Category: Torts – Other

Wilson v Chief Constable of Lancashire Constabulary: CA 5 Nov 1996

‘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.’

Judges:

Schiemann, Thorpe, Mance LJJ

Citations:

(2000) 1 Po LR 367, [1996] EWCA Civ 883

Statutes:

European Convention on Human Rights

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Christie v Leachinsky HL 25-Mar-1947
Arrested Person must be told basis of the Arrest
Police officers appealed against a finding of false imprisonment. The plaintiff had been arrested under the 1921 Act, but this provided no power of arrest (which the appellant knew). The officers might lawfully have arrested the plaintiff for the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Police, Torts – Other, Human Rights

Updated: 23 March 2022; Ref: scu.140750

Balkanbank v Naser Taher and Others: QBD 13 Feb 1995

The plaintiff had obtained a worldwide Mareva injunction, giving an undertaking for damages. On its discharge, the defendants sought to make a counterclaim. The defendant company and its subsidiaries sought to counterclaim for their damages suffered as a result of the injunction. The Irish court had ordered an enquiry as to the damages. The counterclaim now additionally pleaded torts of malicious prosecution against the plaintiff. The defendant sought to add as defendants in the original claim (and claimants in the counterclaim) subsidiary companies which had also suffered as a result of the injunction.
Held: The English court had jurisdiction to entertain the counterclaim relating to an alleged breach of the joint venture agreement under which the original injunction had been granted. It was desirable that the additional defendants should be joined to avoid a multiplicity of proceedings, and the claims fell within RSC15.6 after it had been extended following Vendervell Trustees. The remedy under a counterclaim might also be available to the company’s subsidiaries. It was said that a claimant (the additional defendants here) could not pursue a claim of civil malicious prosecution where they were not parties to the original claim. It was arguable that a tort of malicious prosecution of a civil action could succeed and it should go ahead, with the defendants joined in as claimants under the counterclaim. The claim for abuse of process should also proceed to trial.

Judges:

Clarke J

Citations:

Times 14-Apr-1995, [1995] 1 WLR 1067

Citing:

Cited – Vendervell Trustees Ltd v White HL 1971
If the dispute could be adjudicated in the absence of a party and where no order was sought against that party, joinder was unnecessary and generally not allowed.
Order 15 Rule 13 requires that the presence of the party to be joined is . .
Cited – Tetra Molectric Limited v Japan Imports Limited CA 1976
The court had allowed another company to be added as respondent to an appeal by a plaintiff against the judge’s decision against a patent’s validity. ‘Sub-paragraph (ii) of paragraph (b) widens the discretion of the court to a great extent, for now . .
Cited – Montgomery v Foy, Morgan and Co 1895
The case of Norrois v Beazley was criticised as too narrow an interpretation of the rules. The court decsribed ‘one of the great objects of the Judicature Acts, namely that where there is one subject matter out of which several disputes arise, all . .
Cited – Norris v Beazley 1877
A person could not be added to a claim as defendant where the plaintiff has no claim against him and no wish to join him. . .
See also – Balkanbank v Taher and Others (No 2) CA 18-Nov-1994
The plaintiffs had sued in Ireland and obtained a Mareva injunction. That injunction was then first extended to a worldwide injunction, before being set aside. The court could itself to enquire as to damages without deciding whether to enforce the . .
Cited – Union Bank of the Middle East Ltd v Clapham CA 15-Jul-1981
The bank having sued the defendant under a guarantee, the defendant sought to join in the principal debtor company to pursue a counterclaim. The defendant appealed a refusal on the ground that the principal would not itself have been given leave to . .
Cited – Gurtner v Circuit CA 1968
The Court described the gap in provision for the recovery of damages for injury where the driver of a vehicle was uninsured: ‘if (a) the defendant was not insured at the time of the accident or (b) his policy of insurance was avoided in the . .
Cited – Amon v Raphael Tuck and Sons Ltd 1956
The court analysed the circumstances under which additional parties might be joined to an action by a defendant, applying a narrow interpretation. The court considered whether a defendant may be added against the parties’ wishes: ‘There are two . .
Cited – Atid Navigation Co Ltd v Towage and Shipping Co Ltd 1955
The judge refused to allow an additional party to be joined to an action to pursue a counterclaim. The issues between the present parties could ‘perfectly well be decided’ without the additional party. . .
Cited – Pender v Taddei CA 22-Apr-1898
At first instance the defendant had been refused permission to join in another party (Bellani) who was a joint contractor, as a defendant to the counterclaim.
Held: The appeal failed. . .
Cited – Metal und Rohstoff AG v Donaldson Lufkin and Jenrette Inc CA 27-Jan-1989
The claimants sued for negligent advice and secured judgment. The defendant company became insolvent, and so the plaintiff now sued the US parent company alleging conspiracy. The court considered a tort of malicious prosecution of a civil claim, . .
Cited – Speed Seal Ltd v Paddington CA 1985
The court was asked whether the defendant should be permitted to add to his pleadings a counterclaim asserting that the action was brought in bad faith for the ulterior motive of damaging the defendants’ business, and not for the protection of any . .
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 . .
See Also – Balkanbank v Taher and Others 19-Feb-1994
Disclosure of legal advice. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Company

