Category: Torts – Other

Lemmon v Webb: HL 27 Nov 1894

A land-owner was free to lop off boughs from his neighbours trees to the extent that they reached over his land, and he could lop them without going on to the neighbour’s land. He was not required to give notice of his intention to do so.

Judges:

Lord Heschell LC, MacNaghten, Davey LL

Citations:

[1895] AC 1, [1894] UKHL 1

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal from – Lemmon v Webb CA 1894
A neighbour could lop boughs overhanging his property without notice to the owner of the tree, provided that he could do so without entering the owner’s land. A similar right of abatement by cutting applied to encroaching roots.
Lindley LJ . .
Cited – The Earl of Lonsdale v Nelson And Others 14-Nov-1823
Trespass for breaking and entering the plaintiff’s manor. Pleas, first, general issue; second, that from time immemorial there hath been and still is a public port partfy within the said manor, and also in a river which has been a public navigable . .
Cited – Fay v Prentice And Another 1845
A declaration in case stated that the defendant, being possessed of a messuage adjoining a garden of the plaintiff, erected a cornice upon his messuage, projecting over the garden, by means whereof rain-water flowed from the cornice into the garden, . .

Cited by:

Applied – Davey v Harrow Corporation CA 1957
The Plaintiff’s house was damaged by roots penetrating from trees on adjoining land. At first instance, Sellers J found that the damage was caused by the trees, but they were not proven to be the property of the defendants. On appeal and after . .
Cited – Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd v Williams and Another CA 3-Jul-2018
Japanese Knotweed escape is nuisance
The defendant appealed against an order as to its liability in private nuisance for the escape of Japanese Knotweed from its land onto the land of the claimant neighbours. No physical damage to properties had yet been shown, but the reduction in . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Nuisance, Torts – Other

Updated: 07 June 2022; Ref: scu.183043

Lowery v Walker: HL 9 Nov 1910

A trespasser was injured by the land owner’s savage horse.
Held: If a land-owner knows of but does nothing to stop acts of trespass by the public on his land, there may be an implied license. Decision reversed. In Scottish courts the strictness of the duty of care incumbent on the occupier of premises varied according to the circumstances in which the injured party had entered on the premises, and on the extent of his right, or lack of it, to enter. The extent of right, and consequently the stringency of the duty of care, and the question whether care sufficient in the circumstances had been shown, were questions of fact to be determined with regard to the circumstances of the case

Judges:

Lord Chancellor (Loreburn), the Earl of Halsbury, Lords Atkinson and Shaw

Citations:

[1911] AC 10, [1910] UKHL 1, [1910] UKHL 726, 48 SLR 726

Links:

Bailii, Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal from – Lowery v Walker CA 1910
An occupier of land who knows that members of the public are in the habit of going on to his land and does nothing to prevent it, may be deemed to have licensed them to do so. . .

Cited by:

Cited – British Railways Board v Herrington HL 16-Feb-1972
Land-owner’s Possible Duty to Trespassers
The plaintiff, a child had gone through a fence onto the railway line, and been badly injured. The Board knew of the broken fence, but argued that they owed no duty to a trespasser.
Held: Whilst a land-owner owes no general duty of care to a . .
Cited – Robert Addie and Sons (Collieries) Ltd v Dumbreck SCS 1928
A boy trespassed on land and was injured on machinery there. The local working-classes resorted to the field regularly ‘(1) as an open space; (2) as a playground; (3) as a means of access to chapel and railway station; and (4) – as regards the less . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Land, Animals

Updated: 07 June 2022; Ref: scu.182878

Kaye v Robertson: CA 16 Mar 1990

A newspaper reporter and photographer invaded the (famouse) plaintiff’s hospital bedroom, purported to interview him and took photographs.
Held: The law of trespass provided no remedy because the plaintiff was not owner or occupier of the room and his body had not been touched. Publication of the interview was restrained by interlocutory injunction on the ground that it was arguably a malicious falsehood to represent that the plaintiff had consented to it. But no other remedy was available.
Glidewell LJ said: ‘The facts of the present case are a graphic illustration of the desirability of Parliament considering whether and in what circumstances statutory provision can be made to protect the privacy of individuals.’
He explained the ingredients of the tort of malicious falsehood: ‘The essentials of this tort are that the defendant has published about the plaintiff words which are false, that they were published maliciously, and that special damage has followed as the direct and natural result of their publication.’
Bingham LJ said: ‘The problems of defining and limiting a tort of privacy are formidable but the present case strengthens my hope that the review now in progress may prove fruitful.’

Judges:

Glidewell, Bingham, Leggatt LJJ

Citations:

[1991] FSR 62, (1991) 19 IPR 147, [1990] EWCA Civ 21

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Mills v News Group Newspapers Limited ChD 4-Jun-2001
The applicant was in a relationship with Paul McCartney, and in view of attacks on other former Beatles, she sought to restrain publication of the address of a property she had contracted to buy. The newspaper had said it would not publish unless . .
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 – Douglas and others v Hello! Ltd and others (No 3) CA 18-May-2005
The principal claimants sold the rights to take photographs of their wedding to a co-claimant magazine (OK). Persons acting on behalf of the defendants took unauthorised photographs which the defendants published. The claimants had retained joint . .
Cited – Michael and Others v The Chief Constable of South Wales Police and Another SC 28-Jan-2015
The claimants asserted negligence in the defendant in failing to provide an adequate response to an emergency call, leading, they said to the death of their daughter at the hands of her violent partner. They claimed also under the 1998 Act. The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Information

Updated: 07 June 2022; Ref: scu.183005

Tesco Stores Limited v Pook, Pook, Universal Projects (UK) Limited: ChD 14 Apr 2003

A trustee in breach of his duty has a duty to disclose that breach. It was alleged that the defendants, including a director of the claimant, had submitted false invoices to the claimants, and purchased property with the resulting profits.
Held: Mr Pook owed a duty to disclose the bribes that he had taken. He was in breach of that duty. The agreement had an implied a term that the holder of the option should not be entitled to exercise it if he had committed ‘a serious breach of the contract’.

Judges:

The Honourable Mr Justice Peter Smith

Citations:

[2003] EWHC 823 (Ch), [2004] IRLR 618

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Anangel Atlas Compania Naviera SA v Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co Ltd 1990
The plaintiffs sought recovery of moneys paid by the defendants to one George Thomas Richardson Campbell, a distinguished naval architect on the ground that such payments has been made secretly while Mr Campbell has been acting for the plaintiffs in . .
Cited – Hovenden and Sons v Millhoff 1900
Romer LJ said: ‘The courts of law in this country have always strongly condemned and, when they could, punished the bribing of agents, and have taken a strong view as to what constitutes a bribe. I believe the mercantile community as a whole . .
Cited – Attorney General for Hong Kong v Reid and Others PC 24-Nov-1993
Principalhas proprietary interest in Trust assets
Bribes were taken by an employee, a crown prosecutor in Hong Kong, in a fraud on his employer. He then invested the proceeds in the purchase of property in New Zealand. The property had increased in value. The employer sought repayment of the bribes . .
Cited – Industries and General Mortgage Co Ltd v Lewis 1949
When arranging with the plaintiff company to obtain a loan for the defendant V stipulated that he should be paid half the procuration fee which the defendant would be charged for the company’s services. The company knew that V was to receive from . .
Cited – Alghussein Establishment v Eton College HL 1985
A literal construction of the relevant provision of a lease would have led to an absurd result that a contractor who failed to complete a development without fault could not call for a lease, whereas a contractor who wilfully defaulted could do so. . .
Cited – Thompson v Asda MFI Group Plc 1988
The court considered the implication of a term which would prevent an employer selling a subsidiary so that employees of the subsidiary who had rights under the group share option scheme ceased to be employees for the purpose of that agreement. It . .
Cited – Micklefield v SAC Technology Ltd 1990
A Share Option Scheme provided that the option could not be exercised if the option holder ceased to be an executive ‘for any reason’. The employer dismissed Mr Micklefield wrongfully, so that he ceased to be an employee before he was able to . .
Cited – Giovanni Mallone v BPB Industries Plc CA 19-Feb-2002
The claimant was a director of the respondent. On his dismissal, his share options were cancelled. He claimed this was in breach of his rights under the scheme. The company appealed a finding that they were so in breach. The scheme distinguished . .
Mentioned – Healey v Societe Anonyme Francais Rubastic 1917
A director of the company claimed arrears of salary for work done notwithstanding that he had been summarily dismissed for misconduct. There was no question of a claim for damages for breach of duty. . .
Cited – Sybron Corporation v Rochem CA 1983
There was an allegation that the employee had failed to disclose breaches of contract by fellow employees. This had taken place at a time when a decision was being taken as to the payment to be made to him under the terms of a pension scheme. The . .
Cited – Horcal Ltd v Gatland CA 1984
The court considered the arguments presented as to the duty of a director of a company to disclose his own breach of fiduciary duty: ‘Counsel . . submitted, as a general proposition, that, putting fraud on one side, there is no general duty on . .
Cited – Van Gestel v Can CA 7-Aug-1987
Directors have a positive duty to disclose their pre-existing breaches of fiduciary duty. . .

Cited by:

Cited – Crown Dilmun, Dilmun Investments Limited v Nicholas Sutton, Fulham River Projects Limited ChD 23-Jan-2004
There was a contract for the sale of Craven Cottage football stadium, conditional upon the grant of non-onerous planning permissions. It was claimed that the contract had been obtained by the defendant employee in breach of his fiduciary duties to . .
Cited – Fassihim, Liddiardrams, International Ltd, Isograph Ltd v Item Software (UK) Ltd CA 30-Sep-2004
The first defendant (F) had been employed by a company involved in a distribution agreement. He had sought to set up a competing arrangement whilst a director of the claimant, and diverted a contract to his new company.
Held: A company . .
Cited – Michael Wilson and Partners Ltd v Emmott ComC 8-Jun-2011
The claimant challenged an arbitration award made concerning the agreement under which the defendant had been admitted to partnership. MWP contended that the Tribunal were guilty of a large number of serious irregularities in their conduct of the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Contract, Torts – Other

Updated: 07 June 2022; Ref: scu.181394

Jarrett v Chief Constable of West Midlands Police: CA 14 Feb 2003

The claimant sought damages for false imprisonment and assault after her wrongful arrest. She had waived her handbag at an officer investigating a disturbance and been arrested. The police said the arrest was lawful, she being suspected of common assault.
Held: The judge was entitled to take the view that, taking the evidence at its highest, there were no proper grounds established for arrest in relation to a breach of the peace or apprehended breach of the peace. However, the suspicion in the offer’s mind of an offence of assault remained and the arrest was lawful: ‘ … agitation or excitement, including hysterical waving of a handbag … in front of a police officer interviewing a member of the public in the street did not constitute a breach of the peace to justify a lawful arrest.’

Judges:

Lord Justice Potter, Lord Justice Chadwick, Mrs Justice Black

Citations:

[2003] EWCA Civ 397, Gazette 10-Apr-2003, Times 28-Feb-2003

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 25

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Regina v Howell (Errol) CACD 1981
The court considered the meaning of the legal concept of a breach of the peace.
Held: The essence is to be found in violence or threatened violence. ‘We entertain no doubt that a constable has a power of arrest where there is reasonable . .
Cited – O’Hara v Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary HL 21-Nov-1996
Second Hand Knowledge Supports Resaobnable Belief
The plaintiff had been arrested on the basis of the 1984 Act. The officer had no particular knowledge of the plaintiff’s involvement, relying on a briefing which led to the arrest.
Held: A reasonable suspicion upon which an arrest was founded . .
Cited – Parker v Chief Constable of the Hampshire Constabulary CA 25-Jun-1999
The claimant sought damages after his arrest by armed police. The defendant appealed a substantial award of damages.
Held: The section required the officer to have reasonable grounds for suspecting the arrestees to be guilty of the offence. . .
Cited – Regina v Burstow, Regina v Ireland HL 24-Jul-1997
The defendant was accused of assault occasioning actual bodily harm when he had made silent phone calls which were taken as threatening.
Held: An assault might consist of the making of a silent telephone call in circumstances where it causes . .
Cited – Hussein v Choung Fook Kam HL 1970
When making an arrest, the standard of proof required of the officer is suspicion and no more. It falls well short of prima facie proof. Suspicion should not be elided with guilt, or even prima facie proof of guilt. It ‘is a state of conjecture or . .
Cited – Castorina v Chief Constable of Surrey CA 10-Jun-1988
Whether an officer had reasonable cause to arrest somebody without a warrant depended upon an objective assessment of the information available to him, and not upon his subjective beliefs. The court had three questions to ask (per Woolf LJ): ‘(a) . .

Cited by:

Cited – Wragg, Regina (on the Application Of) v Director of Public Prosecutions Admn 15-Jun-2005
The court faced a case stated where the defendant had been accused of resisting arrest. The officers claimed to have anticipated a breach of the peace, having been called to a domestic dispute.
Held: Though the defendant had not behaved with . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Police, Torts – Other

Updated: 07 June 2022; Ref: scu.181127

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 was seriously injured. Mr Wilkinson returned safely by train later that evening, but the effect on Mrs Wilkinson had been dramatic. Her hair had turned white, and she became so ill that for some time her life was thought in danger. The jury awarded her andpound;100 for nervous shock, and the question for the judge on further consideration was whether she had a cause of action.
Held: Distinguishing Coultas, Downton was not merely negligent but had intended to cause injury. As what he said could not fail to produce grave effects ‘upon any but an exceptionally indifferent person’, an intention to cause such effects should be imputed to him. ‘The defendant has, as I assume for the moment, wilfully done an act calculated to cause physical harm to the plaintiff-that is to say, to infringe her legal right to personal safety, and has in fact thereby caused physical harm to her. That proposition without more appears to me to state a good cause of action, there being no justification alleged for the act. This wilful injuria is in law malicious, although no malicious purpose to cause the harm which was caused nor any motive of spite is imputed to the defendant . . One question is whether the defendant’s act was so plainly calculated to produce some effect of the kind which was produced that an intention to produce it ought to be imputed to the defendant, regard being had to the fact that the effect was produced on a person proved to be in an ordinary state of health and mind.’

Judges:

RS Wright J

Citations:

[1897] 2 QB 57, [1897] EWHC 1 (QB)

Links:

Bailii

Citing:

Distinguished – 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 . .

Cited by:

Limited – The Home Office v Wainwright and Wainwright CA 20-Dec-2001
The claimants were awarded damages, following the way they were searched on seeking to enter prison on a visit. The Home Office appealed. They were asked to sign a consent form, but only after the search was nearly complete. They were told the . .
Cited – Wong v Parkside Health NHS Trust and Another CA 16-Nov-2001
The claimant had sued her former employer for post-traumatic stress resulting from alleged harassment at her place of work. The claimant appealed against an order refusing damages. The court had held that outside the 1997 Act which was not in force . .
Distinguished – 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 . .
Followed – Janvier v Sweeney 1919
During the First World War Mlle Janvier lived as a paid companion in a house in Mayfair and corresponded with her German lover who was interned as an enemy alien on the Isle of Man. Sweeney was a private detective who wanted secretly to obtain some . .
Cited – AB and others v Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust, Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust QBD 26-Mar-2004
Representative claims were made against the respondents, hospitals, pathologists etc with regard to the removal of organs from deceased children without the informed consent of the parents. They claimed under the tort of wrongful interference.
Cited – Hunter and Others v Canary Wharf Ltd HL 25-Apr-1997
The claimant, in a representative action complained that the works involved in the erection of the Canary Wharf tower constituted a nuisance in that the works created substantial clouds of dust and the building blocked her TV signals, so as to limit . .
No part in current law – Bici and Bici v Ministry of Defence QBD 7-Apr-2004
Claimants sought damages for personal injuries incurred when, in Pristina, Kosovo and during a riot, British soldiers on a UN peacekeeping expedition fired on a car.
Held: The incidents occurred in the course of peace-keeping duties. It was . .
Cited – C v D QBD 23-Feb-2006
The claimant sought damages against the defendant and the school at which he was taught alleging that he had been sexually abused. The allegations were denied. . .
Cited – OPO v MLA and Another QBD 18-Jul-2014
A boy now sought an interim injunction to restrain his father, the defendant classical musician, from publishing his autobiography which mentioned him. The book would say that the father had suffered sexual abuse as a child at school.
Held: . .
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 . .
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 – Stevenson v Basham 1922
(New Zealand) The defendant made a threat to the plaintiff’s husband inside the house that she and her husband were occupying to burn it down, the threat being overheard by her when she was in a bedroom where she was lying and when she was pregnant . .
Cited – Hambrook v Stokes Brothers CA 1925
The defendant’s employee left a lorry at the top of a steep narrow street unattended, with the engine running and without having taken proper steps to secure it. The lorry ran violently down the hill. The plaintiff’s wife had been walking up the . .
Cited – Bunyan v Jordan 1-Mar-1937
(High Court of Australia) The plaintiff sought damages having been put to severe fright by a shot fired by her employer, the defendant, who had stated an intention to shoot someone, gone to a local thoroughfare with a gun, produced it and fired it. . .
Cited – Rahemtulla v Vanfed Credit Union 1984
(British Columbia Supreme Court) The plaintiff had been harassed at work, falsely accused of theft in threatening circumstances and summarily dismissed without proper cause in a humiliating fashion. The defendant submitted that to be liable for . .
Cited – Bradley v Wingnut Films Ltd 1993
(New Zealand High Court) The plaintiffs complained that a relative’s tombstone was depicted in a satiric film set in part in a cemetery, and containing a significant degree of gore and violence. The tombstone was never shown in its entirety, . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other

Updated: 07 June 2022; Ref: scu.180517

Marsh v Clare (Chief Constable of Lancashire Constabulary): CA 6 Mar 2003

The claimant’s had been assaulted by his business partner, who after arrest charge and release, returned and chased him. The claimant became a police informant and paid andpound;10,000 to the constable to join a scheme allowing him trade in stolen cars and receive protection. He was subsequently arrested police for dealing in stolen cars and the officer was charged with corruption anticipating the claimant would provide evidence. The claimant said the chief constable was vicariously liable for the false arrest, negligence and misfeasance in public office. The claimant appealed the striking out of his claim.
Held: Appeal dismissed. The police owed no private law duty to investigate crime. Retaining someone as an informant did not, ipso facto, create any personal duty of care when the relationship was unlawfully founded. The claimant failed to disclose any deliberate wrongdoing or malice by the police force and any bad faith in the corrupt detective constable did not constitute misfeasance in public office.

Judges:

Lord Justice Chadwick Lord Justice Mummery Lord Justice Potter

Citations:

[2003] EWCA Civ 284, Gazette 09-May-2003

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Police, Torts – Other

Updated: 07 June 2022; Ref: scu.179548

Kuwait Airways Corp v Iraqi Airways Company: ComC 24 Jan 2003

The court found that the defendant had brought false evidence and forged documents to seek to persuade the English court that it had state immunity, and had been partially successful, but that on the true facts it was not immune from the jurisdiction of the court in relation to the period 9th August to 16th September 1990. IAC had in fact incorporated into its own fleet and wrongfully interfered with KAC’s aircraft prior to 17th September 1990 and the passing of RCC 369 (the date from which Mance J found wrongful interference).
Held: The court awarded damages (essentially the wasted costs element of the jurisdiction phase) and costs totalling some andpound;1 million.

Judges:

David Steel J

Citations:

[2003] EWHC 31 (Comm), [2003] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 448

Links:

Bailii

Citing:

See Also – Kuwait Airways Corporation v Iraqi Airways Company ComC 31-Jul-2002
. .
See Also – Kuwait Airways Corp v Iraqi Airways Co 16-Feb-2005
The claimants sought an order requiring disclosure by the defendants of the documents in their list of documents which they said had the benefit of litigation privilege.
Held: A fraud had been alleged which had been used by the defendants in . .

Cited by:

Cited – Kuwait Airways Corporation v Iraqi Airways Company (No 6) CA 16-Mar-2005
The defendant company appealed against an order allowing inspection of documents for which litigation privilege had been claimed. It was said that the defendants had been involved in perjury in previous proceedings between the parties.
Held: . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other

Updated: 07 June 2022; Ref: scu.178952

Joseph Ellis v Alfred Abrahams: 18 Apr 1846

In an action for malicious prosecution for perjury, where the indictment contains two assignments of perjury, if the plairitiff, at the trial of the action, confine his case to one of the assignments, the defendant is riot etititled to prove that there was reasonable and probable cause for the charge contained in the other assignment.

Citations:

[1846] EngR 551, (1846) 8 QB 709, (1846) 115 ER 1039

Links:

Commonlii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Torts – Other, Litigation Practice

Updated: 06 June 2022; Ref: scu.302446

Stocznia Gdanska Sa v Latvian Shipping Company and others: CA 23 Jul 2002

Application for leave to appeal to the House of Lords refused.

Judges:

Aldous, Tuckey, RixLJJ

Citations:

[2002] EWCA Civ 1089, [2002] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 436, [2002] 2 All ER (Comm) 768

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Latvian Shipping Company and Others v Stocznia Gdanska Sa CA 21-Jun-2002
A payment condition was just that and that a failure to pay entitled the seller to terminate at common law. Rix LJ said: ‘It is established law that, where one party to a contract has repudiated it, the other may validly accept that repudiation by . .
See Also – Stocznia Gdanska SA v Latreefers Inc; In re Latrefeers Inc; Stocznia Gdanska SA v Latvian Shipping Co and others (No 2) CA 15-Mar-2000
Possible claims against a foreign company for misfeasance, or wrongful or fraudulent trading might be sufficient to justify proceedings here to wind up a foreign registered company. A second requirement is that some person within this jurisdiction . .

