k and andpound;260k).
Held: The appeals were dismissed.
Arden LJ said: ‘Damages in consequence of a breach of a person’s private rights are not the same as vindicatory damages to vindicate some constitutional right. In the present context, the damages are an award to compensate for the loss or diminution of a right to control formerly private information and for the distress that the [claimants] could justifiably have felt because their private information had been exploited, and are assessed by reference to that loss.’

Arden, Rafferty, Kitchin LJJ
[2015] EWCA Civ 1291, [2015] WLR(D) 535, [2016] 3 All ER 799, [2016] EMLR 9, [2016] FSR 13, [2016] 2 WLR 1217
Bailii, WLRD, WLRD
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – Gulati and Others v MGN Limited ChD 21-May-2015
The claimants each claimed that their mobile phones had been hacked by or on behalf of the defendant newspaper group. The claims had now in substance been admitted, and the court set out to assess the damages (and aggravated damages) to be paid.
Media, Damages, Information

Updated: 08 January 2022; Ref: scu.557088

Barry v Davies (T/A Heathcote Ball and Co) and Others: CA 27 Jul 2000

The claimant sought damages from an auctioneer who had failed to accept his bid, and withdrawn the items from the sale.
Held: In an auction without reserve the auctioneer was not entitled to withdraw an item on the basis that the highest or only bid was too low. To do so was to put himself in a position as if he was bidding for the seller, and that was not allowed save under the Act. The auctioneer himself was liable in damages to the disappointed bidder in a sum equivalent to the market value less the rejected bid.

Pill LJ, Sir Murray Suart-Smith
Times 31-Aug-2000, Gazette 12-Oct-2000, [2000] EWCA Civ 235
Bailii
Sale of Goods Act 1979 57(4)
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Payne v Cave 2-May-1789
Auction Bid Withdrawn Before Hammer Fell
The defendant’s bid for a worm-tub, and a pewter worm was highest at the auction, but he withdrew his bid before the hammer fell. The auction was under standard conditions.
Held: No contract had been made. The bid was an offer which could be . .
Cited – Thornett v Haines 28-Apr-1846
Where a sale by auction is advertised or stated by the auctioneer to be ‘without reserve’, the employment by the vendor of a puffer to bid for him, without notice, renders the sale void, and entitles the purchaser to recover back his deposit from . .
Cited – Harris v Nickerson QBD 25-Apr-1873
The defendant auctioneer advertised in the London papers that certain brewing materials, plant, and office furniture would be sold by him at Bury St Edmunds on a certain day and two following days. The plaintiff, a commission broker in London, . .
Cited – Warlow v Harrison QBD 25-Nov-1858
Whether Auctioneer liable to bidder – vendor’s bid
Three following horses were advertised for sale at auction being the property of a gentleman and sold without reserve. The auctioneer had knocked one down as sold for 61 guineas, but the bid was from the owner. The plaintiff sued the auctioneer, . .
Cited – Warlow v Harrison CExC 26-Nov-1859
Unless public notice of this was given, a bid from the seller himself was fraudulent. He appealed against rejection of his claim against the auctioneer.
Held: The appeal failed on the existing pleadings, but said that the plaintiff might . .
Cited – Mainprice v Westley 4-Jul-1865
Liability of auctioneer. Sale without reserve. Undisclosed principal – 1. A declaration alleged that the defendant, an auctioneer, published handbills representing that at a certain day and place he would offer certain premises for peremptory sale . .
Cited – Harris v Nickerson QBD 25-Apr-1873
The defendant auctioneer advertised in the London papers that certain brewing materials, plant, and office furniture would be sold by him at Bury St Edmunds on a certain day and two following days. The plaintiff, a commission broker in London, . .
Cited – Fenwick v MacDonald Fraser and Co SCS 29-Jun-1904
A sale of farm animals by auction was not made without reserve because the condition of sale reserved to the owner the right to make one offer for each animal. The Lord Ordinary Lord Kyllachy had decided the case both on the grounds that there was a . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Contract, Consumer, Damages, Agency, Contract

Updated: 05 January 2022; Ref: scu.78262

Compromise Agreements Ltd, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills: CA 19 May 2015

Application for leave to appeal against refusal of review of Unfair Dismissal (Variation of the Limit of Compensatory Award) Order 2013 which limited the amount of a compensatory award in the case of unfair dismissal to the lower of andpound;74,200 or one years’ pay,

Davis LJ
[2015] EWCA Civ 732
Bailii
Unfair Dismissal (Variation of the Limit of Compensatory Award) Order 2013
England and Wales

Employment, Damages

Updated: 05 January 2022; Ref: scu.553829

Involnert Management Inc v Aprilgrange Limited and Others: ComC 8 Oct 2015

Date from which interest was to run on principal damages award.

Leggatt J
[2015] 5 Costs LR 813, [2015] EWHC 2834 (Comm)
Bailii
Judgments Act 1838 17
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Hunt v R M Douglas (Roofing) Ltd HL 1990
The plaintiff had an order ‘That the Defendants do pay to the Plaintiff his costs of this action . . to be taxed . . failing agreement’ and the House was asked as to the time from when he was entitled to interest.
Held: A litigant who has been . .
Cited – Thomas v Bunn HL 1991
From its enactment it was accepted that s 17 applied to orders for costs to be taxed – even though before taxation was completed there was no sum for which execution could be levied – and did so from the date of the order (the incipitur rule), not . .
Main Judgment – Involnert Management Inc v Aprilgrange Ltd and Others ComC 10-Aug-2015
The claimant’s yacht ‘Galatea’ caught fire at her mooring in the Athens Marina. As a result of the fire, the yacht was damaged beyond economic repair. The defendant insurers had agreed to insure the Yacht against all risks for an agreed value of 13 . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 04 January 2022; Ref: scu.553253

R+V Versicherung Ag v Risk Insurance and Reinsurance Solutions Sa and others: ComC 29 Jan 2007

A company may be able to claim for the wasted time spent by its staff investigating the matter at issue without having to show additional expenditure or loss of revenue or profit.

Gloster J
[2007] EWHC 79 (Comm)
Bailii
England and Wales
Cited by:
Appeal from – R+V Versicherung Ag v Risk Insurance and Reinsurance Solutions Sa and others CA 30-Jul-2007
. .
Cited – Nationwide Building Society v Dunlop Haywards (HLl) Ltd (T/A Dunlop Heywood Lorenz) and Cobbetts ComC 18-Feb-2009
The claimant had leant money on a property fraudulently overvalued by an employee of the now insolvent first defendant. A contribution order had been agreed by the solicitors. The court heard applications by the claimants and the solicitors against . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Insurance, Damages

Updated: 04 January 2022; Ref: scu.248270

Rowe v Dolman: CA 23 Jul 2008

The claimant had been very severely injured in a road accident. The court was asked to determine the effect on his life expectancy, the experts had diverged as to the appropriate range of life expectancy.
Held: The judge had assessed the expert evidence, and his findings were in essence ones of fact and not of law, and therefore any appeal failed. The judge had ordered periodical payments rather than a lump sum. The claimant said that the sum generated would never be sufficient to provide for his care. However the judge had exercised a discretion, and it had not been shown that that discretion had been used wrongly.

Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers LCJ, May LJ, Hallett LJ
[2008] EWCA Civ 1040
Bailii
Damages Act 2003
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – Rowe v Dolman QBD 16-Nov-2007
. .

Cited by:
Cited – Preston v City Electrical Factors Ltd and Another QBD 13-Nov-2009
The claimant had received andpound;100,000 in interim payments on his personal injury claim, and now sought a further similar sum.
Held: The claim was thought substantial, but the defendants said that any final award would include an . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Personal Injury, Damages

Updated: 04 January 2022; Ref: scu.276659

M’Alinden v James Nimmo and Co Ltd: HL 1 Jul 1919

It is open to an arbiter acting under the Workmen’s Compensation Acts, upon sufficient evidence being adduced, to increase the compensation granted to a workman on partial incapacity, on the ground that though there is no change in his physical state, there is a greater difficulty than had been contemplated at the time of the original grant in his obtaining employment. Circumstances in which held that an arbiter had facte before him to entitle him to increase an original award.
The Scots Act 1424, cap. 24 (1424, cap. 45), dealing with pauper causes, enacts-‘ . . Ana gif sic cause be obtenyt the wrangar sail asseyth bath the party scathit and the aduocatis costis and truale. . . ‘
Held that the practice of the House of Lords was established as to the question of expenses in a poor’s cause, and could not be altered because of an early Scots statute which had not in contemplation an appeal to the House of Lords.