Updated: 23 March 2022; Ref: scu.78113

Derry v Peek: HL 1 Jul 1889

The House heard an action for damages for deceit or fraudulent misrepresentation.
Held: The court set out the requirements for fraud, saying that fraud is proved when it is shown that a false representation has been made knowingly or without belief in its truth or recklessly without caring whether it be true or false.
Lord Herschell said: ‘I think the authorities establish the following propositions: First, in order to sustain an action of deceit, there must be proof of fraud, and nothing short of that will suffice. Secondly, fraud is proved when it is shown that a false representation has been made (1) knowingly, or (2) without belief in its truth, or (3) recklessly, careless whether it be true or false. Although I have treated the second and third as distinct cases, I think the third is but an instance of the second, for one who makes a statement under such circumstances can have no real belief in the truth of what he states. To prevent a false statement being fraudulent, there must, I think, always be an honest belief in its truth. And this probably covers the whole ground, for one who knowingly alleges that which is false, has obviously no such honest belief. Thirdly, if fraud be proved, the motive of the person guilty of it is immaterial. It matters not that there was no intention to cheat or injure the person to whom the statement was made.’
Lord Herschell continued: ‘In my opinion making a false statement through want of care falls far short of, and is a very different thing from, fraud, and the same may be said of a false representation honestly believed though on insufficient grounds. Indeed Cotton LJ. himself indicated, in the words I have already quoted, that he should not call it fraud. But the whole current of authorities, with which I have so long detained your Lordships, shews to my mind conclusively that fraud is essential to found an action of deceit, and that it cannot be maintained where the acts proved cannot properly be so termed.’

Judges:

Lord Herschell

Citations:

(1889) 14 App Cas 337, [1889] 58 LJ Ch 864, [1889] 61 LT 265, [1889] 54 JP 148, [1889] UKHL 1

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal from – Peek v Derry CA 1887
The court considered an action for damages for deceit: ‘As I understand the law, it is not necessary that the mis-statement should be the motive, in the sense of the only motive, the only inducement of a party who has acted to his prejudice so to . .
Cited – Edgington v Fitzmaurice CA 7-Mar-1885
False Prospectus – Issuers liable in Deceit
The directors of a company issued a prospectus, falsely stating that the proceeds were to be used to complete alterations to the buildings of the company, to purchase horses and vans and to develop the trade of the company. In fact it was to pay off . .

Cited by:

Cited – Mutual Life And Citizens’ Assurance Co Ltd And Another v Evatt PC 16-Nov-1971
The plaintiff had been an investor with the defendant. He asked them about an associated company. He was given advice which was incorrect. He claimed damages for negligence.
Held: The company was not itself in the business of giving such . .
Cited – McConnel v Wright CA 24-Jan-1903
In an action by a shareholder in a limited company against a director for damages for misrepresentation in the prospectus, the time at which the damage is ordered to be assessed, is the date of the allotment to the plaintiff; accordingly, where the . .
Cited – Smith New Court Securities Ltd v Scrimgeour Vickers HL 21-Nov-1996
The defendant had made misrepresentations, inducing the claimant to enter into share transactions which he would not otherwise have entered into, and which lost money.
Held: A deceitful wrongdoer is properly liable for all actual damage . .
Cited – Hedley Byrne and Co Ltd v Heller and Partners Ltd HL 28-May-1963
Banker’s Liability for Negligent Reference
The appellants were advertising agents. They were liable themselves for advertising space taken for a client, and had sought a financial reference from the defendant bankers to the client. The reference was negligent, but the bankers denied any . .
Cited – Nocton v Lord Ashburton HL 19-Jun-1914
The defendant solicitor had persuaded his client to release a charge, thus advancing the solicitor’s own subsequent charge on the same property. The action was started in the Chancery Division of the High Court. The statement of claim alleged fraud . .
Cited – Candler v Crane Christmas and Co CA 15-Dec-1950
Though the accounts of the company in which the plaintiff had invested had been carelessly prepared and gave a wholly misleading picture of the state of the company, the plaintiff could not recover damages. A false statement, carelessly, as . .
Cited – Heilbut Symons and Co v Buckleton HL 11-Nov-1912
In an action of damages for fraudulent misrepresentation and breach of warranty, the plaintiff founded on a conversation between himself and the defendants’ representative. In this conversation the plaintiff said-‘I understand that you are bringing . .
Cited – Grosvenor Casinos Ltd v National Bank of Abu Dhabi ComC 17-Mar-2008
Banker’s reference no guarantee
An Arab businessman lost pounds 18m at the claimant casino, and wrote scrip cheques against his account with the defendant. The claimant obtained judgment, but being unable to enforce that judgment pursued his bank. The club had used a system where . .
Cited – Robinson v National Bank of Scotland HL 10-Apr-1916
The pursuer claimed for false and fraudulent misrepresentation againt his bankers.
Held: A duty of care is not only owed in cases of fiduciary relationship in the narrow sense of relationships which had been recognised by the court of Chancery . .
Cited – Lindsay v O’Loughnane QBD 18-Mar-2010
The claimant had purchased Euros through a foreign exchange dealer. The dealer company became insolvent, causing losses to the claimant, who sought to recover from the company’s managing director, the defendant, saying that he was aware of the . .
Cited – John Ruskin College v Harley QBD 26-Nov-2013
A sum had been paid into court in 1997. Other sums were paid out, but this sum was left against costs liability. It was discovered much laterand paid out to the claimant. The former defendant now said that it had been paid out twice, and alleged . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Torts – Other

Leading Case

Updated: 11 February 2022; Ref: scu.180945

Entick v Carrington: KBD 1765

The Property of Every Man is Sacred

The King’s Messengers entered the plaintiff’s house and seized his papers under a warrant issued by the Secretary of State, a government minister.
Held: The common law does not recognise interests of state as a justification for allowing what would otherwise be an unlawful search. Lord Camden CJ said: ‘Our law holds the property of every man so sacred, that no man can set his foot upon his neighbour’s close without his leave; if he does, he is a trespasser, though he does no damage at all; if he will tread upon his neighbour’s ground, he must justify it by law . . we can safely say there is no law in this country to justify the defendants in what they have done; if there was, it would destroy all the comforts of society; for papers are often the dearest property a man can have.’ and ‘with respect to the argument of State necessity, or a distinction that has been aimed at between state offences and others, the common law does not understand that kind of reasoning, nor do our books take notice of any such distinctions.’
‘If it is law, it will be found in our books. If it is not to be found there, it is not law.’
Pratt LJ said: ‘The great end for which men entered into society was to secure their properties. That right is preserved sacred and incommunicable in all instances where it has not been abridged by some public law for the good of the whole.’