Cited by:

See Also – Latvian Shipping Company and Others v Stocznia Gdanska Sa CA 21-Jun-2002
A payment condition was just that and that a failure to pay entitled the seller to terminate at common law. Rix LJ said: ‘It is established law that, where one party to a contract has repudiated it, the other may validly accept that repudiation by . .
Cited – Phones 4U Ltd v EE Ltd ComC 16-Jan-2018
The parties contracted for the marketing of contracts for the marketing of the defendant’s mobile phone contracts. On the claimant entering administration, the defendant exercised a clause in their contract to terminate the contract. The claimant . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Insolvency, Torts – Other

Updated: 06 June 2022; Ref: scu.175205

Matin v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis: CA 20 Jun 2002

The claimant sought to have restored his claim for malicious prosecution.
Held: ‘The fact that there might be an arguable case that the prosecutor was activated by malice, that is to say, to prosecute for an improper motive, does not of itself demonstrate a want of honest belief that there was reasonable and probable cause to mount the prosecution.’ The plaintiff’s claim was bound to fail.

Judges:

The President Lady Justice Hale And Mr Justice Hart

Citations:

[2002] EWCA Civ 907

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Herniman v Smith HL 1938
The court considered the tort of malicious prosecution.
Held: It is the duty of a prosecutor to find out not whether there is a possible defence, but whether there is a reasonable and probable cause for prosecution. The House approved the . .
Cited – Hicks v Faulkner 1878
Before charging a prisoner, a police officer must have ‘an honest belief in the guilt of the accused based upon a full conviction, founded upon reasonable grounds, of the existence of a state of circumstances, which, assuming them to be true, would . .
Cited – Clements v Ohrly 1847
Similarity of handwriting alone is not enough to constitute probable cause for charging a person with forgery without evidence of other circumstances. . .
Cited – Glinski v McIver HL 1962
The court considered the tort of malicious prosecution when committed by a police officer, saying ‘But these cases must be carefully watched so as to see that there really is some evidence from his conduct that he knew it was a groundless charge.’ . .

Cited by:

Cited – McHarg v Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police ChD 9-Jan-2004
The claimant police officer sought damages for malicious prosecution. The defendant applied for the claim to be struck out.
Held: There was insufficient evidence to establish malice. The claim was struck out. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other

Updated: 06 June 2022; Ref: scu.175152

SABAF SpA v MFI Furniture Centres Ltd and Another: CA 11 Jul 2002

The appellant challenged dismissal of its claim for patent infringement. The judge had held that the design was obvious, involving essentially only the collocation of two known features.
Held: Collocation was no more than a species of obviousness, and the test remained to be performed as to whether the bringing together of the two ideas, and a case involving collocation should be treated in the same way as the Windsurfing case, the question is whether it will be obvious to the skilled man, using his common general knowledge, to combine those concepts. The test for a joint tortfeasor was that each defendant should commit a tort himself. A mere supplier of goods without input or control as to what was done with them was not liable. It was artificial to regard as an importer of goods one who had no legal or beneficial interest in them. The patent was valid but Meneghetti had not imported the products.
Peter Gibson LJ said: ‘The underlying concept for joint tortfeasance must be that the joint tortfeasor has been so involved in the commission of the tort as to make himself liable for the tort. Unless he has made the infringing act his own, he has not himself committed the tort. That notion seems to us what underlies all the decisions to which we were referred. If there is a common design or concerted action or otherwise a combination to secure the doing of the infringing acts, then each of the combiners has made the act his own and will be liable.’

Judges:

Lord Justice Peter Gibson, Lord Justice Jonathan Parker and Lord Justice Longmore

Citations:

Times 24-Jul-2002, [2003] RPC 264, [2002] EWCA Civ 976, [2002] All ER (D) 160

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Patents Act 1977 3 60

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Windsurfing International Inc v Tabur Marine (Great Britain) Limited CA 1985
Testing Validity of a Patent
A patent was challenged where the windsurf board had been shown as a primitive prototype to have been built and used in public by a twelve year old boy. The court set out the four steps required to be taken when ascertaining the validity of a . .
Appeal from – Sabaf Spa v MFI Furniture Centres Ltd and Managhetti Spa ChD 31-Jul-2001
The claimant owned a patent on certain features of a cooking hob, and complained that the defendants had imported infringing designs. The defendant challenged the patent for obviousness.
Held: Both of the inventive features relied upon to . .

Cited by:

Appealed to – Sabaf Spa v MFI Furniture Centres Ltd and Managhetti Spa ChD 31-Jul-2001
The claimant owned a patent on certain features of a cooking hob, and complained that the defendants had imported infringing designs. The defendant challenged the patent for obviousness.
Held: Both of the inventive features relied upon to . .
Appeal from – SABAF Spa (A Company Incorporated Under the Laws of Italy) v MFI Furniture Centres Limited and others; Sabaf Spa (A Company Incorporated Under the Laws of Italy) v MFI Furniture Centres Limited and others HL 14-Oct-2004
The patent holder had complained of imports of infringing items by the respondent, who in turn challenged the patent for obviousness. The Court of Appeal had rejected the rule of colocation as inconsistent with the test in Windsurfing.
Held: . .
Cited – Fish and Fish Ltd v Sea Shepherd UK and Another AdCt 25-Jun-2012
The claimant company was engaged in tuna fish culture off shore to Malta. The defendant ship was owned by a charity which campaigned against breaches of animal preservation conventions. Fish were being transporting live blue fin tuna in towed . .
Cited – Fish and Fish Ltd v Sea Shepherd Uk and Others CA 16-May-2013
The claimant company sought damages after their transport of live tuna was attacked by a protest group. They now appealed against a decision that the company owning the attacking ship was not liable as a joint tortfeasor.
Held: The appeal was . .
Cited – Sea Shepherd UK v Fish and Fish Ltd SC 4-Mar-2015
Accessory Liability in Tort
The court considered the concept of accessory liability in tort. Activists had caused damage to vessels of the respondent which was transporting live tuna in cages, and had caused considerable damage. The appellant company owned the ship from which . .
Approved – Generics (UK) Ltd v H Lundbeck A/S CA 2-Aug-2006
. .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Intellectual Property, Torts – Other

Updated: 06 June 2022; Ref: scu.174417

Jaffray and others v Society of Lloyd’s: CA 26 Jul 2002

There is no more scope for corporate dishonesty in deceit than in misfeasance, other than by the attribution to a corporate body of the dishonesty of an individual. It was alleged that there was unfairness through inequality of representation: ‘In our judgment, those principles are not directly applicable to the question whether a trial was fair, but they are of assistance. They are not directly applicable because the question is not whether there was a real possibility or real danger that the trial was unfair, but whether it was unfair. We can see no reason why this court (or any court of review) should not be able to judge whether or not the trial was in fact unfair, once it has considered all the relevant circumstances.
The principles are, however, of assistance because they stress that the question must be viewed through the eyes of the reasonable observer or litigant. The same principle seems to us to apply here. Thus the question is not whether a disappointed litigant thinks the trial was unfair, but whether a reasonable person in his or her position would think so, having regard to all the circumstances of the case. The circumstances are of importance because, before concluding that a trial is unfair, the court must consider all the relevant circumstances. As appears below, this is in our opinion important on the facts of the case.’

Judges:

Lord Justice Clarke

Citations:

[2002] EWCA Civ 1101

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Thomas-Everard and Others v Society of Lloyd’s ChD 18-Jul-2003
The claimant appealed refusal to set aside a statutory demand made by the respondent society. The proposed defence had been already been dismissed by the courts.
Held: Such a consideration was very relevant, but not necessarily determinative. . .
Cited – Chagos Islanders v The Attorney General, Her Majesty’s British Indian Ocean Territory Commissioner QBD 9-Oct-2003
The Chagos Islands had been a British dependent territory since 1814. The British government repatriated the islanders in the 1960s, and the Ilois now sought damages for their wrongful displacement, misfeasance, deceit, negligence and to establish a . .
Cited – Cairnstores Ltd Generics (UK) Ltd and Another v Aktiebolaget Hassle CA 22-Oct-2002
Two patents had been invaildated for obviousness. They related to coatings on medicinal pills. The patent holder said the judge’s interruptions indicated bias.
Held: The sumissions were unjustified. The interventions were by no means . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Company, Torts – Other

Updated: 06 June 2022; Ref: scu.174354

Latvian Shipping Company and Others v Stocznia Gdanska Sa: CA 21 Jun 2002

A payment condition was just that and that a failure to pay entitled the seller to terminate at common law. Rix LJ said: ‘It is established law that, where one party to a contract has repudiated it, the other may validly accept that repudiation by bringing the contract to an end, even if he gives a wrong reason for doing so or no reason at all’.
Rix LJ set out the policy considerations of the ‘wide ranging’ tort of inducing breach of contract: ‘The tort is an economic tort designed to place limits on the self-interested rough and tumble of the business world. Its philosophical basis appears to be that contracts should be kept rather than broken. Where, as here, A (Latco) procures B’s (Latreefers’) breach of his contract with C (the yard), adopting it as his own because he is interested to do so, seeking a benefit for himself or a fortiori a detriment for C, and does so deliberately, knowingly and intending the breach to take place, then A puts himself in the way of incurring a liability, even though not himself a party to the contract, unless (i) he does not directly procure the breach, and (ii) he uses no (relevant) unlawful means, or (iii) he can claim some justification. The significance of (i) is that where A directly procures a breach of contract he makes himself as it were directly privy to the breach. The significance of (ii) is that in the absence of making himself privy to the breach, he cannot be faulted as long as he acts as he is entitled to act, but if (deliberately, knowingly and intending the breach to take place) he commits an unlawful act, by which I have in mind an unlawful act of sufficient causative relevance, then he renders himself liable. It may be that unlawful means ought to be necessary even where there is direct procurement (see the wide-ranging work by Hazel Carty, An Analysis of the Economic Torts, 2001, at 82). The significance of (iii), an area which has not been clearly worked out in the cases, appears to be that there may be moral or perhaps economic factors which may mitigate even to the point of justifying conduct otherwise incurring a prima facie liability.’

Judges:

Lord Justice Aldous, Tuckey, Rix LJ

Citations:

[2002] EWCA Civ 889, [2002] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 436, [2002] 2 All ER (Comm) 768

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

See Also – Stocznia Gdanska Sa v Latvian Shipping Company and others CA 23-Jul-2002
Application for leave to appeal to the House of Lords refused. . .
Appeal from – Stocznia Gdanska SA v Latvian Shipping Company and Others ComC 25-May-2001
When a claimant commenced litigating several issues, but succeeded only on some of the them, the rule allowing an award of costs to the generally successful party was not dependent upon questions of whether the party was reasonable to have raised . .
Considered – Millar and Others v Bassey and Another CA 26-Aug-1993
It was alleged that Miss Shirley Bassey had breached her contract with a record producer Dreampace (or with her own management company which had in turn contracted with Dreampace), as a result of which Dreampace had been unable to perform a contract . .
See Also – Stocznia Gdanska SA v Latreefers Inc; In re Latrefeers Inc; Stocznia Gdanska SA v Latvian Shipping Co and others (No 2) CA 15-Mar-2000
Possible claims against a foreign company for misfeasance, or wrongful or fraudulent trading might be sufficient to justify proceedings here to wind up a foreign registered company. A second requirement is that some person within this jurisdiction . .

Cited by:

Cited – Stocznia Gdanska Sa v Latvian Shipping Company and others CA 23-Jul-2002
Application for leave to appeal to the House of Lords refused. . .
Cited – OBG Ltd OBG (Plant and Transport Hire) Ltd v Raymond International Ltd; OBG Ltd v Allen CA 9-Feb-2005
The defendants had wrongfully appointed receivers of the claimant, who then came into the business and terminated contracts undertaken by the business. The claimant asserted that their actions amounted to a wrongful interference in their contracts . .
Cited – Astea (UK) Ltd v Time Group Ltd TCC 9-Apr-2003
The question of whether a reasonable time has been exceeded in performance of a contract is ‘a broad consideration, with the benefit of hindsight, and viewed from the time at which one party contends that a reasonable time for performance has been . .
Cited – Mainstream Properties Ltd v Young and others CA 13-Jul-2005
The claimant appealed refusal of his claim for inducing a breach of contract against the sixth defendant. It said that an intention to disturb a contract could be inferred.
Held: A mere recklessness as to whether contractual rights were . .
Cited – Stocznia Gdynia Sa v Gearbulk Holdings Ltd CA 13-Feb-2009
Orders were placed for the construction of ships. They were not delivered. The buyer, the defendant, cancelled the orders. The defendants sought the loss of profit. The claimants said they were entitled only to the repayment of instalments. The . .
Cited – Gold Group Properties Ltd v BDW Trading Ltd TCC 3-Mar-2010
The parties had contracted for the construction of an estate of houses and flats to be followed by the interim purchase by the defendants. The defendants argued that the slump in land prices frustrated the contract and that they should not be called . .
Cited – Jet2Com Ltd v SC Compania Nationala De Transporturi Aeriene Romane Tarom Sa ComC 15-Mar-2012
The parties had contracted for the defendant to maintain certain of the claimant’s aircraft. Each now asserted breach by the other.
Held: Neither the terms of the contract nor its character made time of the essence for the payments to be made . .
Cited – Phones 4U Ltd v EE Ltd ComC 16-Jan-2018
The parties contracted for the marketing of contracts for the marketing of the defendant’s mobile phone contracts. On the claimant entering administration, the defendant exercised a clause in their contract to terminate the contract. The claimant . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Contract, Torts – Other

Updated: 06 June 2022; Ref: scu.174117

Mccann Or Mcgurran Known As Mccann v Mcgurran: SCS 14 Mar 2002

Judges:

Lord Cameron of Lochbroom and Lord Caplan and Lord Kingarth

Citations:

[2002] ScotCS 67, 2002 SLT 592

Links:

ScotC, Bailii

Statutes:

Protection from Harassment Act 1997

Cited by:

Cited – Majrowski v Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust HL 12-Jul-2006
Employer can be liable for Managers Harassment
The claimant employee sought damages, saying that he had been bullied by his manager and that bullying amounting to harassment under the 1997 Act. The employer now appealed a finding that it was responsible for a tort committed by a manager, saying . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Scotland, Torts – Other

Updated: 05 June 2022; Ref: scu.168772

Barry and Barry v Sutherland: SCS 23 Nov 2001

The pursuers alleged that the defender had made fraudulent misrepresentations to them when selling them his bar business. On entry they had found a set of accounts showing a lower turnover, and exercised an option to break their lease.
Held: The fact that matters did not proceed to the stage of implementation of the element of the contract comprising the sale necessarily precludes any measurement of loss by reference to a value difference at the transaction date.

Judges:

Lord Eassie

Citations:

2002 SLT 413, [2001] ScotCS 268

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

Scotland

Citing:

See also – utherland v Barry and Barry SCS 23-Nov-2001
. .
Cited – Manners v Whitehead SCS 1898
(Inner House) An innocent misrepresentation does not give rise to damages. To be actionable it must be made fraudulently, but a person to whom a fraudulent representation of the profitability of a business, or a business opportunity, had been made . .

Cited by:

See also – utherland v Barry and Barry SCS 23-Nov-2001
. .
Cited – AMEC Mining v Scottish Coal Company SCS 6-Aug-2003
The pursuers contracted to remove coal by opencast mining from the defender’s land. They said the contract assumed the removal first of substantial peat depositys from the surface by a third party. They had to do that themselves at substantial cost. . .
See Also – utherland v Barry and Barry SCS 23-Nov-2001
. .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Damages

Updated: 05 June 2022; Ref: scu.168874

Malory Enterprises Ltd v Cheshire Homes (UK) Ltd and others: CA 22 Feb 2002

The applicant said that its land had been misappropriated, and sought rectification of the register against the respondent who was a successor in title having bought the land from the wrongdoer.
Held: On registration, section 69 operated to vest only the legal title in the prior registered proprietor. The transfer being of no effect in law, it was not a ‘disposition’, and the beneficial owners retained the right to sue in trespass without prior rectification. The discretionary nature of the right of rectification did not prevent it being an over-riding interest under 70(1)(g), and that right was transmissible. Rectification could not be made subject to terms. The claimant being in actual occupation, so as to enjoy an overriding interest, their claim succeeded.

Judges:

Lord Justice Schiemann, Lord Justice Clarke and Lady Justice Arden

Citations:

Times 21-Mar-2002, [2002] EWCA Civ 151, [2002] Ch 216, [2002] 3 WLR 1

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Land Registration Act 1925 69 70(1)(g) 82

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Chowood v Lyall (No 2) CA 1930
The transferees of land registered themselves as first registered proprietors of land including two narrow strips of woodland. The court had found that the strips in fact belonged to a neighbour who had acquired title by adverse possession.
Cited – Williams and Glyn’s Bank Ltd v Boland HL 19-Jun-1980
Wife in Occupation had Overriding Interest
The wife had made a substantial financial contribution to the purchase price of the house which was registered only in her husband’s name, and charged to the bank. The bank sought possession. The wife resisted saying that she had an overriding . .
Cited – Kingsalton Ltd and Another v Thames Water Developments Ltd and Others ChD 19-Jan-2001
The fact of possession of land by the registered proprietor was a factor to be given special effect when a court considered an application to rectify the register. The presumptions following from the registration of the land with title absolute, . .

Cited by:

Cited – Chaudhary v Yavuz CA 22-Nov-2011
The court was asked ‘whether and if so how an easement arising informally and not protected by any entry at the Land Registry can be effective against a purchaser of the land over which the easement would be exercised.’ The parties respectively . .
Criticised – Fitzwilliam v Richall Holdings Services Ltd ChD 28-Jan-2013
The claimant said that his property had been sold by someone falsely purporting to be his agent under a forged power of attorney. . .
Cited – Gold Harp Properties Ltd v Macleod and Others CA 29-Jul-2014
The company appealed against an order re-instating to the register leases which the company said it had forfeited for non-payment of rent. After the forfeiture, the landlord had granted new leases. It appealed saying that exceptional circumstances . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Registered Land, Torts – Other

Updated: 05 June 2022; Ref: scu.167949

Ellis and Another v Property Leeds (UK) Ltd: CA 31 Jan 2002

Norman Barry Ellis and David Clayton each claimed damages against Property Leeds (UK) Ltd (Eddisons) for the alleged fraudulent and/or negligent misrepresentations of one Thorpe acting as Eddisons servant or agent. On 21st June 2001 Rougier J gave summary judgment to Eddison’s in respect of the greater part of both claims. He did so on the basis that any losses suffered by Mr Ellis and Mr Clayton simply reflected losses sustained by companies of which each was a director. Alternatively the judge held that, with regard to such losses as were represented by the diminished value of trust funds in which each claimant had a beneficial interest, the right to sue lay not with the claimants but with the trustees.

Citations:

[2002] EWCA Civ 32, [2002] 2 BCLC 175

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Torts – Other

Updated: 05 June 2022; Ref: scu.167908

Willers v Joyce and Another Re: Gubay, Deceased: ChD 23 May 2017

Defendants’ application to strike out elements of the claimants re-re-amended particulars of claim.

Judges:

Marsh CM

Citations:

[2017] EWHC 1225 (Ch)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

See Also – Willers v Joyce and Another (Re: Gubay (Deceased) No 2) SC 20-Jul-2016
The Court was asked whether and in what circumstances a lower court may follow a decision of the Privy Council which has reached a different conclusion from that of the House of Lords (or the Supreme Court or Court of Appeal) on an earlier occasion. . .
See Also – Willers v Joyce and Another (Re: Gubay (Deceased) No 1) SC 20-Jul-2016
Parties had been involved in an action for wrongful trading. This was not persisted with but the claimant sought damages saying that the action was only part of a campaign to do him harm. This appeal raised the question whether the tort of malicious . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Litigation Practice

Updated: 05 June 2022; Ref: scu.588021

Neath Rural District Council v Williams: QBD 1951

A watercourse became silted by natural causes and the local authority served an abatement notice on the landowner, who failed to respond, and when prosecuted relied on a proviso which excluded from liability ‘any person other than the person by whose act or default the nuisance arises or continues.’
Held: Absent any relevant legal duty on him under statute or at common law to take positive action to remove the nuisance, the defendant was not in ‘default’.
Lord Goddard CJ said: ‘In my opinion what we have to consider is whether the obstruction in the present case was caused and was continued by the act or default of the defendants, and not whether it was caused and continued through their act, default, or sufferance. I cannot construe the word ‘default’ here in the way in which we have been asked to construe it by the Rural District Council. I do not think that in this case ‘default’ could mean merely doing nothing, unless an obligation to do something were imposed by the Act. There is no act of the defendants which caused the obstruction either to arise or continue. I can well understand that there might be a case where it might be said that a person who failed to do something which he ought to have done, such for instance as failing to prevent obstructive matter from going into a river from his own premises, had caused obstruction by his default. In the present case, on the facts found by the justices, there is nothing to show that the defendants did anything which caused this obstruction to arise or to continue; nor do I think that there is anything which can properly be called a default on their part.’