Viscouut Finlay, Viscount Cave, Lord Dunedin, Lord Shaw, and Lord Wrenbury
[1919] UKHL 522, 56 SLR 522
Bailii
Scotland

Personal Injury, Damages, Costs

Updated: 04 January 2022; Ref: scu.632783

Woods Building Services v Milton Keynes Council (Damages): TCC 14 Jul 2015

Coulson J
[2015] EWHC 2172 (TCC)
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Proncipal Judgment – Woods Building Services v Milton Keynes Council TCC 14-Jul-2015
Procurement dispute arising out of a tender process undertaken by the defendant (‘the Council’) for the award of a framework agreement for asbestos removal. . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 03 January 2022; Ref: scu.550887

Ward v Ashkenazi: CA 2 Feb 2011

The claimant had been awarded damages after being found to have been unfairly dismissed for an automatically unfair reason in requesting written particulars of her employment. The EAT had awarded a 50% uplift for non-compliance with statutory procedures.
Held: The employee’s appeal failed. The harsh reality was that, absent the engagement of the automatically unfair dismissal provision, the respondent could and would have dismissed the appellant without liability for unfair dismissal before the end of the first year.

Maurice Kay, Stanley Burnton, Gross LJJ
[2011] EWCA Civ 172
Bailii
Employment Rights Act 1996
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Polkey v A E Dayton Services Limited HL 19-Nov-1987
Mr Polkey was employed as a driver. The company decided to replace four van drivers with two van salesmen and a representative. Mr Polkey and two other van drivers were made redundant. Without warning, he was called in and informed that he had been . .
Appeal from – Ward v Ashkenazi EAT 22-Mar-2010
EAT UNFAIR DISMISSAL: Compensation
The Employment Tribunal found the Respondent unfairly dismissed the Claimant for raising a question about her statutory rights. She had been employed for 10 weeks and was . .
Cited – Scott-Davies v Redgate Medical Services EAT 11-Aug-2006
EAT Practice and Procedure – 2002 Act and Pre-action requirements
There is no free-standing right to complain of a breach of the statutory procedures in the absence of a valid claim of unfair dismissal . .
Cited – O’Donoghue v Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council CA 17-May-2001
The Tribunal had been entitled to find on the evidence that an employee unfairly dismissed by reason of sex would have been fairly dismissed for misconduct six months later in any event because of her antagonistic and intransigent attitude. The . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Employment, Damages

Updated: 03 January 2022; Ref: scu.430227

Billett v Ministry of Defence: CA 23 Jul 2015

Defendant’s appeal against the quantum of damages awarded in a personal injury action. The principal issue is how the court should assess damages for loss of future earning capacity in circumstances where the claimant suffers from a minor disability, is in steady employment and is earning at his full pre-accident rate.

Jackson, Patten, McFarlane LJJ
[2015] EWCA Civ 773
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Smith v Manchester City Council CA 10-Jun-1974
Damages – earnings loss for persistent disability
The plaintiff, a part time domestic cleaner slipped and injured herself (a frozen shoulder) when working for the defendant. It was accepted that the cause of the slip was the defendant’s negligence. At the time of the claim she was still employed by . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Personal Injury, Damages

Updated: 02 January 2022; Ref: scu.550587

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v G (VDP): UTAA 23 May 2015

The decision of the First-tier Tribunal did not involve the making of a material error on a point of law. It is not set aside. If he has not done so, the Secretary of State must make a payment of the relevant statutory sum in accordance with the Vaccine Damage Payments Act 1979.

E Mitchell UTJ
[2015] UKUT 321 (AAC)
Bailii
Vaccine Damage Payments Act 1979
England and Wales

Benefits, Damages

Updated: 02 January 2022; Ref: scu.550228

Silver And Others v The United Kingdom: ECHR 25 Mar 1983

There had been interference with prisoners’ letters by prison authorities. The Commission considered Standing Orders and Circular Instructions in relation to restrictions on correspondence. The rules were not available to prisoners and were restrictive.
Held: ‘it is true that those applicants who were in custody may have experienced some annoyance and sense of frustration as a result of the restrictions that were imposed on particular letters. It does not appear, however, that this was of such intensity that it would in itself justify an award of compensation for non-pecuniary damage.’ Restrictions were however justifiable so long as the law was sufficiently precise to enable the individual to regulate his conduct, and that orders and instructions could be properly taken into account. ‘ and ‘a law which confers a discretion must indicate the scope of that discretion.’ though ‘the Court has already recognised the impossibility of attaining absolute certainty in the framing of laws and the risk that the search for certainty may entail excessive rigidity . . [T]he Court points out once more that ‘many laws are inevitably couched in terms which, to a greater or lesser extent, are vague and whose interpretation and application are questions of practice.’ As to the rule prohibiting ‘letters which discuss crime in general or the crime of others’: ‘The Commission considers that this restriction is also an obvious requirement of imprisonment and although it is not specified in the Prison Rules 1964, as amended, the Commission is of the opinion that it is a reasonable and foreseeable consequence of the Home Secretary’s power under rule 33(1) of the Prison Rules 1964 to impose restrictions on prisoners’ correspondence in the interests of good order, the prevention of crime or the interests of any persons. Prison security is, in the Commission’s opinion, an essential part of such interest. The prohibition on prisoners’ letters which discuss crime in general or the crime of others can, accordingly, be said to be ‘in accordance with the law’ within the meaning of Article 8(2). . . . On the justification issue, the Commission considers that a prohibition on prisoners’ letters which discuss crime in general or the crime of others is, in principle, an ordinary and reasonable requirement of imprisonment, ‘necessary in a democratic society . . for the prevention of disorder or crime’ within the meaning of Article 8(2).’
ECHR The court addressed the question of safeguards: ‘The applicants further contended that the law itself must provide safeguards against abuse. The Government recognised that the correspondence control system must itself be subject to control and the court finds it evident that some form of safeguards must exist. One of the principles underlying the Convention is the rule of law, which implies that an interference by the authorities with an individual’s rights should be subject to effective control. This is especially so where, as in the present case, the law bestows on the executive wide discretionary powers, the application whereof is a matter of practice which is susceptible to modification but not to any Parliamentary scrutiny.’

6205/73, [1983] 5 EHRR 347, [1983] ECHR 5, 7052/75, 5947/72
Worldlii, Bailii
European Convention on Human Rights 6-1 8 13, European Convention on Human Rights
Human Rights
Citing:
At Commission – Silver v United Kingdom ECHR 1980
(Commission) Complaint was made as to the censorship of prisoners’ correspondence. The censorship of prisoners’ correspondence was ancillary to prison rules restricting the contents of correspondence. The Commission, therefore, and the Court had to . .

Cited by:
Cited – Anufrijeva and Another v London Borough of Southwark CA 16-Oct-2003
The various claimants sought damages for established breaches of their human rights involving breaches of statutory duty by way of maladministration. Does the state have a duty to provide support so as to avoid a threat to the family life of the . .
Cited – Szuluk, Regina (on the Application of) v HM Prison Full Sutton Admn 20-Feb-2004
The prisoner was receiving long term health treatment, and objected that his correspondence with the doctor was being read. He was held as a category B prisoner but in a prison also holding category A prisoners, whose mail would be read. The prison . .
Cited – Begum, Regina (on the Application of) v Denbigh High School Admn 15-Jun-2004
A schoolgirl complained that she had been excluded from school for wearing a form of attire which accorded with her Muslim beliefs.
Held: The school had made great efforts to establish what forms of wear were acceptable within the moslem . .
Cited – S, Regina (on Application of) v South Yorkshire Police; Regina v Chief Constable of Yorkshire Police ex parte Marper HL 22-Jul-2004
Police Retention of Suspects DNA and Fingerprints
The claimants complained that their fingerprints and DNA records taken on arrest had been retained after discharge before trial, saying the retention of the samples infringed their right to private life.
Held: The parts of DNA used for testing . .
Cited – Nilsen v HM Prison Full Sutton and Another CA 17-Nov-2004
The prisoner, a notorious murderer had begun to write his autobiography. His solicitor wished to return a part manuscript to him in prison to be finished. The prison did not allow it, and the prisoner claimed infringement of his article 10 rights. . .
Cited – Regina v Secretary of State for The Home Department Ex Parte Simms HL 8-Jul-1999
Ban on Prisoners talking to Journalists unlawful
The two prisoners, serving life sentences for murder, had had their appeals rejected. They continued to protest innocence, and sought to bring their campaigns to public attention through the press, having oral interviews with journalists without . .
Cited – Hirst v United Kingdom (2) ECHR 6-Oct-2005
(Grand Chamber) The applicant said that whilst a prisoner he had been banned from voting. The UK operated with minimal exceptions, a blanket ban on prisoners voting.
Held: Voting is a right not a privilege. It was a right central in a . .
See Also – Silver And Others v The United Kingdom (Art 50) ECHR 24-Oct-1983
. .
Cited – The Public Law Project, Regina (on The Application of) v Lord Chancellor SC 13-Jul-2016
Proposed changes to the Legal Aid regulations were challenged as being invalid, for being discriminatory. If regulations are not authorised under statute, they will be invalid, even if they have been approved by resolutions of both Houses under the . .
Cited – The Christian Institute and Others v The Lord Advocate SC 28-Jul-2016
(Scotland) By the 2014 Act, the Scottish Parliament had provided that each child should have a named person to monitor that child’s needs, with information about him or her shared as necessary. The Institute objected that the imposed obligation to . .
Cited – Miller v The College of Policing CA 20-Dec-2021
Hate-Incident Guidance Inflexible and Unlawful
The central issue raised in the appeal is the lawfulness of certain parts of a document entitled the Hate Crime Operational Guidance (the Guidance). The Guidance, issued in 2014 by the College of Policing (the College), the respondent to this . .
Cited – Gallagher for Judicial Review (NI) SC 30-Jan-2019
Disclosure of older minor offences to employers 48 . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Human Rights, Damages, Prisons