Judges:

Lord Camden CJ, Pratt LJ

Citations:

(1765) 2 Wils 275, (1765) 19 St Tr 1030, [1765] EWHC KB J98, [1799] EngR 236, (1799) 2 Wils KB 275, (1799) 95 ER 807, 1558-1774 All ER Rep 45

Links:

Bailii, Commonlii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

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 – 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 – Davidson v Scottish Ministers HL 15-Dec-2005
The complainant a prisoner sought an order that he should not be kept in conditions found to be inhumane. He had been detained in Barlinnie priosn. The Crown replied that a mandatory order was not available against the Scottish Ministers.
Cited – Christie v Leachinsky HL 25-Mar-1947
Arrested Person must be told basis of the Arrest
Police officers appealed against a finding of false imprisonment. The plaintiff had been arrested under the 1921 Act, but this provided no power of arrest (which the appellant knew). The officers might lawfully have arrested the plaintiff for the . .
Cited – SK, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department Admn 25-Jan-2008
The claimant was a Zimbabwean National who was to be removed from the country. He was unlawfully held in detention pending removal. He sought damages for false imprisonment. He had been held over a long period pending decisions in the courts on the . .
Cited – Gillies v Procurator Fiscal, Elgin HCJ 1-Oct-2008
The police went to the defendant’s flat to find her boyfriend. She refused them access, but when they saw him, the police officers called out that he was under arrest under the 1995 Act, and forced their way past the door and the defendant. The . .
Cited – Bancoult, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (No 2) HL 22-Oct-2008
The claimants challenged the 2004 Order which prevented their return to their homes on the Chagos Islands. The islanders had been taken off the island to leave it for use as a US airbase. In 2004, the island was no longer needed, and payment had . .
Cited – In re Guardian News and Media Ltd and Others; HM Treasury v Ahmed and Others SC 27-Jan-2010
Proceedings had been brought to challenge the validity of Orders in Council which had frozen the assets of the claimants in those proceedings. Ancillary orders were made and confirmed requiring them not to be identified. As the cases came to the . .
Cited – Anton Piller v Manufacturing Processes Ltd CA 8-Dec-1975
Civil Search Orders possible
The plaintiff manufactured and supplied through the defendants, its English agents, computer components. It had reason to suspect that the defendant was disclosing its trade secrets to competitors. The court considered the effect of a civil search . .
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 – Davidson v Scottish Ministers HL 15-Jul-2004
The claimant had sought damages for the conditions in which he had been held in prison in Scotland. He later discovered that one of the judges had acted as Lord Advocate representing as to the ability of the new Scottish Parliamentary system to . .
Cited – Landlords Association for Northern Ireland, Re an Application for Judicial Review QBNI 14-Mar-2005
. .
Cited – Sovereign Dimensional Survey Ltd v Cooper SCS 28-Nov-2008
. .
Cited – HM Treasury v Ahmed and Others SC 27-Jan-2010
The claimants objected to orders made freezing their assets under the 2006 Order, after being included in the Consolidated List of suspected members of terrorist organisations.
Held: The orders could not stand. Such orders were made by the . .
Cited – Chic Fashions (West Wales) Ltd v Jones CA 12-Dec-1967
Lord Denning MR said that a constable equipped with a search warrant: ‘may seize not only the goods which he reasonably to be covered by the warrant, but also any other goods which he believes on reasonable grounds to have been stolen and to be . .
Cited – Regina v Commissioner of Police for The Metropolis, ex parte Rottman HL 16-May-2002
The defendant had been arrested under an extradition warrant issued under the Act. The police had searched his premises, and found further evidence which was used to support the application for extradition. He challenged the collection and admission . .
Cited – Clarke v Chief Constable of North Wales Police CA 7-Oct-1997
. .
Cited – Regina v Secretary of State for Health, ex parte C CA 21-Feb-2000
An extra-statutory database maintained by the Secretary of State of the names of people considered to be unsafe to work with children was lawful. Two competing and genuine interests were to be balanced. The right to pursue employment without being . .
Cited – Stockdale v Hansard 1839
Bailii It is no defence in law to an action for publishing a libel, that defamatory matter is part of a order of the House of Commons, laid before the House, and thereupon became part of the proceedings of the . .
Cited – Regina v Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and Northern Electric Plc ex parte Wolf Admn 21-Aug-1997
The landowner wanted to terminate a wayleave agreement. . .
Cited – Regina v Secretary of State for Home Department ex parte Bancoult Admn 3-Mar-1999
Application for leave to appeal granted. . .
Cited – Regina v Central Criminal Court Ex Parte Bright; Regina v Same, Ex Parte Rusbridger QBD 21-Jul-2000