Judges:

Lord Goddard CJ

Citations:

[1951] 1 KB 115

Statutes:

Public Health Act 1936 93 259(1)(b)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Express Ltd v The Environment Agency QBD 15-Jul-2004
The dairy appealed its conviction for allowing cream to enter a brook from the land of its customer.
Held: Polluting matter did not need to be itself noxious or poisonous, it was enough that it stained or tinted the water as did cream. Though . .
Cited – Bybrook Barn Garden Centre Ltd and Others v Kent County Council CA 8-Jan-2001
A culvert had been constructed taking a stream underneath the road. At the time when it came into the ownership of the local authority, it was adequate for this purpose. Later developments increased the flow, and the culvert came to become an . .
Cited – Manolete Partners Plc v Hastings Borough Council TCC 12-Apr-2013
Application for compensation under s.106 of the Building Act 1984 for compensation as a result of the Council exercising its powers to prevent access to Hastings Pier under s.78 of the 1984 Act.
Held: The court rejected the defence, holding . .
Cited – Hastings Borough Council v Manolete Partners Plc SC 27-Jul-2016
The council appealed against the decision that it is liable to pay compensation under section 106 of the Building Act 1984, for loss to a business on Hastings Pier arising from its closure during 2006 under the council’s emergency powers. The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Environment, Torts – Other

Updated: 05 June 2022; Ref: scu.200247

Wong v Parkside Health NHS Trust and Another: CA 16 Nov 2001

The claimant had sued her former employer for post-traumatic stress resulting from alleged harassment at her place of work. The claimant appealed against an order refusing damages. The court had held that outside the 1997 Act which was not in force at the time, there was no tort of harassment. The question was the extent of the tort of causing intentional distress. The law provided an alternative. The claimant must pursue either criminal or civil proceedings but not both. The law had recognised extensions of the term ‘molest’ as between family members.
Held: Before the Act there was a right only for an injunction, and not for damages for acts which themselves fell short of a tort. Whilst the 1861 Act remained in force, and where the public authorities refused to prosecute, a private claimant had to choose between the alternatives of a private prosecution, or an action for damages. For a claim for damages to succeed there must be physical or psychiatric damage, and an intention to create such harm. Although the tort is commonly labelled ‘intentional infliction of harm’, it was not necessary to prove actual (subjective) intention to injure; it was sufficient to prove that the conduct was ‘calculated’ to do so in the sense of being deliberate conduct which was likely in the nature of things to cause injury .
Hale LJ analysed the tort in Downton: ‘For the tort to be committed, as with any other action on the case, there has to be actual damage. The damage is physical harm or recognised psychiatric illness. The defendant must have intended to violate the claimant’s interest in his freedom from such harm. The conduct complained of has to be such that that degree of harm is sufficiently likely to result that the defendant cannot be heard to say that he did not ‘mean’ it to do so. He is taken to have meant it to do so by the combination of the likelihood of such harm being suffered as the result of his behaviour and his deliberately engaging in that behaviour.’

Judges:

Lord Justice Brooke, Lady Justice Hale and Mr Justice David Steel

Citations:

Times 07-Dec-2001, Gazette 10-Jan-2002, [2001] EWCA Civ 1721, [2003] 3 All ER 932

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Offences against the Person Act 1861 45, Protection from Harassment Act 1997

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – 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 . .
Cited – Janvier v Sweeney 1919
During the First World War Mlle Janvier lived as a paid companion in a house in Mayfair and corresponded with her German lover who was interned as an enemy alien on the Isle of Man. Sweeney was a private detective who wanted secretly to obtain some . .
Cited – Burnett v George CA 1992
. .
Cited – Pidduck v Molloy CA 1992
The Act did not allow for a non-molestation order to be made once an unmarried couple had ceased to cohabit. . .

Cited by:

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 – A v Hoare; H v Suffolk County Council, Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs intervening; X and Y v London Borough of Wandsworth CA 12-Apr-2006
Each claimant sought damages for a criminal assault for which the defendant was said to be responsible. Each claim was to be out of the six year limitation period. In the first claim, the proposed defendant had since won a substantial sum from the . .
Cited – Majrowski v Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust CA 16-Mar-2005
The claimant had sought damages against his employer, saying that they had failed in their duty to him under the 1997 Act in failing to prevent harassment by a manager. He appealed a strike out of his claim.
Held: The appeal succeeded. The . .
Cited – OPO v MLA and Another QBD 18-Jul-2014
A boy now sought an interim injunction to restrain his father, the defendant classical musician, from publishing his autobiography which mentioned him. The book would say that the father had suffered sexual abuse as a child at school.
Held: . .
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.

Damages, Personal Injury, Torts – Other

Updated: 05 June 2022; Ref: scu.167208

Regina v Managers of South Western Hospital and Another, Ex Parte M: QBD 24 Mar 1993

The patient was detained on the application of an AMHP. In purported pursuance of section 11(4) the AMHP had consulted the patient’s mother as her nearest relative. However, the patient’s mother was not ordinarily resident in the UK, and, according to the statutory definition of ‘nearest relative’, the AMHP ought to have consulted the patient’s uncle. He was in fact consulted, but not in the capacity of nearest relative. Neither the patient’s mother nor the patient’s uncle objected to her admission.
Held: The AMHP had unwittingly acted outside the Act. An application for the renewed detention of a patient under section 3 was proper despite a recent tribunal ruling that the patient should be released. The social worker had a duty under the Act to admit a patient in this way when the circumstances of the Act applied. The application should have been made by way of judicial review rather than under habeas corpus. ‘there is no sense in which those concerned in a section 3 application are at any stage bound by an earlier tribunal decision.’

Judges:

Laws J

Citations:

Gazette 24-Mar-1993, [1993] QB 683, [1994] 1 All ER 161, [1993] 3 WLR 376

Statutes:

Mental Health Act 1983 2 3 4 6 11 13

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Followed – Regina (Count Franz Von Brandenburg (aka Hanley) ) v East London and The City Mental Health NHS Trust, Snazell, Approved Social worker CA 21-Feb-2001
The court was asked ‘When a mental health review tribunal has ordered the discharge of a patient, is it lawful to readmit him under section 2 or section 3 of the [Mental Health Act 1983] where it cannot be demonstrated that there has been a relevant . .
Mentioned – Regina v East London and the City Mental Health NHS Trust and Another ex parte Von Brandenburg (Aka Hanley) HL 13-Nov-2003
The patient was ordered to be discharged and released from hospital. The tribunal making the order had not accepted the medical recommendations. His release was deferred pending the finding of accommodation, but in the meantime, a social worker . .
Cited – TTM v London Borough of Hackney and Others Admn 11-Jun-2010
The claimant had said that his detention under the 1983 Act was unlawful, and that the court should issue a writ of habeas corpus for his release. Having been released he sought damages on the basis that his human rights had been infringed. The . .
Cited – TTM v London Borough of Hackney and Others CA 14-Jan-2011
The claimant had been found to have been wrongfully detained under section 3. He appealed against rejection of his claim for judicial review and for damages. The court found that his detention was lawful until declared otherwise. He argued that the . .
Overruled – Davidson v Chief Constable of North Wales Police and Another CA 31-May-1993
A store detective said the plaintiffs had stolen from the store. He was wrong. The plaintiffs sought damages from the defendant for false imprisonment.
Held: If the police use their own discretion to arrest a suspect, an informer is not liable . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Health, Torts – Other

Updated: 05 June 2022; Ref: scu.88553

Robertson v The Balmain New Ferry Company Ltd: PC 10 Dec 1909

High Court of Australia – The Plaintiff paid a penny on entering the wharf to stay there till the boat should start and then be taken by the boat to the other side. The Defendants were admittedly always ready and willing to carry out their part of this contract. Then the Plaintiff changed his mind, and wished to go back. The rules as to the exit from the wharf by the turnstile required a penny for any person who went though. This the Plaintiff refused to pay, and he was by force prevented from going through the turnstile. He then claimed damages for assault and false imprisonment.
Held: This was not imprisonment as there was an exit route and he had agreed to the terms.
Otherwise: Robinson v Balmain New Ferry Co Ltd

Citations:

[1909] UKPC 1, [1909] UKPC 58, [1910] AC 295, [1909] UKLawRpAC 62

Links:

Bailii, Bailii, Commonlii

Jurisdiction:

Australia

Cited by:

Cited – Secretary of State for Justice v MM SC 28-Nov-2018
The respondent had been detained after conviction for arson, under the 1983 Act, and was liable to indefinite detention in hospital for medical treatment and dischargeable only by the Appellant or the First Tier Tribunal, possibly only as a . .
Cited – Jalloh, Regina (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department SC 12-Feb-2020
Claim for damages for false imprisonment brought in judicial review proceedings challenging the legality of a curfew imposed upon the claimant, purportedly under paragraph 2(5) of Schedule 3 to the Immigration Act 1971.
Held: The Court of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Transport, Contract, Torts – Other

Updated: 05 June 2022; Ref: scu.245719

Wright v Wilson: 1699

An action for false imprisonment will not lie against a man for fastening one of two doors in a room in which A. is, though A. cannot go through the other without trespassing.
A. has a chamber adjoining to the chamber of B. and has a door that opens into it,by which there is a pasage to go out; and A. has another door, which C. stops, so that A. cannot go out by that. This is no imprisonment of A. by C. because A. may go out by the door in the chamber of B. though he be a trespasser by doing it. But A. may have s special action upon his case against C. Ruled by Holt Chief Justice, in evidence at a trial at the Summer Assizes at Lincoln 1699, in an action of false imprisonment. And the plaintiff was nonsuit.

Judges:

Holt Cj

Citations:

[1699] EngR 2895, (1699) 1 Ld Raym 739, (1699) 91 ER 1394 (D)

Links:

Commonlii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Jalloh, Regina (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department SC 12-Feb-2020
Claim for damages for false imprisonment brought in judicial review proceedings challenging the legality of a curfew imposed upon the claimant, purportedly under paragraph 2(5) of Schedule 3 to the Immigration Act 1971.
Held: The Court of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other

Updated: 05 June 2022; Ref: scu.361107

Jalloh, Regina (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: SC 12 Feb 2020

Claim for damages for false imprisonment brought in judicial review proceedings challenging the legality of a curfew imposed upon the claimant, purportedly under paragraph 2(5) of Schedule 3 to the Immigration Act 1971.
Held: The Court of Appeal in Austin and in Walker were right to say that there could be imprisonment at common law without there being a deprivation of liberty under article 5.

Judges:

Lady Hale, Lord Kerr, Lord Carnwath, Lord Briggs, Lord Sales

Citations:

[2020] 2 WLR 41, [2020] HRLR 8, [2021] AC 262, [2020] WLR(D) 85, [2020] 3 All ER 449, [2020] 1 Cr App R 31, UKSC 2018/0137

Links:

Bailii, Bailii Summary, WLRD, SC, SC Summary, SC Summary Video, SC 2019 Nov 12 am Video, SC 2019 Nov 12 pm Video

Statutes:

European Convention on Human Rights, Immigration Act 1971

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

At Admin (1) – Jollah, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for The Home Department Admn 24-Feb-2017
Judicial review of refusal to lift curfew conditions . .
At Admin (2) – Jollah, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for The Home Department (No 2) Admn 9-Nov-2017
Claim for damages for false imprisonment arising out of the imposition of what has been referred to as a curfew, namely a requirement that the claimant be present for a certain number of hours each day at specified premises after release from . .
Appeal from – Jollah, Regina (on The Application of) v The Secretary of State for The Home Department CA 12-Jun-2018
. .
Cited – Gedi, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for The Home Department Admn 9-Oct-2015
Application for Judicial Review challenging the lawfulness of bail conditions (a curfew monitored by electronic tagging) imposed by the defendant during deportation proceedings under section 32(5) of the 2007 Act. . .
Cited – Gedi, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Home Department CA 17-May-2016
The court considered the power of the Secretary of State for the Home Department and her immigration officials to impose conditions of curfew and electronic monitoring on those who have been released from immigration detention pending the conclusion . .
Cited – Berry v Adamson, Gent 22-May-1827
. .
Cited – Grainger v Hill CEC 1838
Misuse of Power for ulterior object
D1 and D2 lent C 80 pounds repayable in 1837, secured by a mortgage on C’s vessel. C was to be free to continue to use the vessel in the interim but the law forbade its use if he were to cease to hold its register. In 1836 the Ds became concerned . .
Cited – Bird v Jones QBD 11-Jan-1845
A section of public road (Hammersmith Bridge) was closed off to provide a vantage point for a boat race. The plaintiff refused to be excluded, and complained that he had not been allowed to use the public highway, and had therefore been imprisoned. . .
Cited – Warner v Riddiford 12-Feb-1858
The claimant was imprisoned when he was refused permission by police officers, acting on behalf of his employers, to leave the room and go upstairs in his own house. . .
Cited – Syed Mahamad Yusuf-ud-Din v Secretary of State for India 1903
For the tort of false imprisonment to be committed, the deprivation of liberty must be actual, rather than potential: ‘Nothing short of actual detention and complete loss of freedom would support an action for false imprisonment.’ . .
Cited – Robertson v The Balmain New Ferry Company Ltd PC 10-Dec-1909
High Court of Australia – The Plaintiff paid a penny on entering the wharf to stay there till the boat should start and then be taken by the boat to the other side. The Defendants were admittedly always ready and willing to carry out their part of . .
Cited – Meering v Grahame-White Aviation Co Ltd CA 1919
An unconscious or drugged person may be detained. For the tort of false imprisonment there must be shown a complete restriction in fact on the plaintiff’s freedom to move: ‘any restraint within defined bounds which is a restraint in fact may be an . .
Cited – Wright v Wilson 1699
An action for false imprisonment will not lie against a man for fastening one of two doors in a room in which A. is, though A. cannot go through the other without trespassing.
A. has a chamber adjoining to the chamber of B. and has a door that . .
Cited – Arrowsmith v Le Mesurier 13-Jun-1806
If a magistrate’s warrant be shown by the constable who has the execution of it to the person charged with an offence, and he thereupon, without compulsion, attend the constable to the magistrate, and after examination be dismissed, it seems this is . .
Cited – Guzzardi v Italy ECHR 6-Nov-1980
The applicant, a suspected Mafioso, had been detained in custody pending his trial. At the end of the maximum period of detention pending trial, he had been taken to an island where, he complained, he was unable to work, keep his family permanently . .
Cited – In Re L (By His Next Friend GE); Regina v Bournewood Community and Mental Health NHS Trust, Ex Parte L HL 25-Jun-1998
The applicant was an adult autistic, unable to consent to medical treatment. Treatment was provided at a day centre. He had been detained informally under the Act and against the wishes of his carers, but the Court of Appeal decided he should have . .
Cited – HL v United Kingdom ECHR 10-Sep-2002
(Admissibility) Whether a detention amounts to a deprivation of liberty depends upon all the facts and circumstances of the particular case . .
Cited – Walker v The Commissioner of The Police of The Metropolis CA 1-Jul-2014
The minimal extent of a person’s detention by a police officer who was not exercising the power of arrest would not prevent his detention from being unlawful and amounting to false imprisonment. It was held to be false imprisonment for a police . .
Cited – Kennedy v The Charity Commission SC 26-Mar-2014
The claimant journalist sought disclosure of papers acquired by the respondent in its conduct of enquiries into the charitable Mariam appeal. The Commission referred to an absolute exemption under section 32(2) of the 2000 Act, saying that the . .
Cited – Regina v Rumble CACD 2003
The defendant had surrendered to his bail at a Magistrates Court. There was no usher and no security staff. Following imposition of a custodial sentence, the defendant escaped through the public entrance. It was submitted on an appeal that the . .
Cited – McFadzean and Others v Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union and Others 13-Dec-2007
The Union set a picket round a camp set up by anti-logging protesters to prevent the protesters getting out. The protesters could have asked the police to escort them out, but that did not mean that they were not imprisoned until they did so. But . .
Cited – Secretary of State for the Home Department v JJ and others HL 31-Oct-2007
The Home Secretary appealed against a finding that a non-derogating control order was unlawful in that, in restricting the subject to an 18 hour curfew and otherwise severely limiting his social contacts, the order amounted to such a deprivation of . .
Cited – Austin and Another v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis CA 15-Oct-2007
The claimants appealed dismissal of their claims for false imprisonment and unlawful detention by the respondent in his policing of a demonstration. They had been held within a police cordon in the streets for several hours to prevent the spread of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Human Rights, Torts – Other

Updated: 05 June 2022; Ref: scu.647454

Meering v Grahame-White Aviation Co Ltd: CA 1919

An unconscious or drugged person may be detained. For the tort of false imprisonment there must be shown a complete restriction in fact on the plaintiff’s freedom to move: ‘any restraint within defined bounds which is a restraint in fact may be an imprisonment.’
The court distinguished between restraint upon the plaintiff’s liberty which is conditional upon his seeking to exercise his freedom (which would not amount to false imprisonment), and an actual restraint upon his liberty, as where the defendant decided to restrain the plaintiff within a room and placed a policeman outside the door to stop him leaving (which would amount to false imprisonment). The fact that he does not know that he is detained is of no matter since ‘a person can be imprisoned while he is asleep, while he is in a state of drunkenness, while he is unconscious and while he is a lunatic’: The court considered the absence of ‘reasonable cause’ although that could be evidence of malice.
Warrington L.J. said: ‘If on those facts the jury came to the conclusion that the prosecutors did not honestly believe in the charge they might further find that the prosecutors were actuated by some indirect motive in pressing the prosecution, and were therefore actuated by malice. That seems to me is exactly what the jury have done in the present case.’

Judges:

Atkin LJ, Warrington LJ

Citations:

(1919) 122 LT 44

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Gibbs and others v Rea PC 29-Jan-1998
(Cayman Islands) The respondent worked for a bank. He disclosed a business interest, but that interest grew in importance to the point where he resigned in circumstances amounting to constructive dismissal. His home and business officers were raided . .
Cited – In Re L (By His Next Friend GE); Regina v Bournewood Community and Mental Health NHS Trust, Ex Parte L HL 25-Jun-1998
The applicant was an adult autistic, unable to consent to medical treatment. Treatment was provided at a day centre. He had been detained informally under the Act and against the wishes of his carers, but the Court of Appeal decided he should have . .
Approved – Murray v Ministry of Defence HL 25-May-1988
The plaintiff complained that she had been wrongfully arrested by a soldier, since he had not given a proper reason for her detention.
Held: The House accepted the existence of an implied power in a statute which would be necessary to ensure . .
Cited – L v Bournewood Community and Mental Health NHS Trust Admn 9-Oct-1997
L was adult autistic. He had been admitted to mental hospital for fear of his self-harming behaviours, and detained informally. He complained that that detention was unlawful.
Held: The continued detention of a mental health patient who is . .
Cited – Jalloh, Regina (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department SC 12-Feb-2020
Claim for damages for false imprisonment brought in judicial review proceedings challenging the legality of a curfew imposed upon the claimant, purportedly under paragraph 2(5) of Schedule 3 to the Immigration Act 1971.
Held: The Court of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other

Updated: 05 June 2022; Ref: scu.184706

Austin and Another v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis: CA 15 Oct 2007

The claimants appealed dismissal of their claims for false imprisonment and unlawful detention by the respondent in his policing of a demonstration. They had been held within a police cordon in the streets for several hours to prevent the spread of violence. One claimant had been simply there on business.
Held: The appeal failed. In exceptional circumstances it was lawful for the police to act in this way to prevent an imminent breach of the peace.
Sir Anthony Clarke MR summarised the effect of the speeches in Laporte on the issue of third parties’ rights: ‘As we read the speeches of Lord Rodger and Lord Brown they give some support for the following propositions:
i) where a breach of the peace is taking place, or is reasonably thought to be imminent, before the police can take any steps which interfere with or curtail in any way the lawful exercise of rights by innocent third parties they must ensure that they have taken all other possible steps to ensure that the breach, or imminent breach, is obviated and that the rights of innocent third parties are protected;
ii) the taking of all other possible steps includes (where practicable), but is not limited to, ensuring that proper and advance preparations have been made to deal with such a breach, since failure to take such steps will render interference with the rights of innocent third parties unjustified or unjustifiable; but
iii) where (and only where) there is a reasonable belief that there are no other means whatsoever whereby a breach or imminent breach of the peace can be obviated, the lawful exercise by third parties of their rights may be curtailed by the police;
iv) this is a test of necessity which it is to be expected can only be justified in truly extreme and exceptional circumstances; and
v) the action taken must be both reasonably necessary and proportionate.’