Leading Case

Updated: 02 January 2022; Ref: scu.164917

Mullen, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: HL 29 Apr 2004

The claimant had been imprisoned, but his conviction was later overturned. He had been a victim of a gross abuse of executive power. The British authorities had acted in breach of international law and had been guilty of ‘a blatant and extremely serious failure to adhere to the rule of law with regard to the production of a defendant for prosecution in the English courts’. He sought compensation from the respondent, but for the failure to provide a fair trial.
Held: ‘miscarriage of justice’ is not a legal term of art and has no settled meaning. The House had to answer whether it was intended that compensation was payable to all whose convictions had been overturned, or only to those thought to have been properly shown to have been innocent. It is often extraordinarily difficult to infer the will of a composite body, such as an international conference, except from the language actually adopted. The Covenant made such a distinction. Here, despite the unlawful pre-trial behaviour and the correctness of the overturning of the conviction, there was no reason to doubt the correctness of the jury’s verdict. Any compensation would therefore have to be under the discretionary scheme operated by the Home Secretary. No legitimate expectation had been created in favour of the claimant. Appeal allowed.

Lord Bingham of Cornhill, Lord Steyn, Lord Scott of Foscote, Lord Rodger of Earlsferry, Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe
[2004] UKHL 18, Times 03-May-2004, [2005] 1 AC 1, [2004] 3 All ER 65, [2004] 2 WLR 1140, 16 BHRC 469, [2004] UKHRR 745
House of Lords, Bailii
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966 14(6), Criminal Justice Act 1988 133
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – Regina (on the Application of Mullen) v The Secretary of State for the Home Department CA 20-Dec-2002
The applicant had been unlawfully taken from Zimbabwe, then tried and sentenced in the UK. His conviction was set aside as unsafe, but he had been refused damages. He appealed.
Held: There was no substantial criticism of the trial itself, but . .
Cited – In re McFarland HL 29-Apr-2004
The claimant was convicted, imprisoned, and then his conviction was overturned. He sought compensation. He had pleaded guilty after being told by counsel to expect an adverse direction from the magistrate, following a meeting in private between . .
Cited – Regina v Looseley (orse Loosely); Attorney General’s Reference No 3 of 2000 HL 25-Oct-2001
Police Entrapment is no defence to Criminal Act
The defendant complained of his conviction for supplying controlled drugs, saying that the undercover police officer had requested him to make the supply.
Held: It was an abuse of process for the police to go so far as to incite a crime.
Cited – Robins v National Trust Company Ltd 1927
The rule restricting a third tier court from upsetting a finding where there have been concurrent judgments of two courts on a pure question of fact were not based on any statutory rule. . .
Cited – Sekanina v Austria ECHR 25-Aug-1993
The applicant was detained on remand for about a year on suspicion of murdering his wife. He was acquitted by a jury. He applied for compensation for costs incurred in his defence and pecuniary damage sustained during his detention under the . .
Cited – Lamanna v Austria ECHR 10-Jul-2001
Hudoc Judgment (Merits and just satisfaction) Preliminary objection joined to merits (victim); No violation of Art. 6-1; Violation of Art. 6-2; Pecuniary damage – claim rejected; Costs and expenses partial award . .
Cited – Leutscher v The Netherlands ECHR 26-Mar-1996
Lack of jurisdiction (complaint inadmissible); No violation of Art. 6-2 – The Commission distinguished cases in which there has been no acquittal on the merits of the accusation. . .
Cited – Rushiti v Austria ECHR 21-Mar-2000
The right of every person under the Convention to be presumed innocent, includes the general rule that no suspicion regarding an accused’s innocence may be voiced after his acquittal: ‘In any case, the Court is not convinced by the Government’s . .
Cited – Hammern v Norway ECHR 11-Feb-2003
The claimant was acquitted by a jury at trial and he then sought compensation for the period of his detention on remand. The test applied was whether ‘it is shown to be probable that he did not perform the act that formed the basis for the charge’. . .
Cited – Weixelbraun v Austria ECHR 20-Dec-2001
Hudoc Judgment (Merits and just satisfaction) Violation of Art. 6-2; Costs and expenses partial award – Convention Proceedings . .
Cited – O v Norway ECHR 11-Feb-2003
Hudoc Judgment (Merits and just satisfaction) Violation of Art. 6-2 ; Pecuniary damage – claim rejected ; Non-pecuniary damage – financial award ; Costs and expenses partial award
Where there has been an . .
Cited – Regina v Latif; Regina v Shahzad HL 23-Jan-1996
The defendant had been lured into the UK by the unlawful acts of customs officers. He claimed abuse of process.
Held: The category of cases in which the abuse of process principles can be applied is not closed. A customs officer committing an . .
Cited – Effort Shipping Company Ltd v Linden Management Sa and others (The Glannis Nk) HL 22-Jan-1998
A ship’s cargo can be held to be dangerous, and the shipper liable for anything which was more than an obvious physical danger. Such wider danger includes beetle infestation of a crop cargo. Lord Steyn said:’I would be quite prepared, in an . .
Cited – Fothergill v Monarch Airlines Ltd HL 10-Jul-1980
The plaintiff, on arriving at the airport found that his luggage had been lost. The defendant denied liability saying he had not notified his claim within the requisite period.
Held: Elementary justice requires that the rules by which the . .
Cited – Regina v Horseferry Road Magistrates’ Court, ex Parte Bennett (No 1) HL 24-Jun-1993
The defendant had been brought to the UK in a manner which was in breach of extradition law. He had, in effect, been kidnapped by the authorities.
Held: The High Court may look at how an accused person was brought within the jurisdiction when . .
Cited – Regina v North and East Devon Health Authority ex parte Coughlan and Secretary of State for Health Intervenor and Royal College of Nursing Intervenor CA 16-Jul-1999
Consultation to be Early and Real Listening
The claimant was severely disabled as a result of a road traffic accident. She and others were placed in an NHS home for long term disabled people and assured that this would be their home for life. Then the health authority decided that they were . .
Cited – Jordan v United Kingdom; McKerr v United Kingdom; similar ECHR 4-May-2001
Proper Investigation of Deaths with Army or Police
Claims were made as regards deaths of alleged terrorists in clashes with the UK armed forces and police. In some cases the investigations necessary to justify the taking of life had been inadequate. Statements made to the inquiry as to the . .
Cited – Mullen, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department HL 29-Apr-2004
The claimant had been imprisoned, but his conviction was later overturned. He had been a victim of a gross abuse of executive power. The British authorities had acted in breach of international law and had been guilty of ‘a blatant and extremely . .
Cited – Regina v Turner CACD 1970
The court considered an appeal where the defendant had entered a plea of guilty but had felt himself under undue pressure from the judge.
Held: The court urged caution in the practice of counsel seeing the judge in his chambers, though . .