An order was made for a journalist to disclose to the police material disclosed to him in connection with a prosecution under the Official Secrets Act. The journalist appealed the order, on the basis that it was in effect an order that he . .
Cited – Regina v Worcester County Council Secretary of State for Department of Health ex parte S W Admn 2-Oct-2000
The court considered the lawfulness of a non-statutory list of people who might not be employed to work with children, the Consultancy Service Index. . .
Cited – Regina v Secretary of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Another, ex parte Bancoult Admn 3-Nov-2000
The applicant sought judicial review of an ordinance made by the commissioner for the British Indian Ocean Territory. An issue was raised whether the High Court in London had jurisdiction to entertain the proceedings and grant relief.
Held: . .
Cited – Regina (Hoverspeed Limited and others) v Commissioners of Customs and Excise CA 10-Dec-2002
Passengers leaving a ferry had been stopped by Customs. The vehicle was searched and a quantity of alcohol and tobacco found, which they believed not to be for personal consumption. The car and imports had been forfeited. The court had said that the . .
Cited – O Ltd v Z ChD 23-Feb-2005
The court was asked whether a search under a court order of a former employee’s computer for materials alleged to have been taken, which discovered material possession of which itself was a crime, infringed the defendant’s rights against self . .
Cited – Secretary of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs v Bancoult, Regina (on the Application of) CA 23-May-2007
The claimant was a Chagos Islander removed in 1970 to make way for a US airbase. The court had ordered that the islanders be allowed to return, but the appellant had passed an Order in Council effectively reversing the position, and now appealed a . .
Cited – Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Admn 10-Oct-2007
. .
Cited – Bhatti and Others v Croydon Magistrates Court and Others Admn 6-Nov-2009
. .
Cited – Bhatti and Others v Croydon Magistrates’ Court and Others Admn 3-Feb-2010
The claimant challenged the valiity of search warrants used at his home. He said they were deficient in not including the information as required by the Act. The police said that they were in accordance with the Home Office guidance.
Held: . .
Cited – Coward v Harraden QBD 2-Dec-2011
Parties had fought each other in wide ranging litigation. The claimant found covert surveillance devices in his home, and discovered evidence that the defendant may have information as to who had placed them. Earlier orders had been made for the . .
Cited – Mills and Another, Regina (on The Application of) v Sussex Police and Another Admn 25-Jul-2014
The claimants faced criminal charges involving allegations of fraud and corruption. They now challenged by judicial review a search and seizure warrant saying that it was unlawful. A restraint order had been made against them and they had complied . .
Cited – Youssef v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs SC 27-Jan-2016
An Egyptian national, had lived here since 1994. He challenged a decision by the Secretary of State,as a member of the committee of the United Nations Security Council, known as the Resolution 1267 Committee or Sanctions Committee. The committee . .
Cited – Miller, Regina (on the Application of) v The Prime Minister; Cherry QC v Lord Advocate SC 24-Sep-2019
Prerogative act of prorogation was justiciable.
The Prime Minister had prorogued Parliament for a period of five weeks, leaving only a short time for Parliament to debate and act the forthcoming termination of the membership by the UK of the EU. The Scottish Court had decided (Cherry) that the . .
Cited – Privacy International, Regina (on The Application of) v Investigatory Powers Tribunal and Others SC 15-May-2019
The Court was asked whether the actions of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal were amenable to judicial review: ‘what if any material difference to the court’s approach is made by any differences in context or wording, and more particularly the . .
Cited – Haralambous, Regina (on The Application of) v Crown Court at St Albans and Another SC 24-Jan-2018
The appellant challenged by review the use of closed material first in the issue of a search warrant, and subsequently to justify the retention of materials removed during the search.
Held: The appeal failed. No express statutory justification . .
Cited – Robinson v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police SC 8-Feb-2018
Limits to Police Exemption from Liability
The claimant, an elderly lady was bowled over and injured when police were chasing a suspect through the streets. As they arrested him they fell over on top of her. She appealed against refusal of her claim in negligence.
Held: Her appeal . .
Cited – Poole Borough Council v GN and Another SC 6-Jun-2019
This appeal is concerned with the liability of a local authority for what is alleged to have been a negligent failure to exercise its social services functions so as to protect children from harm caused by third parties. The principal question of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Constitutional