Judges:

Sir Anthony Clarke MR

Citations:

[2007] EWCA Civ 989, Times 29-Oct-2007, [2008] QB 660, [2008] 1 All ER 564, [2008] HRLR 1, [2008] 2 WLR 415, [2008] UKHRR 205

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Laporte, Regina (on the application of ) v Chief Constable of Gloucestershire HL 13-Dec-2006
The claimants had been in coaches being driven to take part in a demonstration at an air base. The defendant police officers stopped the coaches en route, and, without allowing any number of the claimants to get off, returned the coaches to London. . .
Appeal from – Austin and Another v The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis QBD 23-Mar-2005
The claimants had variously been attending a demonstration in London, or passing through. The police detained them in a cordon for several hours. They sought damages. No unlawful acts were alleged against them.
Held: There was no deprivation . .
Cited – Ziliberberg v Moldova ECHR 1-Feb-2005
The court observed that: ‘the right to freedom of assembly is a fundamental right in a democratic society and, like the right to freedom of expression, is one of the foundations of such a society.’ it is possible to distinguish between interferences . .
Cited – Blum and others v Director of Public Prosecutions and others Admn 20-Dec-2006
. .
Cited – O’Kelly v Harvey 1882
(Court of Appeal in Ireland) The plaintiff, a nationalist Member of Parliament, sued the defendant for assault and battery. There had been a meeting which was to be held on 7 December 1880. On the day before, a placard appeared summoning local . .
Cited – Beatty v Gillbanks QBD 13-Jun-1882
The appellants assembled with others for a lawful purpose, and with no intention of carrying it out unlawfully, but with the knowledge that their assembly would be opposed, and with good reason to suppose that a breach of the peace would be . .
Cited – Guzzardi v Italy ECHR 6-Nov-1980
The applicant, a suspected Mafioso, had been detained in custody pending his trial. At the end of the maximum period of detention pending trial, he had been taken to an island where, he complained, he was unable to work, keep his family permanently . .

Cited by:

Appeal from – Austin and Another v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis HL 28-Jan-2009
Movement retsriction was not Liberty Deprivation
The claimants had been present during a demonstration policed by the respondent. They appealed against dismissal of their claims for false imprisonment having been prevented from leaving Oxford Circus for over seven hours. The claimants appealed . .
Cited – Castle and Others v Commissioner of Police for The Metropolis Admn 8-Sep-2011
The claimants, all under 17 years old, took a peaceful part in a substantial but disorderly demonstration in London. The police decided to contain the section of crowd which included the claimants. The claimants said that the containment of children . .
Cited – Jalloh, Regina (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department SC 12-Feb-2020
Claim for damages for false imprisonment brought in judicial review proceedings challenging the legality of a curfew imposed upon the claimant, purportedly under paragraph 2(5) of Schedule 3 to the Immigration Act 1971.
Held: The Court of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Police, Human Rights, Torts – Other

Updated: 05 June 2022; Ref: scu.259838

Bird v Jones: QBD 11 Jan 1845

A section of public road (Hammersmith Bridge) was closed off to provide a vantage point for a boat race. The plaintiff refused to be excluded, and complained that he had not been allowed to use the public highway, and had therefore been imprisoned.
Held: (majority) ‘there was no imprisonment. To call it so appears to me to confound partial obstruction and disturbance with total obstruction and detention. A prison may have its boundary large or narrow, visible and tangible, or, though real, still in the conception only; it may itself be moveable or fixed: but a boundary it must have; and that boundary the party imprisoned must be prevented from passing; he must be prevented from leaving that place, within the ambit of which the party imprisoning would confine him, except by prison-breach.’

Citations:

[1845] EWHC QB J64, (1845) 7 QB 742, (1845) 115 ER 668, (1845) LJ QB 82, (1845) 5 LT OS 46, (1845) 10 JP 4, (1845) 9 Jur 870

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Approved – Syed Mahamad Yusuf-ud-Din v Secretary of State for India 1903
For the tort of false imprisonment to be committed, the deprivation of liberty must be actual, rather than potential: ‘Nothing short of actual detention and complete loss of freedom would support an action for false imprisonment.’ . .
Cited – Jalloh, Regina (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department SC 12-Feb-2020
Claim for damages for false imprisonment brought in judicial review proceedings challenging the legality of a curfew imposed upon the claimant, purportedly under paragraph 2(5) of Schedule 3 to the Immigration Act 1971.
Held: The Court of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other

Updated: 05 June 2022; Ref: scu.245440

Syed Mahamad Yusuf-ud-Din v Secretary of State for India: 1903

For the tort of false imprisonment to be committed, the deprivation of liberty must be actual, rather than potential: ‘Nothing short of actual detention and complete loss of freedom would support an action for false imprisonment.’

Judges:

Lord Macnaghten

Citations:

(1903) 19 TLR 496, (1903) 30 Ind App 154

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Approved – Bird v Jones QBD 11-Jan-1845
A section of public road (Hammersmith Bridge) was closed off to provide a vantage point for a boat race. The plaintiff refused to be excluded, and complained that he had not been allowed to use the public highway, and had therefore been imprisoned. . .
See Also – Sayad Muhammad Yusuf-Ud-Din v The Queen PC 7-Jul-1897
(Punjab) . .

Cited by:

Cited – In Re L (By His Next Friend GE); Regina v Bournewood Community and Mental Health NHS Trust, Ex Parte L HL 25-Jun-1998
The applicant was an adult autistic, unable to consent to medical treatment. Treatment was provided at a day centre. He had been detained informally under the Act and against the wishes of his carers, but the Court of Appeal decided he should have . .
Cited – Jalloh, Regina (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department SC 12-Feb-2020
Claim for damages for false imprisonment brought in judicial review proceedings challenging the legality of a curfew imposed upon the claimant, purportedly under paragraph 2(5) of Schedule 3 to the Immigration Act 1971.
Held: The Court of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other

Updated: 05 June 2022; Ref: scu.218830

Grainger v Hill: CEC 1838

Misuse of Power for ulterior object

D1 and D2 lent C 80 pounds repayable in 1837, secured by a mortgage on C’s vessel. C was to be free to continue to use the vessel in the interim but the law forbade its use if he were to cease to hold its register. In 1836 the Ds became concerned about the strength of their security. They resolved to put pressure on C to make early repayment. In an action for assumpsit they falsely claimed that the loan was already repayable. They swore an affidavit of debt, which entitled them, without judicial authority, to cause to be sued out of court a writ of capias ad respondendum directed at C. This obliged the local sheriff to capture C with a view to his being brought before the court and made to respond. The sheriff indicated to C that the Ds would be content for him not to be arrested if he were to surrender the vessel’s register. He did so. He soon repaid the loan but in the interim the absence of the register had required his vessel to forego four voyages to Caen. The plaintiff had used the threat of arrest of the defendants in proceedings for recovery of a debt to achieve the ulterior purpose of obtaining possession of a certain ship’s register.
Held: The court upheld the judgment for C in his action on the case. The judges, led by Tindal CJ, held that the tort committed by the Ds was not malicious prosecution but abuse of the process of the law to effect an object not within the scope of the process which they had initiated, namely to ‘extort’ the register, to which they had no right, from C or to obtain it from him by ‘duress’. To allow a defendant to order a plaintiff’s otherwise lawful claim to be stayed as an abuse of process, he has to show that the plaintiff has an ulterior motive, that he seeks a collateral advantage for himself beyond what the law offers, and is reaching out ‘to effect an object not within the scope of the process’. There is a tort of abuse of process for which it is not necessary to prove malice or want of reasonable and probable cause or that the proceedings have been terminated, let alone in favour of the plaintiff.
It was enough for the sheriff’s officer to tell the claimant, while he was lying ill in bed, that there was a writ of capias against him and unless he surrendered his ship’s register or found bail, he would be taken away or a man would be left with him: this was a sufficient restraint of his person to amount to an arrest.

Judges:

Tindall CJ, Park J

Citations:

(1838) 4 Bing (NC) 212, [1838] EngR 365, (1838) 4 Bing NC 212, (1838) 132 ER 769

Links:

Commonlii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Goldsmith v Sperrings Ltd CA 1977
Claims for Collateral Purpose treated as abuse
The plaintiff commenced proceedings for damages for libel and an injunction against the publishers, the editors and the main distributors of Private Eye. In addition, he issued writs against a large number of other wholesale and retail distributors . .
Cited – Pitman Training Ltd and Another v Nominet UK and Another ChD 22-May-1997
The defendant had received a request to register the domain name ‘pitman.co.uk’ from the claimants, who held the trade mark. The domain was not activated, and was de-registered by the defendants and then re-registered by another company. Action was . .
Cited – Land Securities Plc and Others v Fladgate Fielder (A Firm) ChD 25-Mar-2009
The claimants sought damages, alleging that the defendants had abused the litigation process by issuing proceedings to challenge a grant of planning permission to the claimants not so as to defeat the grant, but by causing the claimants . .
Cited – Land Securities Plc and Others v Fladgate Fielder (A Firm) CA 18-Dec-2009
The claimants wanted planning permission to redevelop land. The defendant firm of solicitors, their tenants, had challenged the planning permission. The claimants alleged that that opposition was a tortious abuse because its true purpose was to . .
Cited – Broxton v McClelland CA 31-Jan-1995
The defendants issued various applications to strike out the claim, including a claim of abuse of process. The action was being financially maintained by a third party. The defendants contended that the maintainer’s purpose was to oppress and . .
Cited – Makudi v Baron Triesman of Tottenham In London Borough of Haringey QBD 1-Feb-2013
The claimant, former chairman of the Thailand Football Association, claimed in defamation against the defendant who had been chairman of the English Football Association. The defendant asked the court to strike out the claim, saying that some of the . .
Cited – Williamson v The Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago PC 3-Sep-2014
(Trinidad and Tobago) The claimant had been held after arrest on suspicion of theft. He was held for several months before the case was dismissed, the posecution having made no apparent attempt to further the prosecution. He appealed against refusal . .
Cited – Jalloh, Regina (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department SC 12-Feb-2020
Claim for damages for false imprisonment brought in judicial review proceedings challenging the legality of a curfew imposed upon the claimant, purportedly under paragraph 2(5) of Schedule 3 to the Immigration Act 1971.
Held: The Court of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Litigation Practice

Leading Case

Updated: 05 June 2022; Ref: scu.186025

In Re L (By His Next Friend GE); Regina v Bournewood Community and Mental Health NHS Trust, Ex Parte L: HL 25 Jun 1998

The applicant was an adult autistic, unable to consent to medical treatment. Treatment was provided at a day centre. He had been detained informally under the Act and against the wishes of his carers, but the Court of Appeal decided he should have been formally detained.
Held: The appeal succeeded. His detention had not been so complete as to constitute the tort of false imprisonment. The appellant had been properly detained using the informal procedure. The medical steps taken were valid under the common law doctrine of necessity. Under the common law doctrine of necessity there was power to detain and restrain patients who lack capacity and where detention was necessary in their own best interests.
Lord Steyn identified the existence of a lacuna: ‘The common law principle of necessity is a useful concept but it contains none of the safeguards of the 1983 Act. It places effective and unqualified control in the hands of the hospital psychiatrists . . neither habeas corpus nor judicial review are sufficient safeguards against misjudgements and professional lapses in the case of compliant incapacitated patients.’

Judges:

Lord Goff of Chieveley, Lord Lloyd of Berwick, Lord Nolan, Lord Steyn, Lord hope of Craighead

Citations:

Gazette 22-Jul-1998, Times 30-Jun-1998, [1998] UKHL 24, [1998] Fam Law 592, [1999] AC 458, [1998] 3 All ER 289, [1998] 3 WLR 107, [1998] 2 FLR 550, [1998] 2 FCR 501

Links:

House of Lords, Bailii

Statutes:

Mental Health Act 1983 3

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

At CA – Regina v Bournewood Community and Mental Health NHS Trust, Ex parte L CA 2-Dec-1997
The applicant was severely autistic, and unable to consent to medical treatment. He had been admitted voluntarly to a mental hospital and detained under common law powers. The Hospital trust appealed a finding that his detention had been unlawful. . .
Distinguished – Black v Forsey HL 20-May-1988
The common law was called in aid to supplement the statutory power of compulsory detention to fill a lacuna which had appeared in the 1984 Act.
Held: The common law could not be invoked for that purpose, because the powers of detention . .
Cited – In re F (Mental Patient: Sterilisation) HL 4-May-1989
Where a patient lacks capacity, there is the power to provide him with whatever treatment or care is necessary in his own best interests. Medical treatment can be undertaken in an emergency even if, through a lack of capacity, no consent had been . .
Cited – Syed Mahamad Yusuf-ud-Din v Secretary of State for India 1903
For the tort of false imprisonment to be committed, the deprivation of liberty must be actual, rather than potential: ‘Nothing short of actual detention and complete loss of freedom would support an action for false imprisonment.’ . .
Cited – Meering v Grahame-White Aviation Co Ltd CA 1919
An unconscious or drugged person may be detained. For the tort of false imprisonment there must be shown a complete restriction in fact on the plaintiff’s freedom to move: ‘any restraint within defined bounds which is a restraint in fact may be an . .
Cited – Rex v Coate 1772
There is a common law power to detain persons for their own protection for mental health reasons. . .
Cited – Scott v Wakem 1862
If it could be shown to be necessary to protect him from harming himself, the common law gave power for a man to be detained. . .
Cited – Symm v Fraser 1863
The common law permitted the detention of those who were a danger, or potential danger, to themselves or others, in so far as this was shown to be necessary. . .
Cited – Murray v Ministry of Defence HL 25-May-1988
The plaintiff complained that she had been wrongfully arrested by a soldier, since he had not given a proper reason for her detention.
Held: The House accepted the existence of an implied power in a statute which would be necessary to ensure . .
Cited – Dallinson v Caffery 1965
When considering an allegation of false imprisonment, the element of detention or imprisonment is a pure issue of fact for the jury and the element of justification is one in which the judge has a role to play. . .
Cited – Collins v Wilcock QBD 1984
The defendant appealed against her conviction for assaulting a police constable in the execution of his duty. He had sought to caution her with regard to activity as a prostitute. The 1959 Act gave no power to detain, but he took hold of her. She . .
Cited – Regina v Deputy Governor of Parkhurst Prison, Ex parte Hague, Weldon v Home Office HL 24-Jul-1991
The prisoner challenged the decision to place him in segregation under Prison Rule 43. Under rule 43(1) the initial power to segregate was given to ‘the governor’. The case arose from the fact that the governor of one prison had purported to . .
At Admn – L v Bournewood Community and Mental Health NHS Trust Admn 9-Oct-1997
L was adult autistic. He had been admitted to mental hospital for fear of his self-harming behaviours, and detained informally. He complained that that detention was unlawful.
Held: The continued detention of a mental health patient who is . .

Cited by:

Cited – L v United Kingdom ECHR 5-Oct-2004
The claimant had suffered mental illness and threatened to hurt himself. He was taken into hospital as a voluntary patient, but in effect detained compulsorily. He lacked capacity to consent to medical treatment.
Held: The holding of a patient . .
At House of Lords – HL v United Kingdom ECHR 2004
Lack of Patient Safeguards was Infringement
The claimant had been detained at a mental hospital as in ‘informal patient’. He was an autistic adult. He had been recommended for release by the Mental Health Review Tribunal, and it was decided that he should be released. He was detained further . .
Cited – Regina v Ashworth Hospital Authority (Now Mersey Care National Health Service Trust) ex parte Munjaz HL 13-Oct-2005
The claimant was detained in a secure Mental Hospital. He complained at the seclusions policy applied by the hospital, saying that it departed from the Guidance issued for such policies by the Secretary of State under the Act.
Held: The House . .
Cited – MH v Secretary of State for the Department of Health and others HL 20-Oct-2005
The appellant, detained for assessment under section 2, was too disabled to make an application to the court on her own behalf. After a dispute between her mother and the medical officer over her treatment, an application was made to the county . .
Cited – In re PS (an Adult), Re; City of Sunderland v PS by her litigation friend the Offcial Solcicitor and CA; Re PS (Incapacitated or Vulnerable Adult) FD 9-Mar-2007
The patient an elderly lady with limited mental capacity was to be returned from hospital, but her daughter said she was to come home. The local authority sought to prevent this, wanting to return her to a residential unit where she had lived for . .
Cited – In Re F (Adult: Court’s Jurisdiction) CA 25-Jul-2000
The local authority sought a declaration as to its rights to control the daily activities of an eighteen year old, who was incapable of managing her own affairs but was not subject to mental health legislation.
Held: There remained an inherent . .
Cited – Rabone and Another v Pennine Care NHS Trust CA 21-Jun-2010
The claimant’s daughter had committed suicide after being given home leave on a secure ward by the respondent mental hospital. A claim in negligence had been settled, but the parents now appealed refusal of their claim that the hospital had failed . .
At HL – HL v United Kingdom ECHR 10-Sep-2002
(Admissibility) Whether a detention amounts to a deprivation of liberty depends upon all the facts and circumstances of the particular case . .
Cited – G v E and Others CoP 26-Mar-2010
E Was born with and still suffered severe learning difficulties. The court was asked as to the extent of his capacity to make decisions, and as to where he should live, with a family member, the carer or with the local authority, which had removed . .
Cited – Nicklinson v Ministry of Justice and Others QBD 12-Mar-2012
The claimant suffered locked-in syndrome and sought relief in a form which would allow others to assist him in committing suicide. The court considered whether the case should be allowed to proceed rather than to be struck out as hopeless.
Cited – Re DE, JE v DE, Surrey County Council and EW FD 29-Dec-2006
JE, wife of DE, who had been taken into residential care by the Local authority, said that the authority had infringed his Article 5 and 8 rights on transferring him between homes. The authority asserted that he did not have mental capacity. She . .
At HL – L v United Kingdom ECHR 5-Oct-2004
The claimant had suffered mental illness and threatened to hurt himself. He was taken into hospital as a voluntary patient, but in effect detained compulsorily. He lacked capacity to consent to medical treatment.
Held: The holding of a patient . .
Cited – Jalloh, Regina (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department SC 12-Feb-2020
Claim for damages for false imprisonment brought in judicial review proceedings challenging the legality of a curfew imposed upon the claimant, purportedly under paragraph 2(5) of Schedule 3 to the Immigration Act 1971.
Held: The Court of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Health, Health Professions, Torts – Other

Updated: 05 June 2022; Ref: scu.135169

Walker v The Commissioner of The Police of The Metropolis: CA 1 Jul 2014

The minimal extent of a person’s detention by a police officer who was not exercising the power of arrest would not prevent his detention from being unlawful and amounting to false imprisonment. It was held to be false imprisonment for a police officer to stand in the front doorway of a house so as to prevent the claimant from leaving, even for a very short time, but it was not a deprivation of liberty within the meaning of article 5.

Judges:

Rimer, Tomlinson LJJ, Sir Bernard Rix

Citations:

[2014] EWCA Civ 897, [2014] WLR(D) 289, [2015] 1 WLR 312, [2015] 1 Cr App R 22

Links:

Bailii, WLRD

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Jalloh, Regina (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department SC 12-Feb-2020
Claim for damages for false imprisonment brought in judicial review proceedings challenging the legality of a curfew imposed upon the claimant, purportedly under paragraph 2(5) of Schedule 3 to the Immigration Act 1971.
Held: The Court of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Police, Torts – Other, Human Rights

Updated: 05 June 2022; Ref: scu.533673

Smith (Administrator of Cosslett (Contractors) Limited) v Bridgend County Borough Council; In re Cosslett (Contractors) Ltd: HL 8 Nov 2001

The standard building contract allowed a contractor to take plant and equipment from a site and sell it in payment of sums due under the contract, upon the other contractor becoming insolvent. It was said that this power amounted to a charge over the company’s assets, and should have registered at Companies House. Upon entering receivership, the contractor vacated the site, but the respondent found another contractor to continue the work using the same substantial equipment. The contractor’s receiver alleged the contract was void for non-registration.
Held: The clause operated as a floating charge, and was void as against the liquidator or administrator. It should have been registered.

Judges:

Lord Hoffmann, Lords Bingham, Browne-Wilkinson and Rodger; Lord Scott (dissenting)

Citations:

[2001] UKHL 58, [2002] 1 AC 336, 80 Con LR 172, [2001] 3 WLR 1347, [2002] 1 All ER 292, [2002] 1 BCLC 77, [2002] TCLR 7, [2001] BCC 740, [2002] BLR 160, [2001] NPC 161

Links:

House of Lords, Bailii

Statutes:

Companies Act 1985 395

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Independent Automatic Sales Ltd v Knowles and Foster ChD 1962
The company in liquidation had sold machines on hire-purchase. It sued the finance company to recover hire-purchase agreements and other securities which it had charged to secure the repayment of advances. When the finance company relied upon the . .
Appeal from – Smith (Administrator of Cosslett (Contractors) Ltd) v Bridgend County Borough Council CA 19-Jan-2000
. .

Cited by:

Cited – Marcq v Christie, Manson and Woods Ltd CA 23-May-2003
The claimant’s stolen painting was put up for sale by the defendant. On being withdrawn, they returned it to the person who had brought it in. The claimant sought damages.
Held: There was no reported case in which a court has had to consider . .
Cited – Burton (Collector of Taxes) v Mellham Ltd HL 15-Feb-2006
The claimant sought interest on an overpayment of Advance Corporation Tax. The tax itself had been paid late, and the Collector claimed a set off.
Held: The claim to DTR could not be described as an attempt at self-help. It had a statutory . .
Cited – Online Catering Ltd v Acton and Another CA 10-Feb-2010
The claimant agreed for the defendant to repair its fleet of vehicles. The defendant, having fees outstanding, entered the claimants’ premises and removed vehicles saying falsely that they were to be repaired, and then refused to return them. The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Company, Construction, Torts – Other

Updated: 04 June 2022; Ref: scu.166805

British Midland Tool Ltd v Midland International Tooling Ltd and Others: ChD 12 Mar 2003

The claimant sought damages for conspiracy and other torts and breaches of duty against the defendants.