Cited by:
Cited – Mullen, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department HL 29-Apr-2004
The claimant had been imprisoned, but his conviction was later overturned. He had been a victim of a gross abuse of executive power. The British authorities had acted in breach of international law and had been guilty of ‘a blatant and extremely . .
Cited – In re McFarland HL 29-Apr-2004
The claimant was convicted, imprisoned, and then his conviction was overturned. He sought compensation. He had pleaded guilty after being told by counsel to expect an adverse direction from the magistrate, following a meeting in private between . .
Cited – Dr D, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Health CA 19-Jul-2006
The doctor complained of the use of Alert letters where he was suspected of sexual abuse of patients, but the allegations were unsubstantiated. He complained particularly that he had been acquitted in a criminal court and then also by the . .
Cited – Raissi, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department Admn 22-Feb-2007
The claimant sought judicial review of a refusal to make an ex gratia payment for his imprisonment whilst successfully resisting extradition proceedings. Terrorist connections had been suggested, but the judge made an explicit finding that at no . .
Cited – O’Brien and others v Independent Assessor HL 14-Mar-2007
The claimants had been wrongly imprisoned for a murder they did not commit. The assessor had deducted from their compensation a sum to represent the living costs they would have incurred if living freely. They also appealed differences from a . .
Cited – Clibery, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department Admn 30-Jul-2007
The claimant sought judicial review of a decision of the Home Secretary, to refuse his application for compensation. He had first been convicted and imprisoned and then had his conviction quashed. The respondent did not think that the conviction was . .
Cited – Siddall, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice Admn 16-Mar-2009
The claimant had been imprisoned then released after his conviction for sexual assaults. He appealed against rejection of his claim for compensation. The criterion for compensation was demonstrating that something had ‘gone seriously wrong in the . .
Cited – Oxfam v Revenue and Customs ChD 27-Nov-2009
The charity appealed against refusal to allow it to reclaim input VAT. It also sought judicial review of the decision of the Tribunal not to allow it to raise an argument of legitimate expectation. The charity had various subsidiaries conducting . .
Cited – Adams, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice CA 27-Nov-2009
The claimant sought compensation for his imprisonment after the overturning of his conviction, on the basis that evidence had emerged which undermined the conviction.
Held: Such a claim could not succeed where the reason for the non-use of the . .
Cited – Adams, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice SC 11-May-2011
The three claimants had each been convicted of murders and served time. Their convictions had been reversed eventually, and they now appealed against the refusal of compensation for imprisonment, saying that there had been a miscarriage of justice. . .
Cited – MacDermott and Another, Re Judicial Review CANI 8-Feb-2010
The applicants had been convicted of murders and had served terms of imprisonment, but had been released when their convictions had been overturned. They now appealed against a refusal of judicial review of a decision not to award them compensation . .
Cited – N, Regina v CACD 20-Feb-2012
The court considered the offence of child trafficking. The defendants had been the victims of such offences and used for managing cannabis production. It was argued that neither defendant should have been prosecuted.
Held: The appeals failed. . .
Cited – Hallam, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice SC 30-Jan-2019
These appeals concern the statutory provisions governing the eligibility for compensation of persons convicted of a criminal offence where their conviction is subsequently quashed (or they are pardoned) because of the impact of fresh evidence. It . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Criminal Practice, Human Rights

Leading Case

Updated: 01 January 2022; Ref: scu.196438

Bateman and Howse, Regina (on the Application Of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: CA 17 May 1994

The plaintiff had been convicted of several counts of receiving stolen goods and sentenced to six years’ imprisonment. He had appealed to the Court of Appeal on the ground that he had been convicted on the basis of evidence in statement form given by witnesses from New Zealand. His appeal failed. Some time later his case was referred back to the Court of Appeal under section 17 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1968. This time his appeal succeeded on what was essentially the same ground as that which had failed before and his convictions were quashed.
Held: The plaintiffs’ appeals were dismissed. Compensation should be payable to prisoners wrongly convicted only after new facts were discovered, not where the release came after a ruling which changed the law. In this case ‘the ground of the reversal was not . . the discovery of a new or newly discovered fact, but a legal ruling on facts which had been known all along.’
Sir Thomas Bingham discussed the suggestion that the success of an appeal meant that the court felt there had been a miscarriage of justice, and said: ‘Therefore, it follows, he says, that he is a victim of a miscarriage of justice and from that it follows that he is entitled to compensation. To deny him compensation is, he argues, to undermine his acquittal and the presumption of innocence which flows from the fact that his convictions have been quashed. I am, for my part, unable to accept that argument, although I hasten to assure Mr Bateman that in doing so I have no intention whatever to undermine the effect of the quashing of his convictions. He is entitled to be treated, for all purposes, as if he had never been convicted. Nor do I wish to suggest that Mr Bateman is not the victim of what the man in the street would regard as a miscarriage of justice. He has been imprisoned for three-and-a-half years when he should not have been convicted or imprisoned at all on the second decision of the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division). The man in the street would regard that as a miscarriage of justice and so would I. But that is not, in my judgment, the question. The question is whether the miscarriage of justice from which Mr Bateman has suffered is one that has the characteristics which the Act lays down as a pre-condition of the statutory right to demand compensation. That, therefore, is the question to which I now turn.’ there was no new or newly discovered fact, so that Mr Bateman could not satisfy the relevant criteria under section 133.

Sir Thomas Bingham MR, Farquharson, Simon Brown LJJ
Times 01-Jul-1994, (1995) 7 Admin LR 175, [1994] EWCA Civ 36, [1994] COD 504
Bailii
Criminal Justice Act 1988 133
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – Regina v Secretary of State for Home Department, ex parte Bateman – Regina v Same ex parte Howse QBD 5-May-1993
Compensation for a wrongful imprisonment should include circumstances of miscarriage of justice as well as pardons. A magistrate is not a public authority. The threshold of exceptionality is high: ‘It was essentially a question for the Secretary of . .

Cited by:
Cited – In re McFarland HL 29-Apr-2004
The claimant was convicted, imprisoned, and then his conviction was overturned. He sought compensation. He had pleaded guilty after being told by counsel to expect an adverse direction from the magistrate, following a meeting in private between . .
Cited – Adams, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice SC 11-May-2011
The three claimants had each been convicted of murders and served time. Their convictions had been reversed eventually, and they now appealed against the refusal of compensation for imprisonment, saying that there had been a miscarriage of justice. . .
Cited – Hallam, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice SC 30-Jan-2019
These appeals concern the statutory provisions governing the eligibility for compensation of persons convicted of a criminal offence where their conviction is subsequently quashed (or they are pardoned) because of the impact of fresh evidence. It . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Prisons

Updated: 01 January 2022; Ref: scu.86900

Hallam, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice: SC 30 Jan 2019

These appeals concern the statutory provisions governing the eligibility for compensation of persons convicted of a criminal offence where their conviction is subsequently quashed (or they are pardoned) because of the impact of fresh evidence. It was argued that the failure to make payment amounted to a denial of the right to the presumption of innocence.
Held: (Lord Reed DPSC and Lord Kerr of Tonaghmore JSC dissenting) Article 6(2) does not apply to section 133 claims for compensation.
The critical distinction between ‘innocence’ as used in article 6(2) and exoneration on the facts might in one sense be said to be a semantic one, but if so the Strasbourg court has emphasised time and again that language (ie semantics) is for it the critical test of breach of article 6(2). In reality it is not a mere semantic distinction but reflects a fundamental principle of the criminal law, namely the strict enhanced standard of proof. It is not possible for the law simultaneously to erect a differential and enhanced standard of proof for criminal prosecutions, and then effectively to apply that standard not just to criminal trials but to other (indeed maybe to all) other adjudications upon the facts which led to the prosecution. Neither the suggested test of ‘link’ nor the suggested test of language will work to determine the scope of article 6(2) in the face of this difficulty.
‘there will be many who are charged with or tried on criminal offences who are truly innocent but are unable to establish their innocence as a positive fact. That undeniable circumstance must form part of the backdrop to the proper approach to the application of article 6(2) of ECHR.’