Leading Case

Updated: 11 February 2022; Ref: scu.184696

JD, MAK and RK, RK and Another v East Berkshire Community Health, Dewsbury Health Care NHS Trust and Kirklees Metropolitan Council, Oldham NHS Trust and Dr Blumenthal: CA 31 Jul 2003

Damages were sought by parents for psychological harm against health authorities for the wrongful diagnosis of differing forms of child abuse. They appealed dismissal of their awards on the grounds that it was not ‘fair just and reasonable’ to impose such a duty. The appellants sought to distinguish X v Bedfordshire in different ways.
Held: The appeals concerned a fundamental aspect of the law of negligence. The courts would not extend the duty of care unless it was ‘fair just and reasonable.’ No infringement or article 6 was involved in that decision. Human rights law as regards the infringement of the right to family life would require investigation of the individual facts, and was an extension of the pre-existing law, but that could not assist parties affected by acts predating the Human Rights Act. For claims by children there would always be conflicting interests, but for parents their interests would always be for the child to stay with them. Therefore there would be no investigation of the facts of their circumstances required, and no claim.

Judges:

Lady Justice Hale Lord Justice Latham Lord Phillips Of Worth Matravers, Mr

Citations:

[2003] EWCA Civ 1151, Times 21-Aug-2003, [2003] 3 FCR 1, [2003] 4 All E R 796, [2004] QB 558, (2004) 76 BMLR 61, [2003] Lloyd’s Rep Med 552, [2003] HRLR 35, (2004) 7 CCL Rep 63, [2003] 2 FLR 1166, [2003] UKHRR 1200, [2004] 2 WLR 58, [2003] Fam Law 816

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

European Convention on Human Rights 6 8.1

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Applied – Caparo Industries Plc v Dickman and others HL 8-Feb-1990
Limitation of Loss from Negligent Mis-statement
The plaintiffs sought damages from accountants for negligence. They had acquired shares in a target company and, relying upon the published and audited accounts which overstated the company’s earnings, they purchased further shares.
Held: The . .
Cited – X (Minors) v Bedfordshire County Council; M (A Minor) and Another v Newham London Borough Council; Etc HL 29-Jun-1995
Liability in Damages on Statute Breach to be Clear
Damages were to be awarded against a Local Authority for breach of statutory duty in a care case only if the statute was clear that damages were capable of being awarded. in the ordinary case a breach of statutory duty does not, by itself, give rise . .
Cited – Barrett v London Borough of Enfield CA 25-Mar-1997
A Local Authority is only vicariously liable for the negligence of a social worker to a child in care. . .
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 . .
Cited – H v Norfolk County Council CA 10-May-1996
This was an application for leave to appeal against a striking out order. The plaintiff, aged 22, alleged that he had been physically and sexually abused by his foster father. He claimed that the council was negligent in not properly monitoring and . .
Cited – Stovin v Wise, Norfolk County Council (Third Party) HL 24-Jul-1996
Statutory Duty Does Not Create Common Law Duty
The mere existence of statutory power to remedy a defect cannot of itself create a duty of care to do so. A highway authority need not have a duty of care to highway users because of its duty to maintain the highway. The two stage test ‘involves . .
Appeal from – JD v East Berkshire Community Health QBD 2003
The claimants sought damages after being wrongfully accused of abusing their children.
Held: Public policy considerations militated strongly against the existence of any duty on the facts of the case. No duty of care can be owed by the doctor . .
Appeal from – RK and MK v Oldham NHS Trust 2003
Apprehension, fear and discomfort are not generally compensatable. . .