Judges:

Hart J

Citations:

[2003] EWHC 466 (Ch), [2003] 2 BCLC 523

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – G D Searle and Co Ltd v Celltech Ltd CA 1982
The court was asked as to an employee’s covenant now said to be in restraint of trade.
Held: In disputes between employers and ex-employees courts will usually seek to protect the rights of employees to advance their chosen trade and . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Intellectual Property

Updated: 04 June 2022; Ref: scu.431760

Mead Corporation and Another v Riverwood Multiple Packaging Division of Riverwood Etc: ChD 28 Mar 1997

The Court must have evidence of a foreign company’s involvement in an infringement before a joinder could be ordered.

Judges:

Laddie J

Citations:

Times 28-Mar-1997, [1997] FSR 484

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Sea Shepherd UK v Fish and Fish Ltd SC 4-Mar-2015
Accessory Liability in Tort
The court considered the concept of accessory liability in tort. Activists had caused damage to vessels of the respondent which was transporting live tuna in cages, and had caused considerable damage. The appellant company owned the ship from which . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Intellectual Property, Torts – Other

Updated: 04 June 2022; Ref: scu.83587

Fox, Campbell and Hartley v The United Kingdom: ECHR 30 Aug 1990

The court considered the required basis for a reasonable suspicion to found an arrest without a warrant: ‘The ‘reasonableness’ of the suspicion on which an arrest must be based forms an essential part of the safeguard against arbitrary arrest and detention which is laid down in Article 5(1)(c). The court agrees with the Commission and the government that having a ‘reasonable suspicion’ presupposes the existence of facts or information which would satisfy an objective observer that the person concerned may have committed the offence. What may be regarded as ‘reasonable’ will however depend upon all the circumstances.’
As to the duty to inform a suspect about the reason and purpose of hs arrest: ‘Paragraph (2) of Article 5 contains the elementary safeguard that any person arrested should know why he is being deprived of his liberty. This protection is an integral part of the scheme of protection afforded by Article 5: by virtue of paragraph (2) any person arrested must be told in simple, non-technical language that he can understand, the essential legal and factual grounds for his arrest, so as to be able, if he sees fit, to apply to a court to challenge its lawfulness in accordance with paragraph (4). Whilst this information must be conveyed ‘promptly’ (in French: ‘dans le plus court delai’), it need not be related in its entirety by the arresting officer at the very moment of the arrest. Whether the content and promptness of the information conveyed were sufficient is to be assessed in each case according to its special features.’
ECHR Judgment (Merits) – Violation of Art. 5-1; No violation of Art. 5-2; Violation of Art. 5-5; Not necessary to examine Art. 5-4 and 13; Just satisfaction reserved.

Citations:

12244/86, 12245/86, (1990) 13 EHRR 157, [1990] ECHR 18, 12383/86

Links:

Worldlii, Bailii

Statutes:

European Convention on Human Rights 5(2)

Jurisdiction:

Human Rights

Cited by:

Cited – Cumming and others v Chief Constable of Northumbria Police CA 17-Dec-2003
The six claimants sought damages for wrongful arrest and false imprisonment. Each had been arrested on an officer’s suspicion. They operated CCTV equipment, and it appeared that tapes showing the commission of an offence had been tampered with. Each . .
Cited – Taylor (A Child Proceeding By his Mother and Litigation Friend C M Taylor) v Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police CA 6-Jul-2004
The Chief Constable appealed aganst a finding that his officers had wrongfully arrested and imprisoned the claimant. The claimant was 10 years old when arrested, and complained that the officers had not properly advised him of the nature and purpose . .
Cited – Al-Fayed and others v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis and others CA 25-Nov-2004
The appellants appealed from dismissal of their claims for wrongful imprisonment by the respondent. Each had attended at a police station for interview on allegations of theft. They had been arrested and held pending interview and then released. Mr . .
Cited – A v Secretary of State for the Home Department, and X v Secretary of State for the Home Department HL 16-Dec-2004
The applicants had been imprisoned and held without trial, being suspected of international terrorism. No criminal charges were intended to be brought. They were foreigners and free to return home if they wished, but feared for their lives if they . .
Cited – Hough v Chief Constable of Staffordshire Police CA 14-Feb-2001
Where a constable arrested someone based upon information on the police national computer, he was not to be held accountable for wrongful arrest and false imprisonment, if the information upon which that had in turn been based, did not justify the . .
Cited – Secretary of State for the Home Department v AF AM and AN etc CA 17-Oct-2008
The claimants were subject to non-derogating control orders, being non EU nationals suspected of terrorism. They now said that they had not had a compatible hearing as to the issue of whether they were in fact involved in terrorist activity.
See Also – Fox, Campbell And Hartley v The United Kingdom ECHR 27-Mar-1991
ECHR Judgment (Just Satisfaction) – Costs and expenses award – Convention proceedings; Pecuniary damage – claim rejected; Non-pecuniary damage – finding of violation sufficient. . .
Cited – Sher and Others v Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police and Others Admn 21-Jul-2010
The claimants, Pakistani students in the UK on student visas, had been arrested and held by the defendants under the 2000 Act before being released 13 days later without charge. They were at first held incognito. They said that their arrest and . .
Cited – McCann v Crown Prosecution Service Admn 21-Aug-2015
Appeal by case stated against conviction for obstructing a police officer in the execution of his duty. The appellant had been protesting. She, correctly, thought the land to be a rivate highway. The police officer had thought it a public hghway and . .
Cited – Lee-Hirons v Secretary of State for Justice SC 27-Jul-2016
The appellant had been detained in a mental hospital after a conviction. Later released, he was recalled, but he was not given written reasons as required by a DoH circular. However the SS referred the recall immediately to the Tribunal. He appealed . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Human Rights, Police, Torts – Other

Updated: 04 June 2022; Ref: scu.165079

McGrath v Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and Another: HL 12 Jul 2001

Police were not liable for false imprisonment after arresting a person named in a warrant which had been issued by another police force as a result of one person who was arrested falsely giving the other person’s name. The warrant might have been capable of being struck out as being founded on a mistake of mistake, but it remained valid until it was recalled or cancelled. To comply with the section, and to be absolved from liability the words only required to assert that the person in fact arrested had in fact been charged. It was not necessary to establish that the person named had been charged. The warrant would have been valid in the home jurisdiction, and should be valid within other jurisdictions within the British Isles.
Lord Clyde said that as to an arrest warrant: ‘The warrants must be sufficiently clear and precise in their terms so that all those interested in their execution may know precisely what are the limits of the power which has been granted.’

Judges:

Lord Steyn, Lord Browne-Wilkinson, Lord Cooke of Thorndon, Lord Clyde, Lord Hutton

Citations:

Times 13-Jul-2001, [2001] UKHL 39, [2001] 2 AC 731, [2001] 4 All ER 334, [2001] NI 303, [2001] 3 WLR 312

Links:

Bailii, House of Lords

Statutes:

Criminal Law Act 1977 38(3)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Faisaltex Ltd and others, Regina (on the Application of) v Crown Court Sitting at Preston and others etc Admn 21-Nov-2008
Nine claimants sought leave to bring judicial review of the issue of search warrants against solicitors’ and business and other premises, complaining of the seizure of excluded material and of special procedure material. There were suspicions of the . .
Cited – Global Cash and Carry Ltd, Regina (on The Application of) v Birmingham Magistrates’ Court and Others Admn 19-Feb-2013
The claimant sought an order quashing a search warrant, and for damages. The officer had said that he had evidence that the claimants were storing an distributing from the premises large quantities of counterfeit goods and drugs.
Held: The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Police, Torts – Other, Northern Ireland

Updated: 04 June 2022; Ref: scu.162912

Edwards v Lloyd’s TSB Bank plc: ChD 2004

A contract in which one co-owner’s signature has been forged by the other is not a nullity but remains valid in relation to the fraudulent co-owner.

Citations:

[2004] EWHC 1745 (Ch)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Bowling and Co Solicitors v Edehomo ChD 2-Mar-2011
The court was asked ‘when an innocent vendor whose signature is forged on the documents for the conveyance of land suffers damage, for the purposes of limitation of an action arising from a solicitor’s breach of duty. Is it on the exchange of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Contract, Torts – Other

Updated: 04 June 2022; Ref: scu.430276

Sabaf Spa v MFI Furniture Centres Ltd and Managhetti Spa: ChD 31 Jul 2001

The claimant owned a patent on certain features of a cooking hob, and complained that the defendants had imported infringing designs. The defendant challenged the patent for obviousness.
Held: Both of the inventive features relied upon to support the patent were obvious in the light of the prior art. The argument that a combination would lack an inventive step only if it was obvious to combine the two obvious features was rejected since this would ‘turn the law of collocation on its head.’ It was difficult to reconcile the collocation rule with the procedure adopted in the Windsurfing case.
Laddie discussed the idea of joint tortfeasors: ‘The underlying concept for joint tortfeasance must be that the joint tortfeasor has been so involved in the commission of the tort as to make himself liable for the tort. Unless he has made the infringing act his own, he has not himself committed the tort. That notion seems to us what underlies all the decisions to which we were referred. If there is a common design or concerted action or otherwise a combination to secure the doing of the infringing acts, then each of the combiners has made the act his own and will be liable. Like the judge, we do not think that what was done by Meneghetti was sufficient. It was merely acting as a supplier of goods to a purchaser which was free to do what it wanted with the goods. Meneghetti did not thereby make MFI’s infringing acts its own.’

Judges:

The Hon Mr Justice Laddie

Citations:

[2002] EWCA Civ 976, [2003] RPC 264

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appealed to – SABAF SpA v MFI Furniture Centres Ltd and Another CA 11-Jul-2002
The appellant challenged dismissal of its claim for patent infringement. The judge had held that the design was obvious, involving essentially only the collocation of two known features.
Held: Collocation was no more than a species of . .
Cited – British Celanese Ltd v Courtaulds Ltd HL 1835
The House described the law governing the bring together of two elements to form a patentable invention: ‘a mere placing side by side of old integers so that each performs its own proper function independently of any of the others is not a . .
Cited – Windsurfing International Inc v Tabur Marine (Great Britain) Limited CA 1985
Testing Validity of a Patent
A patent was challenged where the windsurf board had been shown as a primitive prototype to have been built and used in public by a twelve year old boy. The court set out the four steps required to be taken when ascertaining the validity of a . .

Cited by:

Appeal from – SABAF SpA v MFI Furniture Centres Ltd and Another CA 11-Jul-2002
The appellant challenged dismissal of its claim for patent infringement. The judge had held that the design was obvious, involving essentially only the collocation of two known features.
Held: Collocation was no more than a species of . .
Cited – Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Another v Newzbin Ltd ChD 29-Mar-2010
The defendant operated a web-site providing a search facility of the Usenet news system which allowed its users to locate copies of films online for downloading. The claimant said this was an infringement of its copyrights.
Held: The defendant . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Intellectual Property, Torts – Other

Updated: 04 June 2022; Ref: scu.159889

Forse and Others v Secarma Ltd and Others: CA 13 Mar 2019

One defendant appealed from an interim springboard injunction against the appellants. The appellants are among a larger group of defendants alleged to be liable to the respondents for the tort of conspiracy to injure by unlawful means.

Citations:

[2019] EWCA Civ 215

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Torts – Other, Litigation Practice

Updated: 03 June 2022; Ref: scu.634759

Wiffen v Bailey and Romford Urban District Council: CA 1915

Non-compliance with a Public Health Act 1875 notice did not necessarily and naturally involve damage to the defendant’s fair name.
Buckley LJ summarised the effect of the Quartz Hill case: ‘So the exception of civil proceedings, so far as they are excepted, depends, not upon any essential difference between civil and criminal proceedings, but upon the fact that in civil proceedings the poison and the antidote are presented simultaneously. The publicity of the proceedings is accompanied by the refutation of the unfounded charge, if it be unfounded, which was made. If there be no scandal, if there be no danger of loss of life, limb, or liberty, if there be no pecuniary damage, the action will not lie.’
Phillimore LJ added that an action for malicious prosecution of civil proceedings lies only when ‘the bane comes before the antidote, and mischief may be done which it will be too late to overtake’.

Judges:

Buckley, Phillimore LJJ

Citations:

[1915] 1 KB 600

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Williamson v The Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago PC 3-Sep-2014
(Trinidad and Tobago) The claimant had been held after arrest on suspicion of theft. He was held for several months before the case was dismissed, the posecution having made no apparent attempt to further the prosecution. He appealed against refusal . .
Cited – Willers v Joyce and Another (Re: Gubay (Deceased) No 1) SC 20-Jul-2016
Parties had been involved in an action for wrongful trading. This was not persisted with but the claimant sought damages saying that the action was only part of a campaign to do him harm. This appeal raised the question whether the tort of malicious . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other

Updated: 02 June 2022; Ref: scu.536471

Crawford Adjusters and Others v Sagicor General Insurance (Cayman) Ltd and Another: PC 13 Jun 2013

(Cayman Islands) A hurricane had damaged property insured by the respondent company. The company employed the appellant as loss adjustor, but came to suspect advance payments recommended by him, and eventually claimed damages for deceit and conspiracy. The action was discontinued when evidence was provided to support the payments, and the first instance court supported allegations of abuse of process and malicious prosecution. An officer of the insurance company was alleged to have a strong personal animus toward the claimant. On appeal the insurers succeeded, the court saying that the tort of malicious prosecution was restricted to criminal proceedings.
Held: On those facts the judge was wrong to dismiss the claim for malicious prosecution. Though the insurers were not liable for abuse of process, the tort of malicious prosecution could apply to civil proceedings (Neuberger and Sumption LL dissenting).

Judges:

Lord Neuberger, Lady Hale, Lord Kerr, Lord Wilson, Lord Sumption

Citations:

[2013] UKPC 17, [2013] 4 All ER 8, [2013] WLR(D) 229, [2014] 1 AC 366, [2013] 3 WLR 927, [2013] 6 Costs LO 826

Links:

Bailii, WLRD, Bailii Summary

Jurisdiction:

Commonwealth

Citing:

Cited – Gray v Dight 1677
C successfully sued D for having maliciously prosecuted him in the ecclesiastical court, as a result of which he had been excommunicated. ‘And resolved the action lies though nothing ensued but an excommunication, and no [arrest], nor any express . .
Cited – Bulwer And Smiths Case 1687
Knowing that C owed H andpound;20 under a judgment debt and that H had died, D unlawfully arrogated H’s name to himself and thereby maliciously caused C to be outlawed for non-payment of the debt, as a result of which he was imprisoned for two . .
Cited – Savile v Roberts 1792
D had maliciously caused C to be indicted for riot. Following his acquittal C sued D for malicious prosecution. The court affirmed the judgment which had been given for C.
Held: It was irrelevant that D had not been part of a conspiracy. An . .
Cited – Savile v Roberts 1795
Case for causing and maliciously procuring the plaintiff to be indicted for a riot. It was held by Holt, Chief Justice, it is not sufficient that the plaintiff prove he was innocent but he must prove express malice in the defendant; he likewise . .
Cited – Stevens v The Midland Counties Railway Company And Lander 22-Jun-1854
Quaere, whether an action for a malicious prosecution will lie against a corporation aggregate? Per Alderson, B., that it will not.
It has to be shown that the prosecutor’s motives is for a purpose other than bringing a person to justice. . .
Cited – Berry v British Transport Commission QBD 1961
Although in civil cases extra costs incurred in excess of the sum allowed on taxation could not be recovered as damages, the Court was not compelled to extend that rule (based as it is on a somewhat dubious presumption) to criminal proceedings in . .
Cited – Gibbs and others v Rea PC 29-Jan-1998
(Cayman Islands) The respondent worked for a bank. He disclosed a business interest, but that interest grew in importance to the point where he resigned in circumstances amounting to constructive dismissal. His home and business officers were raided . .
Cited – Gregory v Portsmouth City Council HL 10-Feb-2000
Disciplinary proceedings had been taken by the local authority against Mr Gregory, a council member, after allegations had been made that he had failed to declare conflicts of interest, and that he had used confidential information to secure a . .
Cited – Gujra, Regina (on The Application of) v Crown Prosecution Service SC 14-Nov-2012
The appellant had twice begun private prosecutions only to have them taken over by the CPS and discontinued. He complained that a change in their policy on such interventions interfered with his statutory and constitutional right to bring such a . .
Cited – Gilding v Eyre And Another CCP 8-Jul-1861
After getting judgment against the plaintiff for a debt, and substantial repayment of it by him, the defendant issued a writ of execution for the full amount of the debt, in consequence of which the plaintiff was arrested by the sheriff’s officers. . .
Cited – Johnson v Emerson 1871
Cleasby B recognised that the tort of malicious prosecution could be committed in the malicious presentation of a winding up petition. The effect of presentation of such a petition was immediately damaging to the company which was the subject of the . .
Cited – Quartz Hill Consolidated Gold Mining Co v Eyre CA 26-Jun-1883
The court considered whether an action lay without proof of special damage for maliciously presenting a winding up petition.
Held: There was. Though there was no general cause of action for maliciously bringing civil proceedings without . .
Cited – The Walter D Wallet 1893
The vessel was arrested by a defendant who had been, but no longer was, a part owner of the vessel, having forgotten or forgotten the importance of that fact.
Held: Procuring the wrongful arrest of a ship can found a cause of action similar to . .
Cited – Clissold v Cratchley CA 1910
A solicitor had sued out a Writ of fi.fa on an order in favour of his client, unaware that the debt had been paid at the country office of the solicitor, prior to the writ being issued.
Held: An action in tort will be available for setting in . .
Cited – Roy v Prior HL 1970
The court considered an alleged tort of maliciously procuring an arrest. The plaintiff had been arrested under a bench warrant issued as a result of evidence given by the defendant. He sued the defendant for damages for malicious arrest.
Held: . .
Cited – Mayor of Bradford v Pickles HL 29-Jul-1895
The plaintiffs sought an injunction to prevent the defendant interfering with the supply of water to the city. He would have done so entirely by actions on his own land.
Held: The plaintiffs could have no property in the water until it came on . .

Cited by:

Cited – Williamson v The Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago PC 3-Sep-2014
(Trinidad and Tobago) The claimant had been held after arrest on suspicion of theft. He was held for several months before the case was dismissed, the posecution having made no apparent attempt to further the prosecution. He appealed against refusal . .
Cited – Singh v Moorlands Primary School and Another CA 25-Jul-2013
The claimant was a non-white head teacher, alleging that her school governors and local authority had undermined and had ‘deliberately endorsed a targeted campaign of discrimination, bullying, harassment and victimisation’ against her as an Asian . .
Cited – Crawford v Jenkins CA 24-Jul-2014
The parties had divorced but acrimony continued. H now complained of his arrests after allegations from his former wife that he had breached two orders. He had been released and no charges followed. The court had ruled that W’s complaints were . .
Not Followed – Willers v Gubay ChD 15-May-2015
The court was asked whether the tort of malicious prosecution of civil proceedings is known to English law.
Held: The Crawfod Adjusters case should not be followed: ‘If I am not bound by Gregory, then I see no reason for departing from the . .
Cited – Willers v Joyce and Another (Re: Gubay (Deceased) No 1) SC 20-Jul-2016
Parties had been involved in an action for wrongful trading. This was not persisted with but the claimant sought damages saying that the action was only part of a campaign to do him harm. This appeal raised the question whether the tort of malicious . .
Cited – Willers v Joyce and Another (Re: Gubay (Deceased) No 2) SC 20-Jul-2016
The Court was asked whether and in what circumstances a lower court may follow a decision of the Privy Council which has reached a different conclusion from that of the House of Lords (or the Supreme Court or Court of Appeal) on an earlier occasion. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other

Updated: 02 June 2022; Ref: scu.510849

Churchill v Siggers: 9 Jun 1854

Lord Campbell CJ explained the basis of tortious liability for bringing proceedings maliciously and without reasonable or probable cause: ‘To put into force the process of the law maliciously and without any reasonable or probable cause is wrongful; and, if thereby another is prejudiced in property or person, there is that conjunction of injury and loss which is the foundation of an action on the case. Process of execution on a judgment seeking to obtain satisfaction for the sum recovered is prima facie lawful; and the creditor cannot be rendered liable to an action, the debtor merely alleging and proving that the judgment had been partly satisfied and that execution was sued out for a larger sum than remained due upon the judgment. Without malice and the want of probable cause, the only remedy for the judgment debtor is to apply to the Court or a Judge that he may be discharged, and that satisfaction may be entered up on payment of the balance justly due. But it would not be creditable to our jurisprudence if the debtor had no remedy by action where his person or his goods have been taken in execution for a larger sum than remained due on the judgment, this having been done by the creditor maliciously and without reasonable or probable cause: i.e. the creditor well knowing that the sum for which execution is sued out is excessive, and his motive being to oppress and injure the debtor. The Court or Judge, to whom a summary application is made for the debtor’s liberation, can give no redress beyond putting an end to the process of execution on payment of the sum due, although, by the excess, the debtor may have suffered long imprisonment and have been utterly ruined in his circumstances.’