Lady Hale, President, Lord Mance, Lord Kerr, Lord Wilson, Lord Reed, Lord Hughes, Lord Lloyd-Jones
[2019] UKSC 2, [2019] WLR(D) 63, [2020] AC 279, [2019] HRLR 5, [2019] 2 WLR 440, 47 BHRC 199, [2019] 2 All ER 841
Bailii, Bailii Summary, WLRD
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966 14(6), European Convention on Human Rights P7(3), Criminal Justice Act 1988, Human Rights Act 1998
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Adams, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice SC 11-May-2011
The three claimants had each been convicted of murders and served time. Their convictions had been reversed eventually, and they now appealed against the refusal of compensation for imprisonment, saying that there had been a miscarriage of justice. . .
Appeal from – Hallam and Another, Regina (on The Applications of) v The Secretary of State for Justice CA 11-Apr-2016
The claimants had had their criminal convictions quashed, but had had claims for compensation rejected. They said that section 133(1ZA) of the 1988 Act (as amended) infringed their Human Rights by displacing the presumption of innocence.
Held: . .
See Also – Hallam, R v CACD 17-May-2012
The effect of fresh evidence was to make the conviction unsafe: ‘ . . the fresh evidence has not ‘demolished’ the prosecution case. But its effect on the safety of this conviction is substantial. We are clear in our view that if the jury had heard . .
Cited – Allen (formerly Harris), Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice CA 15-Jul-2008
The claimant appealed against refusal of a review of the defendant to allow her compensation after her conviction for manslaughter of her infant son was quashed.
Held: The conviction had been based on flawed expert evidence.
Article 6(2) . .
Cited – Nealon and Another, Regina (on The Application) v The Secretary of State for Justice Admn 8-Jun-2015
Challenges to refusal of compensation for imprisonment after successful appeal against conviction. . .
Cited – Allen v United Kingdom ECHR 12-Jul-2013
The claimant had successfully appealed against her conviction for the manslaughter of her child, after expert evidence had been discredited. She now appealed against the refusal of compensation. She said that despite her acquittal, she had not been . .
Cited – Rex v Barron CCA 26-Mar-1914
To establish a plea of autrefois acquit it must be shewn either that the defendant had been previously acquitted of the same offence, or could have been convicted at the previous trial of the offence with which he is subsequently charged, or that . .
Cited – Gale and Another v Serious Organised Crime Agency SC 26-Oct-2011
Civil recovery orders had been made against the applicant. He had been accused and acquitted of drug trafficking allegations in Europe, but the judge had been persuaded that he had no proper explanation for the accumulation of his wealth, and had . .
Cited – Regina v Mullins-Johnson 19-Oct-2007
(Court of Appeal for Ontario) The appellant had been convicted of murder of his 4 year old niece and served 12 years in prison. His conviction was based on expert evidence that the autopsy indicated that the young girl had been sexually abused and . .
Cited – Engel And Others v The Netherlands (1) ECHR 8-Jun-1976
The court was asked whether proceedings in a military court against soldiers for disciplinary offences involved criminal charges within the meaning of Article 6(1): ‘In this connection, it is first necessary to know whether the provision(s) defining . .
Cited – Ashendon v United Kingdom ECHR 6-May-2008
. .
Cited – Mullen, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department HL 29-Apr-2004
The claimant had been imprisoned, but his conviction was later overturned. He had been a victim of a gross abuse of executive power. The British authorities had acted in breach of international law and had been guilty of ‘a blatant and extremely . .
Cited – Lutz v Germany ECHR 25-Aug-1987
Only criminal charges attract the additional protections under article 6(2) and 6(3). Insofar as these provisions apply to ‘everyone charged with a criminal offence’ it is well established in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights . .
Cited – Englert v Germany ECHR 25-Aug-1987
Hudoc Preliminary objection rejected (non-exhaustion); No violation of Art. 6-2 . .
Cited – Nolkenbockhoff v Germany ECHR 25-Aug-1987
Hudoc Preliminary objection rejected (victim); No violation of Art. 6-2 . .
Cited – Sikic v Croatia ECHR 15-Jul-2010
. .
Cited – Sekanina v Austria ECHR 25-Aug-1993
The applicant was detained on remand for about a year on suspicion of murdering his wife. He was acquitted by a jury. He applied for compensation for costs incurred in his defence and pecuniary damage sustained during his detention under the . .
Cited – Moullet v France ECHR 13-Sep-2007
After an acquittal of criminal charges, it may still be legitimate to bring disciplinary proceedings or care proceedings under which a lesser standard of proof may be applied to the question of whether the defendant committed the conduct that had . .
Cited – Rushiti v Austria ECHR 21-Mar-2000
The right of every person under the Convention to be presumed innocent, includes the general rule that no suspicion regarding an accused’s innocence may be voiced after his acquittal: ‘In any case, the Court is not convinced by the Government’s . .
Cited – In re McKerr (Northern Ireland) HL 11-Mar-2004
The deceased had been shot by soldiers of the British Army whilst in a car in Northern Ireland. The car was alleged to have ‘run’ a checkpoint. The claimants said the investigation, now 20 years ago, had been inadequate. The claim was brought under . .
Cited – Regina (Holding and Barnes plc) v Secretary of State for Environment Transport and the Regions; Regina (Alconbury Developments Ltd and Others) v Same and Others HL 9-May-2001
Power to call in is administrative in nature
The powers of the Secretary of State to call in a planning application for his decision, and certain other planning powers, were essentially an administrative power, and not a judicial one, and therefore it was not a breach of the applicants’ rights . .
Cited – Ringvold v Norway ECHR 11-Feb-2003
The applicant had been tried for alleged sexual abuse of a minor, G, who in turn claimed civil compensation. He was acquitted and the claim for compensation dismissed. G appealed to the Supreme Court against the failure to award compensation. The . .
Cited – Muller v Germany ECHR 27-Mar-2014
ECHR Article 6-2
Presumption of innocence
Statement in expert report that applicant was guilty of criminal offence of which he had been acquitted: Article 6 – 2 applicable; no violation
Facts – . .
Cited – Orr v Norway ECHR 15-May-2008
The national High Court had dealt with the acquittal of the now complainant and the payment of compensation to the complainant in two clearly distinct parts of its judgment, but in several places highlighted that the standard of proof for civil . .
Cited – Capeau v Belgium ECHR 13-Jan-2005
ECHR Judgment (Merits and Just Satisfaction) – Violation of Art. 6-2; Not necessary to examine Art. 14.
The accused had been investigated for suspected arson but discharged by the court on the grounds that . .
Cited – Regina v Special Adjudicator ex parte Ullah; Regina v Secretary of State for the Home Department HL 17-Jun-2004
The applicants had had their requests for asylum refused. They complained that if they were removed from the UK, their article 3 rights would be infringed. If they were returned to Pakistan or Vietnam they would be persecuted for their religious . .
Cited – Reeves v Norway ECHR 8-Jul-2004
The accused had been tried in the criminal courts for arson and the insurers who had paid out after the fire had been joined as civil parties to claim compensation from her. The standard of proof differed between the two decisions required. She was . .
Cited – Bateman and Howse, Regina (on the Application Of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department CA 17-May-1994
The plaintiff had been convicted of several counts of receiving stolen goods and sentenced to six years’ imprisonment. He had appealed to the Court of Appeal on the ground that he had been convicted on the basis of evidence in statement form given . .
Cited – Kay and Another v London Borough of Lambeth and others; Leeds City Council v Price and others and others HL 8-Mar-2006
In each case the local authority sought to recover possession of its own land. In the Lambeth case, they asserted this right as against an overstaying former tenant, and in the Leeds case as against gypsies. In each case the occupiers said that the . .
Cited – Manchester City Council v Pinnock SC 3-Nov-2010
The tenant had been secure but had his tenancy had been reduced to an insecure demoted tenancy after he was accused of anti-social behaviour. He had not himself been accused of any misbehaviour, but it was said that he should have controlled his . .
Cited – Dicle And Sadak v Turkey ECHR 16-Jun-2015
. .
Cited – Chester, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice SC 16-Oct-2013
The two applicants were serving life sentences for murder. Each sought damages for the unlawful withdrawal of their rights to vote in elections, and the failure of the British parliament to take steps to comply with the judgment.
Held: The . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Criminal Practice, Human Rights

Updated: 01 January 2022; Ref: scu.633292

Allen (formerly Harris), Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice: CA 15 Jul 2008

The claimant appealed against refusal of a review of the defendant to allow her compensation after her conviction for manslaughter of her infant son was quashed.
Held: The conviction had been based on flawed expert evidence.
Article 6(2) had no application to section 133.

Hughes LJ
[2008] EWCA Civ 808, [2009] 1 Cr App R 2, [2009] 2 All ER 1, [2008] ACD 85
Bailii
Criminal Justice Act 1988 133, European Convention on Human Rights 6(2)
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – Harris, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department Admn 10-Dec-2007
The court considered an application for compensation by a former prisoner whose conviction had been overturned. . .

Cited by:
Cited – Siddall, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice Admn 16-Mar-2009
The claimant had been imprisoned then released after his conviction for sexual assaults. He appealed against rejection of his claim for compensation. The criterion for compensation was demonstrating that something had ‘gone seriously wrong in the . .
Cited – Adams, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice SC 11-May-2011
The three claimants had each been convicted of murders and served time. Their convictions had been reversed eventually, and they now appealed against the refusal of compensation for imprisonment, saying that there had been a miscarriage of justice. . .
Cited – Hallam, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice SC 30-Jan-2019
These appeals concern the statutory provisions governing the eligibility for compensation of persons convicted of a criminal offence where their conviction is subsequently quashed (or they are pardoned) because of the impact of fresh evidence. It . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Criminal Practice, Human Rights

Updated: 31 December 2021; Ref: scu.270836

Adams, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice: SC 11 May 2011

The three claimants had each been convicted of murders and served time. Their convictions had been reversed eventually, and they now appealed against the refusal of compensation for imprisonment, saying that there had been a miscarriage of justice.
Held: The appeal of Adams was denied, but those of MacDermott and McCartney allowed (by majority). The phrase ‘miscarriage of justice’ admitted of several meanings. The Covenant intended to allow compensation for those who had not committed the offence, but to deny it to those who had in fact committed the crime. Section 133 was not restricted to allow compensation only to those shown to be innocent, but should also (by majority) extend to those in fact innocent but could include a situation where ‘A new or newly discovered fact will show conclusively that a miscarriage of justice has occurred when it so undermines the evidence against the defendant that no conviction could possibly be based upon it.’
Lord Phillips (agreeing with Lady Hale, Lord Kerr and Lord Clarke) held that the phrase ‘new or newly discovered fact’ should be read generously to give effect to Article 14(6) and include facts the significance of which was not appreciated by the defence team at trial.
Lord Hope said: ‘The principle that is applied is that it is not open to the state to undermine the effect of the acquittal. What article 14(6) does not do is forbid comments on the underlying facts of the case in subsequent proceedings of a different kind, such as a civil claim of damages, when it is necessary to find out what happened. The system that article 14(6) of the ICCPR provides does not cross the forbidden boundary. The procedure laid down in section 133 provides for a decision to be taken by the executive on the question of entitlement to compensation which is entirely separate from the proceedings in the criminal courts.’
Lady Hale said: ‘I agree that a ‘miscarriage of justice’ in section 133 of the [1988 Act] should be interpreted as proposed . . The phrase is clearly capable of bearing a wider meaning than conclusive proof of innocence. Both the inspiration for section 133, in article 14(6) of the ICCPR . . and the meaning of ‘miscarriage of justice’ in domestic law in 1988 support a wider meaning. The drafters of article 14(6) rejected all attempts to confine it to proof of innocence.’
Lord Judge (dissenting) said: ‘as a matter of construction the operation of the compensation scheme under section 133 is confined to miscarriages of justice in which the defendant was convicted of an offence of which he was truly innocent. In my judgment nothing less will do, and no alternative or half-way house or compromise solution consistent with this clear statutory provision is available.’