Cited by:

Cited – A and Another v Essex County Council CA 17-Dec-2003
The claimant sought damages. The respondent had acted as an adoption agency but had failed to disclose all relevant information about the child.
Held: Any such duty extended only during the period where the child was with the prospective . .
Cited – Binod Sutradhar v Natural Environment Research Council CA 20-Feb-2004
The defendant council had carried out research into a water supply in India in the 1980s. The claimant drank the water, and claimed damages for having consumed arsenic in it.
Held: There is a close link between the tests in law for proximity . .
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 – Price and others v Leeds City Council CA 16-Mar-2005
The defendant gypsies had moved their caravans onto land belonging to the respondents without planning permission. They appealed an order to leave saying that the order infringed their rights to respect for family life.
Held: There had been . .
Appeal from – JD v East Berkshire Community Health NHS Trust and others HL 21-Apr-2005
Parents of children had falsely and negligently been accused of abusing their children. The children sought damages for negligence against the doctors or social workers who had made the statements supporting the actions taken. The House was asked if . .
Cited – AD and OH (A Child) v Bury Metropolitan Borough Council CA 17-Jan-2006
The claimants, mother and son, sought damages from the respondent after they had commenced care proceedings resulting in the son being taken into temporary care. The authority had wrongly suspected abuse. The boy was later found to suffer brittle . .
Cited – Pierce v Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council QBD 13-Dec-2007
The claimant sought damages, saying that the local authority had failed to protect him when he was a child against abuse by his parents.
Held: The claimant had been known to the authority since he was a young child, and they owed him a duty of . .
Cited – Hertfordshire Police v Van Colle; Smith v Chief Constable of Sussex Police HL 30-Jul-2008
Police Obligations to Witnesses is Limited
A prosecution witness was murdered by the accused shortly before his trial. The parents of the deceased alleged that the failure of the police to protect their son was a breach of article 2.
Held: The House was asked ‘If the police are alerted . .
Cited – Purdy, Regina (on the Application of) v Director of Public Prosecutions and Another QBD 29-Oct-2008
The applicant suffered mutiple sclerosis and considered that she might wish to go abroad to end her life. She asked the court to make more clear the guidance provided by the Director as to whether her partner might be prosecuted under section 2(1) . .
Cited – Purdy, Regina (on the Application of) v Director of Public Prosecutions and Another Admn 29-Oct-2008
The applicant said that the defendant had unlawfully failed to provide detailed guidance under section 10 of the 1985 Act, on the circumstances under which a prosecution might lie of a person performing acts which might assist another to commit . .
Cited – Trent Strategic Health Authority v Jain and Another HL 21-Jan-2009
The claimants’ nursing home business had been effectively destroyed by the actions of the Authority which had applied to revoke their licence without them being given notice and opportunity to reply. They succeeded on appeal, but the business was by . .
Cited – CN and Another v Poole Borough Council QBD 16-Mar-2016
Appeal against striking out of claim for damages in negligence.
Held: Allowed. The claim should proceed.
The principal issue was whether the decision of the Court of Appeal in D v East Berkshire Community NHS Trust [2003] EWCA Civ 1151; . .
Cited – CN and Another v Poole Borough Council CA 21-Dec-2017
The court considered the existence of a tortious duty of care to children, on the part of a local authority, to protect them from harassment and abuse by third parties. The Council appealed against an order re-instating the claims after they had . .
Cited – Poole Borough Council v GN and Another SC 6-Jun-2019
This appeal is concerned with the liability of a local authority for what is alleged to have been a negligent failure to exercise its social services functions so as to protect children from harm caused by third parties. The principal question of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Professional Negligence, Human Rights

Updated: 11 February 2022; Ref: scu.185264

Charter Plc and Another v City Index Ltd and others: ChD 12 Oct 2006

An employee of the claimant had fraudulently spent several million pounds of the claimant’s money on personal bets through the defendant company. The claimant said that the defendants knew the origin of the funds and were liable to repay them. Having settled the claim in part the defendants now claimed contributions from directors of the claimant companies, saying that they themselves contributed to the loss in failing to control their accounts adequately.
Held: The defendant’s request for summary dismissal of the claim succeeded. A claim in knowing receipt is one ‘to recover compensation…in respect of. damage’. The Part 20 claim of City Index satisfed ss.1 and 6 of the 1978 Act because (a) the decision of the Court of Appeal in respect of knowing receipt in Friends Provident Life Office v Hillier, Parker, May and Rowden was not overruled expressly or by implication by the House of Lords in Royal Brompton NHS Trust v Hammond; and (b) a claim for knowing receipt is a claim for compensation for damage sustained in consequence of a breach of trust notwithstanding that it may also be described as restitutionary. The decision of the Court of Appeal in Friends’ Provident that a claim in knowing receipt was one to recover compensation in respect of damage was binding, and the remedy for knowing receipt was compensatory within the provisions of section 6(1) even if it might also be described a restitutionary.