Judges:

Lord Campbell CJ

Citations:

[1854] EngR 606, (1854) 3 El and Bl 929, (1854) 118 ER 1389

Links:

Commonlii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Crawford v Jenkins CA 24-Jul-2014
The parties had divorced but acrimony continued. H now complained of his arrests after allegations from his former wife that he had breached two orders. He had been released and no charges followed. The court had ruled that W’s complaints were . .
Cited – Willers v Joyce and Another (Re: Gubay (Deceased) No 1) SC 20-Jul-2016
Parties had been involved in an action for wrongful trading. This was not persisted with but the claimant sought damages saying that the action was only part of a campaign to do him harm. This appeal raised the question whether the tort of malicious . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other

Updated: 02 June 2022; Ref: scu.293463

Cotterell v Jones And Ablett: 25 Nov 1851

A claim was made against two third parties for maliciously commencing an unfounded action against the plaintiff using the name of Osborne, and knowing him to be a pauper. The action was non-suited without, so far as appeared, any order for costs being made against Osborne who was insolvent.
Held: The court evinced scepticism about the proposition that injury to property in putting a person to needless expense could ground a claim for malicious pursuit of a civil claim. The claim failed because no judgment for costs had, for whatever reason, been obtained against Osborne, so that his insolvency was not shown to have been causative of any inability to recover costs. But the court endorsed the proposition, which was evidently common ground, that in the ordinary case costs not recoverable in the action cannot be recovered in an action for malicious pursuit of the action.
Jervis CJ said ‘I doubt whether we can take notice of the alleged insolvency of the nominal plaintiff in the former action: the costs must be assumed to be a full compensation for the vexation.’
and: ‘It is conceded also, that, if the party so wrongfully put forward as plaintiff in the former action had been a person in solvent circumstances, this action could not have been maintained, inasmuch as the award of costs to the defendant (the now plaintiff) upon the failure of that action, would, in contemplation of law, have been a full compensation to him for the unjust vexation, and consequently he would have sustained no damage.’
Maule J said: ‘It is conceded that this action could not be maintained in respect of extra costs, that is, costs ultra the costs given by the statute (23 H 8, chapter 15, section 1) to a successful defendant.’
Talfourd J said: ‘It appears from the whole current of authorities, that an action of this description, if maintainable at all, is only maintainable in respect of legal damage actually sustained; and that the mere expenditure of money by the plaintiff in the defence of the action brought against him does not constitute such legal damage; but that the only measure of damage is, the costs ascertained by the usual course of law. There being no averment in this declaration that any such costs were incurred or awarded, no legal ground is disclosed for the maintenance of the action.’

Judges:

Jervis CJ, Maule, Williams and Talfourd JJ

Citations:

[1851] EngR 927, (1851) 11 CB 713, (1851) 138 ER 655

Links:

Commonlii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Willers v Joyce and Another (Re: Gubay (Deceased) No 1) SC 20-Jul-2016
Parties had been involved in an action for wrongful trading. This was not persisted with but the claimant sought damages saying that the action was only part of a campaign to do him harm. This appeal raised the question whether the tort of malicious . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other

Updated: 02 June 2022; Ref: scu.297243

Savile v Roberts: 1792

D had maliciously caused C to be indicted for riot. Following his acquittal C sued D for malicious prosecution. The court affirmed the judgment which had been given for C.
Held: It was irrelevant that D had not been part of a conspiracy. An action lies for a malicious indictment which puts the party to expence though the charge it contains neither scandalizes him or endangers his personal security.
The Chief Justice observed, subject to what was later added, that, where a civil action was sued without cause, no action would lie in favour of the successful defendant; for, in civil as opposed to in criminal proceedings, claimants had been required to post pledges which could be drawn down in favour of victims of false claims and, more recently, they could be ordered to pay costs to their victims directly. He added that ‘if A sues an action against B for mere vexation, in some cases upon particular damage B may have an action; but it is not enough to say that A sued him falso et malitiose, but he must show the matter of the grievance specially, so that it may appear to the Court to be manifestly vexatious’.

Judges:

Holt CJ

Citations:

[1792] EngR 2096, (1792) 1 Ld Raym 374, (1792) 91 ER 1147

Links:

Commonlii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

See Also – Savile v Roberts 1795
Case for causing and maliciously procuring the plaintiff to be indicted for a riot. It was held by Holt, Chief Justice, it is not sufficient that the plaintiff prove he was innocent but he must prove express malice in the defendant; he likewise . .
Cited – Crawford Adjusters and Others v Sagicor General Insurance (Cayman) Ltd and Another PC 13-Jun-2013
(Cayman Islands) A hurricane had damaged property insured by the respondent company. The company employed the appellant as loss adjustor, but came to suspect advance payments recommended by him, and eventually claimed damages for deceit and . .
Cited – Williamson v The Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago PC 3-Sep-2014
(Trinidad and Tobago) The claimant had been held after arrest on suspicion of theft. He was held for several months before the case was dismissed, the posecution having made no apparent attempt to further the prosecution. He appealed against refusal . .
Cited – Willers v Joyce and Another (Re: Gubay (Deceased) No 1) SC 20-Jul-2016
Parties had been involved in an action for wrongful trading. This was not persisted with but the claimant sought damages saying that the action was only part of a campaign to do him harm. This appeal raised the question whether the tort of malicious . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other

Updated: 02 June 2022; Ref: scu.360308

Sinclair v Eldred: 19 Jun 1811

The plaintiff had been arrested on a bill of Middlesex, a device allowing civil proceedings to be commenced in the Court of King’s Bench (rather than the Common Pleas) under the fiction that a trespass had been committed in the County of Middlesex. The bill was indorsed for bail for pounds 10, which the plaintiff’s attorney undertook whereupon the plaintiff was released. The defendant allowed the claim to lapse. The plaintiff had by then incurred costs of 13 guineas, but was only allowed pounds 4 4s 6d, leaving him out of pocket for pounds 9, which he claimed to recover.
Held: The claim failed, for want of evidence of malice, but Mansfield CJ said during submissions:
‘The plaintiff has recovered already in the shape of taxed costs all the costs which the law allows, and it cannot be that an action may be sustained for the surplus.’ and he added:
‘This is certainly a new species of action, I mean considering it as an action to recover the extra costs, for there was no proof of any inconvenience of any sort arising to the plaintiff, except in the payment of more costs than the law allows him, and which therefore he ought not to recover.’

Judges:

Mansfield CJ

Citations:

[1811] EngR 377, (1811) 4 Taunt 7, (1811) 128 ER 229

Links:

Commonlii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Willers v Joyce and Another (Re: Gubay (Deceased) No 1) SC 20-Jul-2016
Parties had been involved in an action for wrongful trading. This was not persisted with but the claimant sought damages saying that the action was only part of a campaign to do him harm. This appeal raised the question whether the tort of malicious . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other

Updated: 02 June 2022; Ref: scu.339461

Purton v Honnor: 6 Feb 1798

The claim was for damages for vexatious ejectment. On ‘the court expressing themselves clearly of opinion on the authority of Savile v Roberts 1 Salk 13, that such an action was not maintainable’, counsel for the plaintiff declined to argue the point. The report at 1 Salk 13 is very brief and confined to the proposition that ‘it is not sufficient that the plaintiff prove he was innocent, but he must prove express malice in the defendant’

Citations:

[1798] EngR 40, (1798) 1 Bos and Pul 205, (1798) 126 ER 861 (A)

Links:

Commonlii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Willers v Joyce and Another (Re: Gubay (Deceased) No 1) SC 20-Jul-2016
Parties had been involved in an action for wrongful trading. This was not persisted with but the claimant sought damages saying that the action was only part of a campaign to do him harm. This appeal raised the question whether the tort of malicious . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other

Updated: 02 June 2022; Ref: scu.348790

Constantin Medien Ag v Ecclestone and Others: ChD 22 Jul 2013

The claimant wished to allege the payment of a bribe by the defendants inducing the sale of a part of its shareholding in the F1 Group, and now sought advanced disclosure of certain documentation.
Held: The application was dismissed as against the first defendant.

Judges:

Vos J

Citations:

[2013] EWHC 2674 (Ch)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Torts – Other, Litigation Practice

Updated: 02 June 2022; Ref: scu.569402

Berezovsky v Abramovich (Summary): ChD 31 Aug 2012

Gloster J summarised what had faced her in this complex and substantial claim: ‘at the core of the dispute between the parties were four highly contentious alleged oral agreements, relating to substantial assets which, if established, had serious financial and commercial consequences for the alleged parties to those agreements. Every, or almost every, aspect of the alleged agreements was in dispute. Significantly there were no contemporaneous notes, memoranda or other documents recording the making of these alleged agreements or referring to their terms. Such documents as were relied upon by Mr. Berezovsky as circumstantial evidence supporting his case, were usually (but not invariably) considerably later in origin than the alleged agreements; not documents that were communicated to Mr. Abramovich or his representatives; and were documents which were open to various interpretations as to whether they were supportive of Mr. Berezovsky’s case.
Second, the oral evidence relating to such claims was extremely stale. The court was being asked, in effect, to make findings based on limited direct evidence relating to events which occurred many years ago. In a case which is dependent upon establishing oral agreements, evidence relating to events which occurred a long time ago necessarily gives rise to particular problems. Apart from the fact that, not surprisingly, it is often difficult for witnesses to remember what happened many years ago, and they can rarely be expected to remember the specific words which they used, witnesses can easily persuade themselves that their recollection of what happened is the correct one.
Third, that problem was compounded in this case by the fact there had been substantial summary judgment proceedings, followed by the appeal to the Court of Appeal, during the course of which round after round of evidence was produced by various witnesses on each side. Given the substantial resources of the parties, and the serious allegations of dishonesty, the case was heavily lawyered on both sides. That meant that no evidential stone was left unturned, unaddressed or unpolished. Those features, not surprisingly, resulted in shifts or changes in the parties’ evidence or cases, as the lawyers microscopically examined each aspect of the evidence and acquired a greater in-depth understanding of the facts. It also led to some scepticism on the court’s part as to whether the lengthy witness statements reflected more the industrious work product of the lawyers, than the actual evidence of the witnesses.
Fourth, the lapse of time and staleness of the claims also gave rise to the inevitable problem that the court did not have before it all the evidence which it might otherwise have done, had the dispute been resolved nearer the time that the alleged oral agreements had been made, rather than 16 years after they were alleged to have been concluded.
Fifth, the burden of proof was on Mr. Berezovsky to establish his claims. As the only witness, on his side, who could give direct oral evidence of the making of the alleged agreements or the alleged threats, the evidential burden on him was substantial. Ultimately, it was for Mr. Berezovsky to convince the court, on the balance of probabilities, that the alleged oral agreements and threats had indeed been made, not for Mr. Abramovich to convince the court otherwise.
Fifth, in the event this case fell to be decided almost exclusively on the facts; very few issues of law were involved. Because of the nature of the factual issues, the case was one where, in the ultimate analysis, the court had to decide whether to believe Mr. Berezovsky or Mr. Abramovich. It was not the type of case where the court was able to accept one party’s evidence in relation to one set of issues and the other party’s evidence in relation to another set of issues.’
The court preferred the evidence of Mr Abramovich.

Judges:

Gloster J

Citations:

[2012] EWHC B15 (Ch)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Torts – Other, Contract

Updated: 02 June 2022; Ref: scu.463798

St Paul Travelers Insurance Co Ltd v Okporuah and others: ChD 10 Aug 2006

The first defendant had acquired several properties, and was due to make repayments greatly in excess of his income. A further defendant, his brother, was a solicitor who was known to have been involved in mortgage fraud and was suspected of having additionally defrauded the first defendant. The first defendant said he was not to be tarred by his brother’s misdeeds.
Held: The effect of a possible later fraud between the defendants was not sufficient to obliterate the responsibiliity of the first defendant for his own actions. Furthermore the claim as between the first defendant and his co-defendants was dependant upon the results of his own fraud.

Judges:

Judge Hodge QC

Citations:

[2006] EWHC 2107 (Ch)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Regina v Lucas (Ruth) CACD 1981
People sometimes tell lies for reasons other than a belief that they are necessary to conceal guilt.
Four conditions were identified which must be satisfied before a defendant’s lie could be seen as supporting the prosecution case:-
(1) . .
Cited – EPI Environmental Technologies Inc and Another v Symphony Plastic Technologies Plc and Another ChD 21-Dec-2004
The claimant had developed an additive which would assist in making plastic bags bio-degradable. They alleged that, in breach of confidentiality agreements, the defendants had copied the product. The defendants said the confidentiality agreement was . .
Cited – In re H and R (Minors) (Child Sexual Abuse: Standard of Proof) HL 14-Dec-1995
Evidence allowed – Care Application after Abuse
Children had made allegations of serious sexual abuse against their step-father. He was acquitted at trial, but the local authority went ahead with care proceedings. The parents appealed against a finding that a likely risk to the children had still . .
Cited – Regina v Coutts HL 19-Jul-2006
The defendant was convicted of murder. Evidence during the trial suggested a possibility of manslaughter, but neither the defence nor prosecution proposed the alternate verdict. The defendant now appealed saying that the judge had an independent . .
Cited – Khaled Naser Hamoud Al-Sabah and Juan Jose Folchi Bonafonte v Grupo Torras SA CA 2-Nov-2000
The court discussed the approach to be taken when asked to act upon evidence which it found to be unreliable, though the witness’s credibility had not been destroyed. In a claim for dishonest assistance it is not necessary to show a precise causal . .
Cited – Conlon and Another v Simms ChD 9-Mar-2006
Partners in a solicitors practice fell out after one was struck off by the Law Society. The remaining partners claimed damages alleging that they had been drawn into the partnership after misrepresentations by the defendant about it, and sought to . .
Cited – Saunders v Edwards CA 24-Mar-1986
The parties had agreed for the sale and purchase of land and chattels, but had deliberately misdescribed the apportionment so as to reduce tax liability. The purchasers then brought an action for misrepresentation. The vendor replied that the action . .
Cited – Dubai Aluminium Company Limited v Salaam and Others HL 5-Dec-2002
Partners Liable for Dishonest Act of Solicitor
A solicitor had been alleged to have acted dishonestly, having assisted in a fraudulent breach of trust by drafting certain documents. Contributions to the damages were sought from his partners.
Held: The acts complained of were so close to . .
Cited – Man Nutzfahrzeuge Ag and others v Freightliner Ltd ComC 28-Oct-2005
. .
Cited – Sweetman v Nathan and others CA 25-Jul-2003
The claimant had been engaged with his solicitor in a fraudulent land transaction. He now sought to sue the solicitor for negligence. The solicitor replied that the claimant was unable to rely upon his own unlawful act to make a claim.
Held: . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other

Updated: 02 June 2022; Ref: scu.244508

Gibbs and others v Rea: PC 29 Jan 1998

(Cayman Islands) The respondent worked for a bank. He disclosed a business interest, but that interest grew in importance to the point where he resigned in circumstances amounting to constructive dismissal. His home and business officers were raided and searched by the police. Nothing incriminating was found. He claimed damages saying the search warrrant had been obtained maliciously.
Held: A new tort of the malicious procurement of search warrant was recognised. The tests were that the respondent had caused warrant to be issued; this had been without proper cause; he had acted with malice; and there had been damage resulting. The prosecutor had been silent when called on to justify the search, and it was proper to allow for that in drawing an inference of malice.

Judges:

Lord Goff of Chieveley, Lord Steyn, Lord Hope of Craighead, Lord Hutton, Mr. Justice Gault

Citations:

Times 04-Feb-1998, [1998] UKPC 3, [1998] AC 786

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

Commonwealth

Citing:

Cited – Cotton v James 30-Jun-1830
The burden of proof can shift during the course of a trial. Silence in circumstances in which a party would be expected to answer might convert evidence into proof. . .
Cited – Attorney General v Danhai Williams and others PC 12-May-1997
(Jamaica) Customs investigating officers on attended the appellant’s premises in the course of an investigation of fraudulent importation. The officers were met by a hostile crowd, and the claimant did not attend for interview as invited. A search . .
Cited – Arbrath v North Eastern Railway Co 1886
The burden of proof of a matter can shift during the course of a trial. . .
Cited – Maass v Gas Light and Coke Co CA 1911
Interrogatories to the defendant asking what grounds he had for prosecuting will, as a rule, be refused. . .
Cited – Regina v Inland Revenue Commissioners ex parte Rossminster Ltd HL 13-Dec-1979
The House considered the power of an officer of the Board of Inland Revenue to seize and remove materials found on premises which a warrant obtained on application to the Common Serjeant authorised him to enter and search; but where the source of . .
Cited – Elsee v Smith 1822
The court considered a claim that a search warrant had been issued for malice. . .
Cited – Brown v Hawkes CA 1891
The court considered the issue of malice as an element of malicious prosecution. It is a matter to be proved by the plaintiff or the case may be withdrawn, but in a proper case it may be inferred from want of reasonable and probable cause although . .
Cited – Glinski v McIver HL 1962
The court considered the tort of malicious prosecution when committed by a police officer, saying ‘But these cases must be carefully watched so as to see that there really is some evidence from his conduct that he knew it was a groundless charge.’ . .
Cited – Rhesa Shipping Co SA v Edmonds (The Popi M) HL 16-May-1985
The Popi M sank in calm seas and fair weather as a result of a large and sudden entry of water into her engine room through her shell plating. The vessel’s owners claimed against her hull and machinery underwriters, contending that the loss was . .
Cited – Hope v Evered 1886
It is an actionable wrong to procure the issue of a search warrant without reasonable cause and with malice. . .
Cited – Hicks v Faulkner 1878
Before charging a prisoner, a police officer must have ‘an honest belief in the guilt of the accused based upon a full conviction, founded upon reasonable grounds, of the existence of a state of circumstances, which, assuming them to be true, would . .
Cited – Herniman v Smith HL 1938
The court considered the tort of malicious prosecution.
Held: It is the duty of a prosecutor to find out not whether there is a possible defence, but whether there is a reasonable and probable cause for prosecution. The House approved the . .
Cited – Everett v Ribbands 1952
The court considered the tort of the malicious obtaining of a search warrant. . .
Cited – Roy v Prior HL 1970
The court considered an alleged tort of maliciously procuring an arrest. The plaintiff had been arrested under a bench warrant issued as a result of evidence given by the defendant. He sued the defendant for damages for malicious arrest.
Held: . .
Cited – Reynolds v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis 1985
A search warrant had been obtained under the 1913 Act. The court considered the existence of a tort of obtaining a search warrant maliciously.
Waller LJ discussed the problem facing police officers when a large volume of material were to be . .
Cited – Tan Soon Yin v Judge Cameron and Another PC 1992
The power at common law to impose a stay on a criminal matter is discretionary, and a stay ‘should only be employed in exceptional circumstances’.
The task for the courts is to decide: ‘whether, in all the circumstances, the situation created . .
Cited – Regina v Inland Revenue Commissioners, Ex parte T C Coombs and Co CA 1989
Lord Tenterden CJ said: ‘It has been carried further in the argument to-day, for it has been urged that the non-appearance of the prosecutor does not necessarily induce the conclusion of a consciousness at that time, that when the prosecution was . .
Cited – Quartz Hill Consolidated Gold Mining Co v Eyre CA 26-Jun-1883
The court considered whether an action lay without proof of special damage for maliciously presenting a winding up petition.
Held: There was. Though there was no general cause of action for maliciously bringing civil proceedings without . .
Cited – Meering v Grahame-White Aviation Co Ltd CA 1919
An unconscious or drugged person may be detained. For the tort of false imprisonment there must be shown a complete restriction in fact on the plaintiff’s freedom to move: ‘any restraint within defined bounds which is a restraint in fact may be an . .