Lord Phillips, President, Lord Hope, Deputy President, Lord Rodger, Lord Walker, Lady Hale, Lord Brown, Lord Judge, Lord Kerr, Lord Clarke
[2011] UKSC 18, UKSC 2010/0012, 31 BHRC 71, [2012] 1 AC 48, [2011] 3 All ER 261, [2011] NI 42, [2011] 2 WLR 1180
Bailii, Bailii Summary, SC Summary, SC
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966 14(6), Criminal Justice Act 1988 133, European Convention on Human Rights 6(2)
England and Wales
Citing:
At First Instance – Regina (Adams) v Secretary of State for Justice Admn 2009
. .
Appeal From – Adams, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice CA 27-Nov-2009
The claimant sought compensation for his imprisonment after the overturning of his conviction, on the basis that evidence had emerged which undermined the conviction.
Held: Such a claim could not succeed where the reason for the non-use of the . .
Appeal from – MacDermott and Another, Re Judicial Review CANI 8-Feb-2010
The applicants had been convicted of murders and had served terms of imprisonment, but had been released when their convictions had been overturned. They now appealed against a refusal of judicial review of a decision not to award them compensation . .
Cited – Mullen, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department HL 29-Apr-2004
The claimant had been imprisoned, but his conviction was later overturned. He had been a victim of a gross abuse of executive power. The British authorities had acted in breach of international law and had been guilty of ‘a blatant and extremely . .
Cited – Salomon v Customs and Excise Commissioners CA 1966
Diplock LJ said: ‘The Convention is one of those public acts of state of Her Majesty’s Government of which Her Majesty’s judges must take judicial notice if it be relevant to the determination of a case before them, if necessary informing themselves . .
Cited – Allen (formerly Harris), Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice CA 15-Jul-2008
The claimant appealed against refusal of a review of the defendant to allow her compensation after her conviction for manslaughter of her infant son was quashed.
Held: The conviction had been based on flawed expert evidence.
Article 6(2) . .
Cited – Hammern v Norway ECHR 11-Feb-2003
The claimant was acquitted by a jury at trial and he then sought compensation for the period of his detention on remand. The test applied was whether ‘it is shown to be probable that he did not perform the act that formed the basis for the charge’. . .
Cited – Siddall, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice Admn 16-Mar-2009
The claimant had been imprisoned then released after his conviction for sexual assaults. He appealed against rejection of his claim for compensation. The criterion for compensation was demonstrating that something had ‘gone seriously wrong in the . .
Cited – Taliadorou And Stylianou v Cyprus ECHR 16-Oct-2008
One of the functions of article 6(2) is to protect an acquitted person’s reputation from statements or acts that follow an acquittal which would seem to undermine it. . .
Cited – Fothergill v Monarch Airlines Ltd HL 10-Jul-1980
The plaintiff, on arriving at the airport found that his luggage had been lost. The defendant denied liability saying he had not notified his claim within the requisite period.
Held: Elementary justice requires that the rules by which the . .
Cited – Orr v Norway ECHR 15-May-2008
The national High Court had dealt with the acquittal of the now complainant and the payment of compensation to the complainant in two clearly distinct parts of its judgment, but in several places highlighted that the standard of proof for civil . .
Cited – Regina v Mullins-Johnson 19-Oct-2007
(Court of Appeal for Ontario) The appellant had been convicted of murder of his 4 year old niece and served 12 years in prison. His conviction was based on expert evidence that the autopsy indicated that the young girl had been sexually abused and . .
Cited – Regina v Adams, T CACD 9-Apr-2008
. .
Cited – Sekanina v Austria ECHR 25-Aug-1993
The applicant was detained on remand for about a year on suspicion of murdering his wife. He was acquitted by a jury. He applied for compensation for costs incurred in his defence and pecuniary damage sustained during his detention under the . .
Cited – Clibery, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department Admn 30-Jul-2007
The claimant sought judicial review of a decision of the Home Secretary, to refuse his application for compensation. He had first been convicted and imprisoned and then had his conviction quashed. The respondent did not think that the conviction was . .
Cited – In Re Boyle’s Application for Judicial Review CANI 28-Apr-2006
Appeal from a decision dismissing an application for judicial review of the decision of the Director of Public Prosecutions whereby he refused to provide detailed reasons for his decision not to prosecute two police officers for perjury. . .
Cited – Leutscher v The Netherlands ECHR 26-Mar-1996
Lack of jurisdiction (complaint inadmissible); No violation of Art. 6-2 – The Commission distinguished cases in which there has been no acquittal on the merits of the accusation. . .
Cited – Regina (Murphy) v Secretary of State for the Home Department; Regina (Brannan) v Same Admn 10-Feb-2005
The appellants sought compensation for their imprisonment having been (Mr Brannan’s father) wrongly convicted. They sought to bring in new evidence. The first appellant and the second appellant’s father had been convicted of murder. The second . .
Cited – Rushiti v Austria ECHR 21-Mar-2000
The right of every person under the Convention to be presumed innocent, includes the general rule that no suspicion regarding an accused’s innocence may be voiced after his acquittal: ‘In any case, the Court is not convinced by the Government’s . .
Cited – Y v Norway ECHR 11-Feb-2003
The applicant was acquitted by the Norwegian High Court of serious criminal charges, but the same court then went on to make an order for him to pay compensation to the victim’s relatives on the ground that it was clearly probable that he had . .
Cited – Weixelbraun v Austria ECHR 20-Dec-2001
Hudoc Judgment (Merits and just satisfaction) Violation of Art. 6-2; Costs and expenses partial award – Convention Proceedings . .
Cited – Regina v Hetherington CANI 1975
Lowry LCJ discussed the rule against the admission of evidence obtained under mistreatment and said: ‘It is not for the defence to prove but for the prosecution to disprove beyond reasonable doubt in relation to each accused that he was not subject . .
Cited – McIlkenny v Chief Constable of the West Midlands CA 1980
The appellant had been convicted of an IRA bombing, causing loss of many lives. The appellant and his other co-accused alleged that their confessions had been induced by police violence. The trial judge ruled that their confessions were voluntary . .
Cited – Bateman and Howse, Regina (on the Application Of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department CA 17-May-1994
The plaintiff had been convicted of several counts of receiving stolen goods and sentenced to six years’ imprisonment. He had appealed to the Court of Appeal on the ground that he had been convicted on the basis of evidence in statement form given . .
Cited – Regina v Fergus CACD 29-Jun-1993
A judge should withdraw a case which was based on poor identification evidence, and the prosecution must be sure to disclose all identification evidence. ‘In a case dependent on visual identification, and particularly where that is the only . .
Cited – Regina v Smith; Regina v Taylor; Regina v Nicholson; Regina v Johnson CACD 25-May-1999
Where a court had wrongly rejected a submission of no case to answer, a subsequent admission of guilt by the defendant under cross-examination, was not sufficient to deny an appeal. Such an appeal is judged as at the time the submission is made. The . .
Cited – Bok v The Netherlands ECHR 18-Jan-2011
. .
Cited – Regina v James Hanratty (Deceased) CACD 10-May-2002
Posthumous Appeal – Clear Purpose and Care Needed
An appeal was presented against the conviction for a murder many years earlier. The prosecution sought to introduce DNA evidence to support its case. The appellant party objected.
Held: The purpose of the appeal was to achieve justice, and . .
Cited – Hodgson, Regina v CACD 18-Mar-2009
The defendant appealed against his conviction for murder.
Held: The appeal succeeded. After many years in prison, the original exhibits had been located and subjected to DNA analysis which proved that the defendant could not, despite his . .

Cited by:
Cited – AR, Regina (on The Application of) v Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police and Another SC 30-Jul-2018
The appellant had been tried for and acquitted on a criminal charge. He now challenged the disclosure by the respondent of the charge in an Enhanced Criminal Record Certificate.
Held: His appeal failed. The critical question was whether the . .
Cited – Hallam, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice SC 30-Jan-2019
These appeals concern the statutory provisions governing the eligibility for compensation of persons convicted of a criminal offence where their conviction is subsequently quashed (or they are pardoned) because of the impact of fresh evidence. It . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Northern Ireland, Criminal Practice, Damages

Updated: 31 December 2021; Ref: scu.439646

Thai Airways International Public Company Ltd v KI Holdings Co Ltd and Another: ComC 22 May 2015

The defendant company had contracted to supply the claimant with seats for their aircraft, but seats were delivered either late or not at all. The parties disputed the extent and nature of the damages payable, and in particular the duty to mitigate losses.

Leggatt J
[2015] EWHC 1476 (Comm)
Bailii
England and Wales

Damages, Contract

Updated: 30 December 2021; Ref: scu.547580

Gulati and Others v MGN Limited: ChD 21 May 2015

The claimants each claimed that their mobile phones had been hacked by or on behalf of the defendant newspaper group. The claims had now in substance been admitted, and the court set out to assess the damages (and aggravated damages) to be paid.
Held: The defendants had taken great steps to deny any culpability and only admitted their offences and apologised at the latest opportunity and when it represented a tactical advantage. Substantial damages were awarded to several defendants acknowledging the real damage caused by the defendant’s newspapers.

Mann J
[2015] EWHC 1482 (Ch), [2015] WLR(D) 232
Bailii, WLRD
England and Wales
Citing:
See Also – Gulati and Others v MGN Ltd ChD 6-Nov-2013
The claimants alleged that the defendant newspaper group had directly or through agents hacked their mobile phones. They suggested that articles published by the defendants could only have come from such activities. The defendants now sought summary . .

Cited by:
Appeal from – Representative Claimants v MGN Ltd CA 17-Dec-2015
The claimants complained that the appellant newspaper had hacked into their mobile telephones over a period of time. The newspaper now appealed against the level of damages awarded (between andpound;72k and andpound;260k).
Held: The appeals . .
Cited – NT 1 and NT 2 v Google Llc QBD 13-Apr-2018
Right to be Forgotten is not absolute
The two claimants separately had criminal convictions from years before. They objected to the defendant indexing third party web pages which included personal data in the form of information about those convictions, which were now spent. The claims . .
Cited – Mezvinsky and Another v Associated Newspapers Ltd ChD 25-May-2018
Choice of Division and Business Lists
Claim that the publication of pictures of the young children of the celebrity claimants had been published by the defendant on-line without consent and without pixelation, in breach of their human rights, of data protection, and right to privacy. . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Media, Torts – Other, Damages

Updated: 30 December 2021; Ref: scu.547066

Mahesan v Malaysia Government Officers Co-operative Housing Society: PC 1978

The appellant, the director and employee of a housing society was bribed by a real estate agent, one Manickam, and the appellant then caused the society to buy land at an overvalue. The agent was sued for money had and received (for the amount of the bribe paid in breach of the agent’s fiduciary duty) as well as in tort (for the loss suffered by the society for the overvalued land because of the agent’s fraud).
Held: The profit made by an intermediate purchaser, due to the fraud of the agent, was awarded as compensation on the basis that the principal had lost the opportunity to purchase at the lower price.
Bribery and corruption are torts. A defrauded principal has alternative remedies against both the briber and the agent for money had and received where he can recover the amount of the bribe, or for damages for fraud where he can recover the amount of any actual loss sustained by entering into the transaction in respect of which the bribe was given. The plaintiffs need not elect between these alternatives before the time has come for judgment to be entered in their favour in one or other of those causes of action.
The existence of the tort of fraud/bribery and the basis for a claim of monies had and received was identified: ‘(1) for money had and received under which he can recover the amount of the bribe as money had and received or, (2) for damages for fraud, under which he can recover the amount of the actual loss sustained in consequence of his entering into the transaction in respect of which the bribe was given, but he cannot recover both.’

[1979] AC 374, [1978] 2 All ER 405
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Islamic Republic of Pakistan v Zardari and others ComC 6-Oct-2006
The claimant alleged that the defendants had funded the purchase of various properties by secret and unlawful commissions taken by them whilst in power in Pakistan. They sought to recover the proceeds. They now sought permission to serve proceedings . .
Cited – Wilson and Another v Hurstanger Ltd CA 4-Apr-2007
The company sought to enforce its loan agreement and charge over the defendants’ property. The defendants appealed saying that the agreement was unenforceable under the Act, since a commission had been paid to the introducing broker, and his fee had . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Agency, Damages

Updated: 30 December 2021; Ref: scu.245212

Victorian Railway Commissioners v Coultas: PC 21 Jan 1888

(Victoria) The appellant’s gatekeeper had negligently invited the plaintiffs to cross a railway line as a train approached. There was no collision, but the plaintiff sought damages for physical and mental injuries from shock.
Held: The defendant’s appeal on liability succeeded. It was difficult, if not impossible, to recover damages for ‘illness which was the effect of shock caused by fright’. Such injury was regarded as being too remote a head of damages in an action for negligence. There would be evidential difficulty in deciding upon the causes of psychiatric symptoms. Mere sudden terror unaccompanied by actual physical injury could not in such circumstances be considered a consequence which in the ordinary course would flow from the negligence of the gate keeper.
‘Damages arising from mere sudden terror unaccompanied by any actual physical injury, but occasioning a nervous or mental shock, cannot under such circumstances, their Lordships think, be considered a consequence which, in the ordinary course of things, would flow from the negligence of the gate-keeper. If it were held that they can, it appears to their Lordships that it would be extending the liability for negligence much beyond what that liability has hitherto been held to be.’

Fitzgeral, Hobnouse LL, Sir Barnes Peacock, Sir Richard Couch
(1888) 13 App Cas 222, [1888] UKPC 3, (1888) LR 13 App Cas 222
Bailii
Australia
Cited by:
Distinguished – Wilkinson v Downton 8-May-1997
Thomas Wilkinson, the landlord of a public house, went off by train, leaving his wife Lavinia behind the bar. A customer of the pub, Downton played a practical joke on her. He told her, falsely, that her husband had been involved in an accident and . .
Not Followed – Dulieu v White and Sons KBD 1901
A pregnant barmaid suffered nervous shock causing her to give premature birth as a result of the tortfeasor’s horse van bursting into her bar at the Bonner Arms in Bethnal Green from the roadway. The defendant pleaded that the damages claimed were . .
Cited – Wainwright and another v Home Office HL 16-Oct-2003
The claimant and her son sought to visit her other son in Leeds Prison. He was suspected of involvement in drugs, and therefore she was subjected to strip searches. There was no statutory support for the search. The son’s penis had been touched . .
Cited – Alcock and Others v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police QBD 31-Jul-1990
Overcrowding at a football match lead to the deaths of 95 people. The defendant’s employees had charge of safety at the match, and admitted negligence vis-a-vis those who had died and been injured. The plaintiffs sought damages, some of them for . .
Cited – OPO v MLA and Another CA 9-Oct-2014
The claimant child sought to prevent publication by his father of an autobiography which, he said, would be likely to cause him psychological harm. The father was well known classical musician who said that he had himself suffered sexual abuse as a . .
Cited – Rhodes v OPO and Another SC 20-May-2015
The mother sought to prevent a father from publishing a book about her child’s life. It was to contain passages she said may cause psychological harm to the 12 year old son. Mother and son lived in the USA and the family court here had no . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Negligence, Damages

Updated: 30 December 2021; Ref: scu.186859

Barron MP and Another v Vines: QBD 29 Apr 2015

The court considered the damages to be awarded afer a libellous television broadcast on Sky TV. The claimants were MPs for Rotherham. There had been a large scale abuse of children, and they had been accused of not responding properly to it by the defendant, a political opponent.
Held: The Court is able to give appropriate protection to political speech without distorting well-established principles about the meaning of words.