Cited by:

Cited – Keegan and Others v Chief Constable of Merseyside CA 3-Jul-2003
The police had information suggesting (wrongly) that a fugitive resided at an address. An armed raid followed, and the claimant occupant sought damages.
Held: The tort of malicious procurement of a search warrant required it to be established . .
Cited – Raja v Van Hoogstraten ChD 19-Dec-2005
Damages were claimed after claimant alleged involvement by the defendant in the murder of the deceased. The defendant had been tried and acquitted of murder and manslaughter, but the allegation was now pursued. The defendant had since failed to . .
Cited – Gregory v Portsmouth City Council HL 10-Feb-2000
Disciplinary proceedings had been taken by the local authority against Mr Gregory, a council member, after allegations had been made that he had failed to declare conflicts of interest, and that he had used confidential information to secure a . .
Cited – Fitzpatrick and Others v The Commissioner of Police of The Metropolis QBD 11-Jan-2012
The claimants, two solicitors and their employer firm sought damages alleging trespass and malicious procurement by police officers in obtaining and executing search warrants against the firm in 2007 when they were investigating suspected offences . .
Cited – Crawford Adjusters and Others v Sagicor General Insurance (Cayman) Ltd and Another PC 13-Jun-2013
(Cayman Islands) A hurricane had damaged property insured by the respondent company. The company employed the appellant as loss adjustor, but came to suspect advance payments recommended by him, and eventually claimed damages for deceit and . .
Cited – Crawford v Jenkins CA 24-Jul-2014
The parties had divorced but acrimony continued. H now complained of his arrests after allegations from his former wife that he had breached two orders. He had been released and no charges followed. The court had ruled that W’s complaints were . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Commonwealth, Police

Updated: 01 June 2022; Ref: scu.159283

Sykes v Harry and Trustee of Estate of Harry, a Bankrupt: CA 1 Feb 2001

The tenant appealed dismissal of his claim for damages. He had suffered serious injury after inhaling carbon monoxide fumes from a defective gas fire. The fire had not been maintained and a fall of soot eventually prevented the escape of fumes.
Held: The appeal succeeded, and the defendant was 80% liable for the injury. Where a defect in premises led to a tenant’s injury, it was not necessary to show that the landlord had actual or constructive knowledge of the defect. If the landlord had failed to take the reasonable care which could have been expected of him to ensure the tenants personal safety, he could be liable. The purpose of the 1972 Act was to break away from the historic limitations placed by the common law upon the duty/liability of a landlord to persons injured as a result of defects in the condition of premises owned by him.
‘The judge was in error in equating the task of the claimant, as tenant, in establishing a breach of duty under s.4 of the 1972 Act, with his need under s.11 of the 1985 Act to demonstrate notice (actual or constructive) of the actual defect giving rise to the injury. The question the judge should have asked himself was whether, in the light of the findings of fact which he had made, the first defendant had, by his failure to service the gas fire regularly or at all, or otherwise to take steps to check or make appropriate enquiries of the tenant as to the servicing and/or state of the gas fire during the eight-year period before the claimant’s accident, failed in his duty to take such care as was reasonable in all the circumstances to see that the claimant was reasonably safe from injury. ‘

Judges:

Potter LJ, Hale LJ, Butler-Sloss P

Citations:

Times 27-Feb-2001, Gazette 05-Apr-2001, [2001] EWCA Civ 167, [2001] 3 WLR 62, [2001] NPC 26, [2001] L and TR 40, (2001) 33 HLR 80, (2001) 82 P and CR DG9, [2001] 17 EG 221, [2001] 1 EGLR 53, [2001] QB 1014, (2001) 82 P and CR 35

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Defective Premises Act 1972 4, Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 11

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

See Also – Sykes v Harry CA 14-Oct-1998
The plaintiff sought damages against the defendant after he was severely injured by inhaling carbon monoxide fumes whilst a tenant of the defendant. The defendant sought to strike out the claim, saying that the plaintiff had himself maintained the . .
Cited – O’Brien v Robinson HL 19-Feb-1973
The plaintiffs sought damages after being injured when the ceiling of their bedroom fell on them. They were tenants of the defendants.
Held: The 1961 Act implied a duty on L to keep in repair the structure. What was meant by ‘keep in repair.’ . .
Cited – British Telecommunications Plc v Sun Life Assurance Society Plc CA 3-Aug-1995
A landlord became in breach of his duty of repair under his covenant immediately the repairable defect occurred, not after a reasonable time had been given to make the repair. Nourse LJ summarised the earlier authorities: ‘It is now established by a . .
Cited – McGreal v Wake 1984
A landlord has the right to enter his premises for the purpose of carrying out the work required under his covenant for repair. . .
Cited – McCarrick v Liverpool Corporation HL 1947
Premises’ Defect – No Notice Liability on L
The tenant’s wife was injured falling from defective stone steps leading from the kitchen to the back kitchen of the house. Under section the 1936 Act, the judge found the house not to have been kept in the state required. No notice of want of . .
Cited – Cavalier v Pope HL 22-Jun-1906
The wife of the tenant of a house let unfurnished sought to recover from the landlord damages for personal injuries arising from the non-repair of the house, on the ground that the landlord had contracted with her husband to repair the house.

Cited by:

Cited – Clark and Another (Executors of Peggy Eileen Clark Deceased) v Revenue and Customs SCIT 27-Sep-2005
SCIT INHERITANCE TAX – business relief – company actively managing properties and carrying out its own building and maintenance work – whether its business consists wholly or mainly of making or holding . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Landlord and Tenant, Housing, Torts – Other

Updated: 31 May 2022; Ref: scu.147417

Sinclair v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire and British Telecommunications Plc: CA 12 Dec 2000

The claimant had been prosecuted, but the charge was dismissed as an abuse of process. He now appealed a strike out of his civil claim for damages for malicious prosecution.
Held: The appeal failed. The decision to dismiss the criminal charge against him was surprising in the circumstances.

Judges:

Otton, Jonathan Parker LJJ

Citations:

[2000] EWCA Civ 319

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Martin v Watson HL 13-Jul-1995
The plaintiff had been falsely reported to the police by the defendant, a neighbour, for indecent exposure whilst standing on a ladder in his garden. He had been arrested and charged, but at a hearing before the Magistrates’ Court, the Crown . .
Cited – Williams v Taylor 1829
No action will lie for the institution of legal proceedings, however malicious, unless they have been instituted without reasonable and probable cause. Tindal CJ said: ‘Malice alone is not sufficient, because a person actuated by the plainest malice . .
Cited – Lister v Perryman HL 1870
In a case alleging malicious prosecution, the existence of reasonable and probable cause is a question for the judge and not for the jury.
Lord Chelmsford said: ‘[T]here can be no doubt since the case of Panton v Williams, in which the question . .
Cited – Arbroath v North Eastern Railway 1883
In a case alleging malicious prosecution, the burden of proving absence of reasonable and probable cause is on the Plaintiff, who thus takes on the notoriously difficult task of proving a negative . .
Cited – Tempest v Snowden 1952
Decision too charge – whether was warranted
A custody officer is not required to be sure that the accused person is guilty before charging him, but rather he should believe that a charge is warranted . .
Cited – Glinski v McIver HL 1962
The court considered the tort of malicious prosecution when committed by a police officer, saying ‘But these cases must be carefully watched so as to see that there really is some evidence from his conduct that he knew it was a groundless charge.’ . .
Cited – Brown v Hawkes CA 1891
The court considered the issue of malice as an element of malicious prosecution. It is a matter to be proved by the plaintiff or the case may be withdrawn, but in a proper case it may be inferred from want of reasonable and probable cause although . .

Cited by:

Cited – A v West Yorkshire Police HL 6-May-2004
The claimant was a male to female trans-sexual who had been refused employment as a police officer by the respondent, who had said that the staturory requirement for males to search males and for females to search females would be impossible to . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Police

Updated: 31 May 2022; Ref: scu.147352

Kieth Platt v Colin Platt and Another: CA 13 Dec 2000

The applicant appealed an order setting aside transfers to him of shares in a family company, found to have been made after misrepresentation and a breach of fiduciary duty. Three companies owned by the family had fallen into difficulties, and the shares were transferred for nominal consideration, on the basis of representations made as to the liabilities of the company, and as to their later return. Later the company prospered, and they sought the return of their shares.
Held: The appeal was as to matters of fact. The judgment did not set out clearly the facts found on the issues now tested, but there was evidence upon which his findings could properly be based. There had been misrepresentation by the defendant. The measure of damages for a tortious misrepresentation is the sum necessary to put the claimant in the position he would have been in, if the misrepresentation had not been made. The judge should not have assessed damages on a partial realisation basis without discounting the assets for the value of the directors service contracts, which would have been costs in the realisation of the assets.

Judges:

The Vice-Chancellor Lord Justice Chadwick And Lord Justice Latham

Citations:

[2000] EWCA Civ 322

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal from – Platt v Platt and Another ChD 19-Jul-1999
. .
Cited – Attorney General of Ceylon v Mackie PC 1952
The House considered how to value a company. The possibility that a business might be sold as a going concern for a price equal to the net realisable value of the assets employed was envisaged: ‘If it is proved in a particular case that at the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Company, Damages, Torts – Other

Updated: 31 May 2022; Ref: scu.147355

Khaled Naser Hamoud Al-Sabah and Juan Jose Folchi Bonafonte v Grupo Torras SA: CA 2 Nov 2000

The court discussed the approach to be taken when asked to act upon evidence which it found to be unreliable, though the witness’s credibility had not been destroyed. In a claim for dishonest assistance it is not necessary to show a precise causal link between the assistance and the loss. Loss caused by the breach of fiduciary duty is recoverable from the accessory.

Citations:

[2000] EWCA Civ 273

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

See Also – Grupo Torras Sa and Another v Sheikh Fahad Mohammed Al Sabah and Others CA 26-May-1995
A UK court may continue to hear a Spanish company’s claim against it’s own directors if a court was first seized of the matter here. Where a case concerned matters as to the constitution of a company, the courts of the company in which the company . .
See Also – Grupo Torras SA and Torras Hostench London Limited v Sheikh Fahad Mohammed Al Sabah and others (2) CA 21-Mar-1997
The Court of Appeal should interfere with Judge’s case management decisions only with great reluctance. . .
See Also – Grupo Torras SA and Torras Hostench London Limited v Sheikh Fahad Mohammed Al-Sabah Et Al CA 2-Oct-1997
A party choosing to provide discovery of substantial documents on a Compact Disk must ask the court first before charging extra for the service. . .
See Also – Grupo Torras SA and Another v Al-Sabah and others Lst CA 6-Feb-1998
. .
See Also – Barbara Alison Al-Sabah and Another v Grupo Torras S A and Others PC 10-Oct-2000
PC (Jersey) The board refused special leave to appeal: ‘Normally all such questions of case management are matters for the courts concerned and are not suitable for any further review before their Lordships’ . .
See Also – Grupo Torras Sa and Another v Al-Sabah and others CA 30-Jul-2001
The hearing followed others concluding that the claimant had been defrauded of substantial sums by the defendants. The parties sought clarifications. . .
See Also – Al Sabah and Al Sabah v Grupo Torras SA Culmer as trustee of the property of Sheikh Fahad Mohammed Al Sabah, bankrupt PC 11-Jan-2005
PC (Cayman Islands) The claimant complained of an order of the Court of Appeal of the Cayman Islands, requiring him to comply with a letter of request from the Grand Court of the Bahamas.
Held: In earlier . .

Cited by:

See Also – Grupo Torras Sa and Another v Sheikh Fahad Mohammed Al Sabah and Others CA 26-May-1995
A UK court may continue to hear a Spanish company’s claim against it’s own directors if a court was first seized of the matter here. Where a case concerned matters as to the constitution of a company, the courts of the company in which the company . .
See Also – Grupo Torras SA and Torras Hostench London Limited v Sheikh Fahad Mohammed Al Sabah and others (2) CA 21-Mar-1997
The Court of Appeal should interfere with Judge’s case management decisions only with great reluctance. . .
See Also – Grupo Torras SA and Torras Hostench London Limited v Sheikh Fahad Mohammed Al-Sabah Et Al CA 2-Oct-1997
A party choosing to provide discovery of substantial documents on a Compact Disk must ask the court first before charging extra for the service. . .
See Also – Grupo Torras SA and Another v Al-Sabah and others Lst CA 6-Feb-1998
. .
See Also – Barbara Alison Al-Sabah and Another v Grupo Torras S A and Others PC 10-Oct-2000
PC (Jersey) The board refused special leave to appeal: ‘Normally all such questions of case management are matters for the courts concerned and are not suitable for any further review before their Lordships’ . .
See Also – Grupo Torras Sa and Another v Al-Sabah and others CA 30-Jul-2001
The hearing followed others concluding that the claimant had been defrauded of substantial sums by the defendants. The parties sought clarifications. . .
See Also – Al Sabah and Al Sabah v Grupo Torras SA Culmer as trustee of the property of Sheikh Fahad Mohammed Al Sabah, bankrupt PC 11-Jan-2005
PC (Cayman Islands) The claimant complained of an order of the Court of Appeal of the Cayman Islands, requiring him to comply with a letter of request from the Grand Court of the Bahamas.
Held: In earlier . .
Cited – St Paul Travelers Insurance Co Ltd v Okporuah and others ChD 10-Aug-2006
The first defendant had acquired several properties, and was due to make repayments greatly in excess of his income. A further defendant, his brother, was a solicitor who was known to have been involved in mortgage fraud and was suspected of having . .
Cited – Casio Computer Co Ltd v Sayo and others CA 11-Apr-2001
The court was asked whether a constructive trust claim based on dishonest assistance is a matter ‘relating to tort, delict or quasi delict’ for the purpose of Article 5(3) of the Brussels Convention?
Held: A constructive trust claim based upon . .
Cited – Casio Computer Co Ltd v Sayo and others CA 11-Apr-2001
The court was asked whether a constructive trust claim based on dishonest assistance is a matter ‘relating to tort, delict or quasi delict’ for the purpose of Article 5(3) of the Brussels Convention?
Held: A constructive trust claim based upon . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other

Updated: 31 May 2022; Ref: scu.147306

Roger Smith and Christopher Timothy Esmond Hayward and Lloyds Bank TSB; Harvey Jones Ltd and Woolwich Plc: CA 27 Jul 2000

Where a cheque has been altered fraudulently to change the name of the payee, the piece of paper ceases to be a cheque, and an action for conversion against the paying or collecting bank will stand only as to the nominal value of the paper, and not as to the face value. The material alteration was done without the consent of anyone but the party carrying out the fraud, and, under the Act the bill is avoided save against a party making or consenting to the alteration.

Citations:

Times 06-Sep-2000, Gazette 21-Sep-2000, [2000] EWCA Civ 240

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Bills of Exchange Act 1882 64

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Banking, Torts – Other

Updated: 31 May 2022; Ref: scu.147273

David Yablon Minton v Kenburgh Investments (Northern) Ltd: CA 28 Jun 2000

An agreement ‘in full and final settlement’ of insolvency proceedings between a liquidator and directors, did not prevent an action in negligence against solicitors as regards the same contractual situation who had themselves issued third party proceedings against the directors under the Act. There is a difference between settlement and satisfaction. The second claim was sufficiently different, and might even give rise to a larger claim for damages. The settlement of one claim need not satisfy

Citations:

Times 11-Jul-2000, Gazette 20-Jul-2000, [2000] EWCA Civ 202

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal from – Minton v Kenburgh Investments (Northern) Ltd (In Liquidation) QBD 13-Nov-1988
. .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Litigation Practice, Torts – Other, Negligence

Updated: 31 May 2022; Ref: scu.147235

Clef Aquitaine Sarl and Another v Laporte Materials (Barrow) Ltd (Sued As Sovereign Chemical Industries Ltd): CA 18 May 2000

The defendants appealed a finding of fraudulent misrepresentation, saying that no damages had in fact flowed from any misrepresentation.

Citations:

[2000] EWCA Civ 161, [2001] QB 488

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Misrepresentation Act 1967

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Doyle v Olby (Ironmongers) Ltd CA 31-Jan-1969
The plaintiff had been induced by the fraudulent misrepresentation of the defendant to buy an ironmonger’s business for 4,500 pounds plus stock at a valuation of 5,000 pounds. Shortly after the purchase, he discovered the fraud and started the . .

Cited by:

Cited – MCI Worldcom International Inc v Primus Telecommunications Inc ComC 25-Sep-2003
The claimant sought judgment, and the defendant leave to amend its defence. The question was whether the proposed defence had any reasonable prospect of success.
Held: The misrepresentation alleged was made by the claimant’s in-house . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Contract

Updated: 31 May 2022; Ref: scu.147194

Mahon, Kent v Dr Rahn, Biedermann, Haab-Biedermann, Rahn, and Bodmer (a Partnership) (No 2): CA 8 Jun 2000

The defendant’s lawyers wrote to a financial services regulatory body investigating the possible fraudulent conduct of the plaintiff’s stockbroking firm. The letter was passed to the Serious Fraud Office who later brought criminal proceedings against the plaintiffs and the letter was disclosed to them. After their acquittal they brought a claim for libel based on the defamatory matter in that letter.
Held: Complaints and statements supplied to the Securities Association in its function as regulator of financial services attracted absolute privilege in defamation proceedings. The new systems of disclosure had heightened tension between the need to secure information of a prosecution, and to give a fair trial. That could only be achieved with such privilege. The liability of a complainant for malicious prosecution did not extend beyond simple cases.

Judges:

Brooke, Mantell, Laws LJJ

Citations:

Times 14-Jun-2000, Gazette 29-Jun-2000, [2000] EWCA Civ 185, [2000] 1 WLR 2150, [2000] EMLR 873, [2000] Po LR 210, [2000] 2 All ER (Comm) 1, [2000] 4 All ER 41

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

See Also – Mahon and Another v Rahn and Others (1) CA 12-Jun-1997
Two company directors sued Swiss bankers who had responded to enquiries from the police in London. The charges which followed had been dismissed, and the directors sued in defamation, seeking to rely upon the materials sent to the police.
See Also – Mahon v Rahn QBD 19-Jun-1996
Directors of a London firm of stockbrokers brought libel proceedings against two Swiss bankers.
Held: The absolute immunity which is given to both witnesses and potential witnesses extends to all those taking part in a criminal investigation . .
See Also – Mahon v Rahn and others (No 2) CA 8-Nov-1999
Brooke LJ attempted to draw a distinction between simple cases. . .
Cited – Roy v Prior HL 1970
The court considered an alleged tort of maliciously procuring an arrest. The plaintiff had been arrested under a bench warrant issued as a result of evidence given by the defendant. He sued the defendant for damages for malicious arrest.
Held: . .
Cited – Martin v Watson HL 13-Jul-1995
The plaintiff had been falsely reported to the police by the defendant, a neighbour, for indecent exposure whilst standing on a ladder in his garden. He had been arrested and charged, but at a hearing before the Magistrates’ Court, the Crown . .

Cited by:

Cited – Gray v Avadis QBD 30-Jul-2003
The claimant had made complaints against the defendant solicitor to the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors. In answer the defendant made assertions about the claimant’s mental health, and she now sought to bring action iin defamation on those . .
Cited – Taylor and Others v Director of The Serious Fraud Office and Others HL 29-Oct-1998
The defendant had requested the Isle of Man authorities to investigate the part if any taken by the plaintiff in a major fraud. No charges were brought against the plaintiff, but the documents showing suspicion came to be disclosed in the later . .
Cited – Buckley v Dalziel QBD 3-May-2007
There was a heated dispute between neighbours, culminating in some generous or perhaps over-generous pruning by the claimant of the defendant’s trees and shrubs on the boundaries. The defendants reported the matter to the police. Both Mr and Mrs . .
Cited – Westcott v Westcott CA 15-Jul-2008
The defendant was the claimant’s daughter in law. In the course of a bitter divorce she made allegations to the police which were investigated but did not lead to a prosecution. The claimant appealed dismissal of his claim for defamation on the . .
Cited – Hunt v AB CA 22-Oct-2009
The claimant sought damages from a woman in malicious prosecution, saying that she had made a false allegation of rape against him. He had served two years in prison.
Held: The claim failed. A complainant is not a prosecutor, and is not liable . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Defamation, Financial Services

Updated: 31 May 2022; Ref: scu.147218

Bibby v Chief Constable of Essex Police: CA 6 Apr 2000

A bailiff sought to execute against goods in a shop against the will of the occupier. The police attended and when tempers were raised the police officer anticipated a breach of the peace by the bailiff and arrested him. He sought damages for that arrest.
Held: In order for a citizen properly to exercise a common law power of arrest over a person not at the time acting unlawfully, he must show that there was a real and immediate threat of breach of the peace which emanated from the person to be arrested, that he was interfering in others exercising their lawful rights, that its natural consequence must be ‘not wholly unreasonable violence’ from another, and the conduct of the person to be arrested must be unreasonable. The officer in this case had misconstrued the law and not properly assessed where the threat of violence was coming from, which was the debtor.
Schiemann LJ said: ‘Counsel for the claimant submitted the case law justified the following. In order to exercise the now exceptional common law power of arrest, certain conditions must be met in relation to the person who is to be arrested and his conduct:
(1) There must be the clearest of circumstances and a sufficiently real and present threat to the peace to justify the extreme step of depriving of his liberty a citizen who is not at the time acting unlawfully — Foulkes.
(2) The threat must be coming from the person who is to be arrested — Redmond-Bate.
(3) The conduct must clearly interfere with the rights of others — Redmond-Bate.
(4) The natural consequence of the conduct must be violence from a third party — Redmond-Bate.
(5) The violence in (4) must not be wholly unreasonable — Redmond-Bate.
(6) The conduct of the person to be arrested must be unreasonable — Nicol.
I consider that this accurately states the law. Of course I accept that it is desirable that violence be prevented. It is also desirable that citizens neither doing nor threatening any wrong are not deprived of their liberty.’

Judges:

Morritt, Pill, Schiemann LJJ

Citations:

Times 24-Apr-2000, [2000] EWCA Civ 113, (2000) 164 JP 297

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Regina v Howell (Errol) CACD 1981
The court considered the meaning of the legal concept of a breach of the peace.
Held: The essence is to be found in violence or threatened violence. ‘We entertain no doubt that a constable has a power of arrest where there is reasonable . .
Cited – Redmond-Bate v Director of Public Prosecutions Admn 23-Jul-1999
The police had arrested three peaceful but vociferous preachers when some members of a crowd gathered round them threatened hostility.
Held: Freedom of speech means nothing unless it includes the freedom to be irritating, contentious, . .
Cited – Foulkes v Chief Constable of Merseyside Police CA 9-Jun-1998
A man was locked out of the matrimonial home which he owned jointly with his wife, following a family dispute. The police told him, as was the fact, that his wife and children did not want him to re-enter the house and the police suggested that he . .
Cited – Regina v Nicol and Selvanayagam QBD 10-Nov-1995
The appellants appealed a bind-over for a finding that each appellant had been guilty of conduct whereby a breach of the peace was likely to be occasioned. The appellants, concerned about cruelty to animals, had obstructed an angling competition by . .

Cited by:

Cited – Blench v Director of Public Prosecutions Admn 5-Nov-2004
The defendant appealed against his conviction for assaulting a police officer in the execution of his duty under section 89. He had argued that he had no case to answer. The officers had received an emergency call to the house, but the female caller . .
Cited – Hammond v Director of Public Prosecutions Admn 13-Jan-2004
The defendant, who had since died, had been convicted of a public order offence in that standing in a street he had displayed a range of placards opposing homosexuality. He appealed saying that the finding was an unwarranted infringement of his . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Police, Torts – Other

Updated: 31 May 2022; Ref: scu.147146

Medcalf v Mardell and others: CA 2 Mar 2000

Judges:

Peter Gibson, Schiemann LJJ, Wilson LJ

Citations:

[2000] EWCA Civ 63

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

See Also – Medcalf v Mardell, Weatherill and Another HL 27-Jun-2002
The appellants were barristers against whom wasted costs orders had been made. They appealed. They had made allegations of fraud in pleadings, but without being able to provide evidence to support the allegation. This was itself a breach of the Bar . .
See Also – Medcalf v Mardell and Others CA 24-Nov-2000
Counsel who wished to insert an allegation of fraudulent activity, or similar, into an application to amend a notice of appeal, must be sure not only that they have the clear and direct instructions of the clients to do this, but also that they . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Intellectual Property

Updated: 31 May 2022; Ref: scu.147096

Kuddus v Chief Constable of Leicestershire: CA 10 Feb 2000

Misfeasance in public office was not a tort in which exemplary damages would be available before 1964, and, following the restriction on such awards in Rookes v Barnard was not now a tort for which such damages night be payable. Kindred torts, which might normally accompany such a claim against the police, might give rise to such a claim however.

Citations:

Times 16-Mar-2000, [2000] EWCA Civ 39

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

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 by:

Appeal from – 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 . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Torts – Other, Police

Updated: 31 May 2022; Ref: scu.147072

John Flynn v Robin Thompson and Partners (a Firm): CA 24 Aug 1999

A partner in a firm of solicitors had been accused of two assaults by a lay representative of a claimant against the firm. The first related to an attempt to wrest papers from the claimant, and the second an assault outside the court. They were both wrongly categorised as a claim in vicarious liability. The defendant was a partner, and the liability of the firm lay in the Act. The second assault was clearly outside the scope of Acts within the partnership, and the first did not warrant the proceedings.

Citations:

Gazette 10-Feb-2000, Times 14-Mar-2000, [1999] EWCA Civ 2106

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Partnership Act 1890 10

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Vicarious Liability, Company, Torts – Other

Updated: 31 May 2022; Ref: scu.147021

Clark v Chief Constable of Cleveland Police: CA 7 May 1999

It was appropriate for courts in all cases to give juries both general guidance on awarding damages and guidance as to the range of awards available in the circumstances. The court aslo set out the proper approach to the award of aggravated damages and exemplary damages against police. The figures the court set out were applicable to what it termed ‘a straightforward case’, and they were not to be used in a ‘mechanistic manner’. Where the defendant is the employer of the police officers involved, exemplary damages are unlikely to have a role, and aggravated damages should be awarded if the aggravating features would result in the claimant not receiving sufficient compensation for his injury. The bad character of the claimant was a factor which made for a ‘discount’ on the damages.

Citations:

[1999] EWCA Civ 1357

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

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 . .

Cited by:

Cited – Manley v Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis CA 28-Jun-2006
The claimant succeeded in his action against the respondent for assault, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution. He appealed his award of damages for malicious prosecution. He had a bad record, and the essential issue was the extent to which . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Police, Torts – Other

Updated: 30 May 2022; Ref: scu.146272

Gregory v Portsmouth City Council: HL 10 Feb 2000

Disciplinary proceedings had been taken by the local authority against Mr Gregory, a council member, after allegations had been made that he had failed to declare conflicts of interest, and that he had used confidential information to secure a personal financial advantage. He had been found to have breached the relevant code of practice and removed from several committees. The case was widely reported. The findings were later overturned. He brought an action in malicious prosecution.
Held: The authority’s acts could not be used to found a claim for malicious prosecution. The House declined to expand the tort of malicious prosecution to cover civil proceedings generally. Even if the motivation behind the action was malicious, they could not give rise to an essential backdrop to such a case, namely a criminal sanction. There was a great diversity of statutory and non-statutory disciplinary proceedings with different purposes. To leave it to the courts to decide on a case-by-case basis which disciplinary proceedings might ground the tort would be liable to plunge the law into uncertainty.
Lord Steyn said: ‘The inquiry must proceed from the premise of the law as it stands. The tort of malicious prosecution is narrowly defined. Telling lies about a defendant is not by itself tortious: Hargreaves v Bretherton [1959] 1 QB 45. A moment’s reflection will show what welter of undesirable relitigation would be permitted by any different rule . . Damage is a necessary ingredient of the tort. This element of the tort was explained in a dictum of Holt CJ in Savill v Roberts (1698) 12 Mod. Rep. 208.
and ‘My Lords, it is not necessary for the disposal of the present appeal to express a view on the argument in favour of the extension of the tort to civil proceedings generally. It would, however, be unsatisfactory to leave this important issue in the air. I will, therefore, briefly state my conclusions on this aspect. There is a stronger case for an extension of the tort to civil legal proceedings than to disciplinary proceedings Both criminal and civil legal proceedings are covered by the same immunity. And as I have explained with reference to the potential damage of publicity about a civil action alleging fraud, the traditional explanation namely that in the case of civil proceedings the poison and the antidote are presented simultaneously, is no longer plausible. Nevertheless, for essentially practical reasons I am not persuaded that the general extension of the tort to civil proceedings has been shown to be necessary if one takes into account the protection afforded by other related torts. I am tolerably confident that any manifest injustices arising from groundless and damaging civil proceedings are either already adequately protected under other torts or are capable of being addressed by any necessary and desirable extensions of other torts. Instead of embarking on a radical extension of the tort of malicious prosecution I would rely on the capacity of our tort law for pragmatic growth in response to true necessities demonstrated by experience.’

Judges:

Lord Browne-Wilkinson Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead Lord Steyn Lord Hobhouse of Wood-borough Lord Millett

Citations:

Times 02-Feb-2000, Gazette 10-Feb-2000, [2000] UKHL 3, [2000] 1 AC 419, [2000] 1 All ER 560, [2000] 1 WLR 306, [2000] BLGR 203, [2000] Po LR 3, (2000) 2 LGLR 667

Links:

House of Lords, Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Regina v Portsmouth City Council, Ex parte Gregory and Mos QBD 1990
The local authority had disciplined two of its councillors for alleged breach of the Code for Local Government. The councillors now successfully challenged the proceedings. The administrative Sub-Committee which had made the finding had been acting . .
Appeal from – Gregory v Portsmouth City Council CA 5-Nov-1997
The plaintiff councillor had been disciplined by the defendant for allegations. The findings were later overturned, and he now sought damages alleging malicious prosecution.
Held: The categories of malicious prosecution are closed, and it was . .
Cited – Gibbs and others v Rea PC 29-Jan-1998
(Cayman Islands) The respondent worked for a bank. He disclosed a business interest, but that interest grew in importance to the point where he resigned in circumstances amounting to constructive dismissal. His home and business officers were raided . .
Cited – Martin v Watson HL 13-Jul-1995
The plaintiff had been falsely reported to the police by the defendant, a neighbour, for indecent exposure whilst standing on a ladder in his garden. He had been arrested and charged, but at a hearing before the Magistrates’ Court, the Crown . .
Cited – Savill v Roberts 1698
Damage is a necessary ingredient of the tort of malicious prosecution. Holt CJ described the interests protected by the tort: ‘there are three sorts of damages, any one of which is sufficient to support this action. First, damage to [the . .
Cited – Regina v Bingham CACD 1991
B was convicted of shoplifting. He was diabetic and argued that at the time he was suffering hypoglycaemia and should have been allowed the defence of automatism.
Held: The appeal succeeded. The judge should have properly explored the . .
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 – Johnson v Emerson 1871
Cleasby B recognised that the tort of malicious prosecution could be committed in the malicious presentation of a winding up petition. The effect of presentation of such a petition was immediately damaging to the company which was the subject of the . .
Cited – Hargreaves v Bretherton 1959
The Plaintiff pleaded that the First Defendant police officer had falsely and maliciously and without justification or excuse committed perjury at the Plaintiff’s trial on charges of criminal offences and that as a result the Plaintiff had been . .
Cited – Clissold v Cratchley CA 1910
A solicitor had sued out a Writ of fi.fa on an order in favour of his client, unaware that the debt had been paid at the country office of the solicitor, prior to the writ being issued.
Held: An action in tort will be available for setting in . .
Cited – Quartz Hill Consolidated Gold Mining Co v Eyre CA 26-Jun-1883
The court considered whether an action lay without proof of special damage for maliciously presenting a winding up petition.
Held: There was. Though there was no general cause of action for maliciously bringing civil proceedings without . .
Cited – Lion Laboratories Ltd v Evans CA 1985
Lion Laboratories manufactured and marketed the Lion Intoximeter which was used by the police for measuring blood alcohol levels of motorists. Two ex-employees approached the Press with four documents taken from Lion. The documents indicated that . .

Cited by:

Cited – British Airways Plc v Ryanair Limited ChD 25-Oct-2000
The claimant alleged that disparaging adverts by the defendant infringed its trade marks and amounted to the tort of malicious falsehood.
Held: There was no dispute that the mark had been used. The Act could not be used to prevent any use of . .
Cited – Ikea Ltd and Others v Brown and Others ComC 7-May-2009
Action short of standard for malicious prosecution
The claimants alleged a fraud by the eight defendants. The sixth defendant counterclaimed for damages alleging malicious prosecution. The claimant sought the strike out of the counterclaim.
Held: The allegations failed insofar as they related . .
Cited – Land Securities Plc and Others v Fladgate Fielder (A Firm) CA 18-Dec-2009
The claimants wanted planning permission to redevelop land. The defendant firm of solicitors, their tenants, had challenged the planning permission. The claimants alleged that that opposition was a tortious abuse because its true purpose was to . .
Cited – Stobart Group Ltd and Others v Elliott QBD 11-Apr-2013
The defendant applied to the court for various officers of the cliamant companies to be subject to contempt proceedings. The claimants asked the court to strike of the defendant’s counterclaim and to make a civil restraint order against him. There . .
Cited – Crawford Adjusters and Others v Sagicor General Insurance (Cayman) Ltd and Another PC 13-Jun-2013
(Cayman Islands) A hurricane had damaged property insured by the respondent company. The company employed the appellant as loss adjustor, but came to suspect advance payments recommended by him, and eventually claimed damages for deceit and . .
Applied – Willers v Gubay ChD 15-May-2015
The court was asked whether the tort of malicious prosecution of civil proceedings is known to English law.
Held: The Crawfod Adjusters case should not be followed: ‘If I am not bound by Gregory, then I see no reason for departing from the . .
Cited – Willers v Joyce and Another (Re: Gubay (Deceased) No 1) SC 20-Jul-2016
Parties had been involved in an action for wrongful trading. This was not persisted with but the claimant sought damages saying that the action was only part of a campaign to do him harm. This appeal raised the question whether the tort of malicious . .
Cited – Willers v Joyce and Another (Re: Gubay (Deceased) No 2) SC 20-Jul-2016
The Court was asked whether and in what circumstances a lower court may follow a decision of the Privy Council which has reached a different conclusion from that of the House of Lords (or the Supreme Court or Court of Appeal) on an earlier occasion. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Local Government, Torts – Other

Updated: 30 May 2022; Ref: scu.81024

SW, Regina (on The Application of) v The Secretary of State for The Home Department: Admn 16 Oct 2018

Application for judicial review, seeking a declaration that her detention under Immigration Act powers was unlawful, and she seeks damages for false imprisonment.
Held: The Claimant’s claims succeed on Grounds 2 and 3, but not on Ground 1. The Claimant’s detention from 20 September to 13 October 2017 was unlawful and she is entitled to damages for the tort of false imprisonment.

Citations:

[2018] EWHC 2684 (Admin), [2018] WLR(D) 630

Links:

Bailii, WLRD

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Torts – Other, Prisons

Updated: 30 May 2022; Ref: scu.625911

L E Jones (Insurance Brokers) Ltd v Portsmouth City Council: TCC 11 Mar 2002

Citations:

[2002] EWHC 1568 (Technology)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Appeal Dismissed – L E Jones (Insurance Brokers) Ltd v Portsmouth City Council CA 7-Nov-2002
The claimant sought compensation for damage caused to his property by the roots of trees on the verge outside his premises.
Held: The respondent did exercise lawful control over the trees, even though it did not own the land on which they . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land, Torts – Other

Updated: 30 May 2022; Ref: scu.175288

L E Jones (Insurance Brokers) Ltd v Portsmouth City Council: CA 7 Nov 2002

The claimant sought compensation for damage caused to his property by the roots of trees on the verge outside his premises.
Held: The respondent did exercise lawful control over the trees, even though it did not own the land on which they grew, and therefore could be liable in negligence, and in nuisance for the damage they might cause. The highway might also be responsible, but that did not exclude the responsibility of the respondent, who had a right and a duty to maintain the roads. The basis of liability of an occupier for a nuisance on his land is not his occupation but that, by virtue of his occupation, he has it in his power to take the necessary measures to prevent the nuisance. The tree owner should be given a reasonmable opportunity to remedy the nuisance: ‘ . . What is a reasonable opportunity to abate the nuisance is a question of fact. ‘

Judges:

Aldous, Dyson LJJ

Citations:

Times 21-Nov-2002, Gazette 16-Jan-2003, [2003] 1 WLR 427, [2002] EWCA Civ 1723

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal Dismissed – L E Jones (Insurance Brokers) Ltd v Portsmouth City Council TCC 11-Mar-2002
. .

Cited by:

Cited – Green v The Right Honourable Lord Somerleyton and others CA 28-Feb-2003
The parties owned areas of marshland divided by a road. The claimant sought a declaration that the defendants had no right to allow floodwater to escape over his land from what he said was an artificial reservoir on the defendant’s land. The . .
Cited – Moiz Ahmed Siddiqui, Ishrat Siddiqui/Bhajan Singh Sohanpal v Council of the London Borough of Hillingdon TCC 15-Apr-2003
The claimants sought damages for cracks in their house caused by the roots of trees on the defendant’s land.
Held: The claimants had failed to establish by evidence that the tree roots were the cause of the damage. The claim failed. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land, Negligence, Torts – Other

Updated: 30 May 2022; Ref: scu.178262

Regina v Governor HM Prison Brockhill, ex parte Michelle Carol Evans (No 2): CA 19 Jun 1998

The plaintiff was serving a sentence of imprisonment. Her detention was correctly calculated in accordance with the law as understood. That method was later disapproved when the Divisional Court laid down (everyone has assumed correctly) a different method of calculation. If that new method of calculation was adopted the plaintiff had been detained for 59 days too long. The plaintiff claimed damages for false imprisonment.
Held: The retrospective effect of the change in the law produced by the last Divisional Court decision prevented the Governor from relying as a defence on the law as it had been declared by the earlier Divisional Court decisions which at the time of the 59 days’ detention laid down the relevant law. Court decisions on the application of rules for the calculation of ‘time served’ whilst a prisoner awaited trial are retrospective in effect. Damages for wrongful imprisonment were to be calculated on basis of the decision made subsequent to the prisoner’s release. The idea of the prospective overruling of a judgment has much to commend it.

Judges:

Lord Woolf MR, Judge LJ, Roch LJ (dissenting)

Citations:

Gazette 03-Sep-1998, Times 06-Jul-1998, [1998] EWCA Civ 1042, [1999] QB 1043

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Criminal Justice Act 1991 33 41 51

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Appeal from – Regina v Governor of Her Majesty’s Prison Brockhill ex parte Evans (No 2) HL 27-Jul-2000
The release date for a prisoner was calculated correctly according to guidance issued by the Home Office, but case law required the guidance to be altered, and the prisoner had been detained too long. The tort of false imprisonment is one of strict . .
Cited – National Westminster Bank plc v Spectrum Plus Limited and others HL 30-Jun-2005
Former HL decision in Siebe Gorman overruled
The company had become insolvent. The bank had a debenture and claimed that its charge over the book debts had become a fixed charge. The preferential creditors said that the charge was a floating charge and that they took priority.
Held: The . .
Cited – Regina (Nadarajah) v Secretary of State for the Home Department; Abdi v Secretary of State for the Home Department CA 22-Nov-2005
The asylum applicant challenged a certificate given by the respondent that the claim for asylum was manifestly ill-founded. The respondent had made a mistake in applying the appropriate policy, but had sought to correct the error. The claimants . .
Cited – AT and others v Dulghieru and Another QBD 19-Feb-2009
The claimants had been subject to unlawful human trafficking. Their abductors had been imprisoned, and they now sought damages. The court was asked now to assess the damages to be awarded for sexual enslavement. Each claimant suffered chronic post . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Criminal Sentencing, Damages

Updated: 30 May 2022; Ref: scu.144521

Regina v Tameside Magistrates Court and Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council ex parte Coleman and Davenport: CA 22 Jul 1998

Allegations of malicious prosecution against local authorities for seeking and obtaining wrongful orders committing the claimants to prison for non-payment of Community Charge.

Citations:

[1998] EWCA Civ 1268

Statutes:

Community Charges (Administration and Enforcement) (Amendment) Regulations 1989

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Magistrates, Local Government, Torts – Other

Updated: 30 May 2022; Ref: scu.144747

Foulkes v Chief Constable of Merseyside Police: CA 9 Jun 1998

A man was locked out of the matrimonial home which he owned jointly with his wife, following a family dispute. The police told him, as was the fact, that his wife and children did not want him to re-enter the house and the police suggested that he leave the vicinity of the property until tempers had abated. He was arrested when he refused to leave and insisted that he wished to enter the house.
Held: Where a constable made an arrest after a breach of the peace had quietened before arriving, but anticipating a further breach, he had to anticipate an immediate or imminent recurrence of a breach to justify the arrest. ‘The common law power of a police constable to arrest, where no actual breach of the peace has occurred but where he apprehended that such a breach might be caused by apparently lawful conduct, was exceptional and should be exercised by him only in the clearest circumstances when he was satisfied on reasonable grounds that a breach of the peace was about to occur or was imminent. There had to be a sufficiently real and present threat to the peace to justify the extreme step of depriving of his liberty the citizen who was not at the time acting unlawfully.’
Beldam LJ said: ‘In my view, the words used by Lord Diplock and in the other authorities show that where no breach of the peace has taken place in his presence but a constable exercises his power of arrest because he fears a [future] breach, such apprehended breach must be about to occur or be imminent. In the present case PC McNamara acted with the best of intentions. He had tried persuasion but the plaintiff refused to be persuaded or to accept the sensible guidance he had been given but in my judgment that was not a sufficient basis to conclude that a breach of the peace was about to occur or was imminent. There must, I consider, be a sufficiently real and present threat to the peace to justify the extreme step of depriving of his liberty a citizen who is not at the time acting unlawfully. The factors identified by the recorder in the present case do not in my judgment measure up to a sufficiently serious or imminent threat to the peace to justify arrest.’
Thorpe LJ said of the making of an arrest for a breach of the peace: ‘I accept it is a possible result under the law as it has evolved to prevent breach of the peace. But I would hope that only in the rarest cases would domestic dispute and the rights of occupation of the matrimonial home be subject to the breach of the peace regime.’

Judges:

Beldam LJ, Thorpe LJ

Citations:

Times 26-Jun-1998, [1998] EWCA Civ 938, [1998] 3 All ER 705

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Albert v Lavin HL 3-Dec-1981
An off duty and out of uniform police officer attempted to restrain the defendant jumping ahead of a bus queue. The defendant struggled, and continued to do so even after being told that of the officer’s status. He said he had not believed that he . .

Cited by:

Cited – Chief Constable of Cleveland Police v Mark Anthony McGrogan CA 12-Feb-2002
The Chief Constable appealed a finding of false imprisonment of the claimant. He had once been properly arrested, but before he was freed, it was decided that he should be held for court and an information laid alleging breach of the peace. They . .
Cited – Wragg, Regina (on the Application Of) v Director of Public Prosecutions Admn 15-Jun-2005
The court faced a case stated where the defendant had been accused of resisting arrest. The officers claimed to have anticipated a breach of the peace, having been called to a domestic dispute.
Held: Though the defendant had not behaved with . .
Cited – Bibby v Chief Constable of Essex Police CA 6-Apr-2000
A bailiff sought to execute against goods in a shop against the will of the occupier. The police attended and when tempers were raised the police officer anticipated a breach of the peace by the bailiff and arrested him. He sought damages for that . .
Cited – Laporte, Regina (on the application of ) v Chief Constable of Gloucestershire HL 13-Dec-2006
The claimants had been in coaches being driven to take part in a demonstration at an air base. The defendant police officers stopped the coaches en route, and, without allowing any number of the claimants to get off, returned the coaches to London. . .
Cited – Humberside Police v McQuade CA 12-Jul-2001
Defendant’s appeal against an order giving judgment for the claimant in the action for damages to be assessed for wrongful arrest and personal injury. The claimant had been arrested in his home, purportedly for a breach of the peace. There was no . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Police, Torts – Other, Crime

Updated: 30 May 2022; Ref: scu.144417