Warby J
[2015] EWHC 1161 (QB)
Bailii
Defamation Act 2013 4
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Economou v De Freitas QBD 27-Jul-2016
Failed action for defamation on rape allegations
The claimant had been accused by the defendant’s daughter of rape. He was never charged but sought to prosecute her alleging intent to pervert the course of justice. She later killed herself. The defendant sought to have the inquest extended to . .
See Also – Barron MP and Others v Collins MEP QBD 29-Apr-2015
Trial of preliminary issues in for defamation. The claimants, MPs for Rotherham areas, said that a speech by the defendant to the UKIP conference and repeated on TV contained assertions defamatory of them.
Held: The words complained of bore . .
See Also – Barron and Others v Collins MEP QBD 22-Dec-2016
The defendant MEP had had adjourned the claim against her for defamation, claiming that her actions has been as an MEP and therefore exempt from proceedings. The chair of the European Parliament Legal Affairs Committee had received and rejected her . .
See Also – Barron and Another v Vines QBD 2-Jun-2016
The court assessed damages having found that the claimant Labour MPs had been defamed by the defendant UKIP local politician. The defamations related to the alleged failures to control substantial child sex abuse in Rotherham.
Held: The . .
Cited – Monroe v Hopkins QBD 10-Mar-2017
The claimant, a transgender chef and food blogger claimed in defamation against the defendant journalist in respect of two tweets. The court now set out to decide the meanings, whether they were defamatory by nature, and whether the serious harm . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Defamation, Damages

Updated: 30 December 2021; Ref: scu.546268

Cruddas v Calvert and Others: CA 17 Mar 2015

Jackson, Ryder, Christopher Clarke LJJ
[2015] EWCA Civ 171
Bailii
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Dhir v Saddler QBD 6-Dec-2017
Slander damages reduced for conduct
Claim in slander. The defendant was said, at a church meeting to have accused the client of threatening to slit her throat. The defendant argued that the audience of 80 was not large enough.
Held: ‘the authorities demonstrate that it is the . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Defamation, Damages

Updated: 28 December 2021; Ref: scu.544333

The Bussey Law Firm Pc and Another v Page: QBD 6 Mar 2015

The claimant US law firm claimed in defamation after receiving an abusive review on an internet service maintained by Google. The defendant denied responsibility for the posting which had been made through his account, and said that had he been told earlier, the posting would have been removed immediately, reducing any possible damage. No reliance was placed on publication in England and Wales.
Held: The overwhelming likelihood was that the defendant was the poster. Damages were awarded: ‘The publication was calculated to cause serious harm to the Claimants and, in particular, to Mr Bussey’s personal reputation and to his legal practice. It is likely to have been read by a significant number of searchers and, in particular, by potential clients checking them out.’ Sir David Eady assessed damages for the law firm ‘conservatively, at andpound;25,000’.

Sir David Eady
[2015] EWHC 563 (QB)
Bailii
Cited by:
Cited – Brett Wilson Llp v Person(s) Unknown, Responsible for The Operation and Publication of The Website www.solicitorsfromhelluk.com QBD 16-Sep-2015
The claimant solicitors sought remedies against the unknown publishers of the respondent website which was said to publish material defamatory of them, and to ampunt to harassment.
Held: The alleged defamatory meanings were not challenged by . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Defamation, Damages

Updated: 28 December 2021; Ref: scu.543932

Kerry Ingredients (UK) Ltd v Little: EAT 16 Feb 2015

EAT Unfair Dismissal : Compensation
Polkey deduction
Having found that the Claimant had been unfairly dismissed and suffered discrimination arising in consequence of his disability, indirect disability discrimination, and discrimination by reason of a failure to make reasonable adjustments, the ET considered what compensation would be awarded to the Claimant for his pecuniary losses.
Finding that it was ‘. . more likely than not that the Claimant would have continued to work more than 70% of his contractual hours because of his admitted medical condition’, the ET utilised the figure of 70% of net pay as the multiplicand. Taking that sum, it made an award of loss from effective date of termination to the date of hearing and ‘accepted as just and equitable the claimant’s calculation of 39 weeks for the period of future loss.’ From the total compensatory award, the ET then found that there was a possibility of the Claimant being fairly dismissed in the foreseeable future and considered it just and equitable to reduce the award by 20% on a Polkey basis.
The Respondent appealed the compensatory award, contending that the ET had erred in its approach; reached perverse conclusions and/or failed to address the evidence; and failed to give adequate reasons for its conclusions.
Held:
The assessment of loss is a matter for the ET, using its common sense, experience and sense of justice. It may involve element of speculation, and will depend on the impression the ET forms. That said, the judgment it reaches must have regard to the material before it and the findings of fact it makes upon that material. Where the ET considers that the employment would have continued, it must provide a sufficient statement of its conclusions on the evidence to enable the parties to understand the reasons for its assessment of the loss. It will be rare for the EAT to interfere with an ET’s assessment of loss but it will be bound to do so if the ET has erred in its approach or has failed provide adequate – Meek-compliant – reasons for its conclusions.
The ET here had to make an assessment of what was likely to have happened had the Respondent acted fairly and in compliance with its obligations to the Claimant as a disabled person. Having found that the Claimant would not return to full-time, shift working, it needed to form an assessment of what hours he would have been able to work, when, and on what basis. If the ET rejected the Respondent’s evidence (that the Claimant was only working productively for 20% of his time; was engaged on a ‘non-job’ and that the Respondent had to pay an agency worker to cover his other duties) it needed to clearly state that it had done so, otherwise this was part of the material before the ET and needed to be taken into account; something that was not apparent from the reasons given.
Further, the ET’s finding that the Claimant would only be able to return to a 70% level of working fed into the Polkey finding and the question of future loss. If the Claimant could not return to full-time, shift working (as the ET found), what was the assessment of how that might impact upon the Claimant’s future employment prospects with the Respondent? In carrying out this assessment, the ET would need to take into account the Respondent’s obligations to the Claimant under the Equality Act 2010. The reasons provided did not, however, demonstrate that the ET had done this.
On the basis of the ET’s reasoning, the conclusions reached as to loss from the effective date of termination to the date of hearing and thereafter for 39 weeks, and as to a 20% Polkey reduction were absent any evidential foundation. This was not to say that such conclusions were necessarily perverse but the EAT could not be satisfied that the ET had adopted the correct structured approach. It had certainly not given adequate reasons for the conclusions reached.
In the circumstances, the appeal would be allowed and the matter remitted to the same ET to consider afresh the question of compensation for pecuniary losses.

Eady QC HHJ
[2015] UKEAT 0356 – 13 – 1602
Bailii
England and Wales

Employment, Damages

Updated: 28 December 2021; Ref: scu.543900

Waring v Cunliffe: 1789

No interest to be given on interest, but compound interest might be granted in an appropriate case.

[1789] EngR 2201, (1789-1817) 1 Ves Jun Supp 46, (1789) 34 ER 685 (E)
Commonlii
England and Wales

Damages

Updated: 28 December 2021; Ref: scu.367832

Look Ahead Housing and Care Ltd v Chetty and Another: EAT 15 Oct 2014

EAT Race Discrimination : Injury To Feelings RACE DISCRIMINATION – Other losses
UNFAIR DISMISSAL – Compensation
UNFAIR DISMISSAL – Mitigation of loss
UNFAIR DISMISSAL – Contributory fault
UNFAIR DISMISSAL – Polkey deduction
PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – Costs
Appeal in respect of remedy (in a case in which the Employment Tribunal had found both Claimants were unfairly dismissed and that dismissal was an act of race discrimination against them) on the basis that Employment Tribunal failed to deal with ‘Polkey’, took a punitive rather than compensatory approach, did not find that the First Claimant had failed to mitigate her loss, and said insufficient by way of Reasons was rejected; against a second Claimant, it was said that the Employment Tribunal should have awarded more than 35% by way of deduction for contributory conduct, and had awarded too much for injury to feelings, and also said insufficient. This too was rejected.
Appeals having been allowed by consent against the Employment Tribunal’s failure to deduct earnings actually received from the losses of salary caused by the dismissals, the Appellant applied for an order that the First Claimant should pay half the fees paid in appealing. This too was rejected with some observations about the power and its exercise at appellate level.

Langstaff P J
[2014] UKEAT 0037 – 14 – 1510, [2015] ICR 375
Bailii
England and Wales

Employment, Discrimination, Damages

Updated: 23 December 2021; Ref: scu.539293

Piersack v Belgium: ECHR 1 Oct 1982

Hudoc applicant convicted of murder complained that his right to a fair trial under Article 6(1) had been denied because the trial court had been presided over by a Judge who, when senior deputy procureur, had been in charge of the department which decided to prosecute the applicant.
Held: ‘Whilst impartiality normally denotes absence of prejudice or bias, its existence or otherwise can, notably under Article 6(1) of the Convention, be tested in various ways. A distinction can be drawn in this context between a subjective approach, that is endeavouring to ascertain the personal conviction of a given judge in a given case, and an objective approach, that is determining whether he offered guarantees sufficient to exclude any legitimate doubt in this respect.’ The Court acknowledged the principle of restitutio in integrum.
Hudoc Judgment (Just satisfaction) Costs and expenses award – domestic proceedings; Costs and expenses award – Convention proceedings

8692/79, [1982] ECHR 6, [1984] ECHR 16, (1984) 7 EHRR 251, (1982) 5 EHRR 169
Worldlii, Worldlii, Bailii, Bailii
European Convention on Human Rights 6
Human Rights
Cited by:
Cited – Greenfield, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department HL 16-Feb-2005
The appellant had been charged with and disciplined for a prison offence. He was refused legal assistance at his hearing, and it was accepted that the proceedings involved the determination of a criminal charge within the meaning of article 6 of the . .
Cited – In Re Medicaments and Related Classes of Goods (No 2); Director General of Fair Trading v Proprietary Association of Great Britain and Proprietary Articles Trade Association CA 21-Dec-2000
The claimants alleged that a connection between a member of the Restrictive Practices Court, who was to hear a complaint and another company, disclosed bias against them. She had not recused herself.
Held: When asking whether material . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Human Rights, Damages

Updated: 23 December 2021; Ref: scu.164906