Judges:

Sir Andrew Morritt, Chancellor

Citations:

Times 27-Oct-2006, [2006] EWHC 2508 (Ch), [2007] 1 All ER 1049, [2007] 1 WLR 26

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Civil Liability (Contribution) Act 1978

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – El Ajou v Dollar Land Holdings Ltd CA 2-Dec-1993
The court was asked whether, for the purposes of establishing a company’s liability under the knowing receipt head of constructive trust, the knowledge of one of its directors can be treated as having been the knowledge of the company.
Held: . .
Cited – Friends’ Provident Life Office v Hillier, Parker May and Rowden CA 1997
Friends Provident had participated in a development project on terms which required it to pay its share of the development costs as it proceeded. It employed Hillier Parker, a firm of surveyors, to check demands made from time to time for payment of . .
Cited – Bank of Credit and Commerce International (Overseas) Ltd and Another v Akindele CA 22-Jun-2000
The test of whether a person who received funds held them on constructive trust, was not whether he himself was dishonest, but rather whether he had knowledge of circumstances which made it unconscionable to hold on to the money received. In respect . .
Cited – Royal Brompton Hospital National Health Service Trust v Hammond and others HL 25-Apr-2002
The claimants sought damages against the defendants for their late delivery of a building. The contractors sought to share the damages with the architects who had certified the delays, defeating their own claims.
Held: The Act sought to extend . .
Cited – K v P (J, Third Party) 1993
Illegality was arguably not a defence to a claim under the Act of 1978: ‘The Act of 1978 extends the potential for contribution beyond joint tortfeasors to joint contractors, joint trustees and others who are liable in respect of the same damage. . . .
Cited – Nocton v Lord Ashburton HL 19-Jun-1914
The defendant solicitor had persuaded his client to release a charge, thus advancing the solicitor’s own subsequent charge on the same property. The action was started in the Chancery Division of the High Court. The statement of claim alleged fraud . .
Cited – Target Holdings Ltd v Redferns and Another CA 24-Nov-1993
Solicitors were liable to mortgagees for mortgage monies which had been out by them paid in advance of the completion of the purchase which would allow the mortgagee’s loan to be charged. The basic liability of a trustee in breach of trust was not . .
Cited – Niru Battery Manufacturing Company, Bank Sepah Iran v Milestone Trading Limited CA 28-Apr-2004
Niru contracted to buy lead from Milestone, to be paid for in a letter of credit, against certifying documents produced for the purpose. Mr Mahdavi, the individual behind Milestone, procured CAI to finance the acquisition of warrants to be retained . .
Cited – Royal Brunei Airlines SDN BHD v Tan PC 24-May-1995
(Brunei) The defendants were a one-man company, BLT, and the one man, Mr Tan. A dishonest third party to a breach of trust was liable to make good a resulting loss even though he had received no trust property. The test of knowledge was an objective . .
Cited – Hurstwood Developments Ltd v Motor and General and Andersley and Coinsurance Services Limited and Another CA 21-Nov-2001
. .
Cited – Gruppo Torras v Al Sabah ChD 24-Jun-1999
Liability based on knowing receipt did not ‘depend on the commission of any wrong or give rise to any obligation to make good any loss other than by way of restitution.’ . .
Cited – Twinsectra Ltd v Yardley and Others HL 21-Mar-2002
Solicitors acted in a loan, giving an undertaking as to its application. In breach of that undertaking they released it to the borrower. The appellants appealed a finding of liability as contributors to the breach.
Held: ‘Money in a . .
Cited – Downs v Chappell; Downs v Stephenson Smart (a Firm) CA 1996
The plaintiff purchased a book shop. He claimed that in doing so he had relied upon the accounts prepared and signed off by the respective defendants.
Held: The judge had been wrong by testing what would have been the true figures as against . .
Cited – R McDonald v Coys of Kensington Ltd CA 5-Feb-2004
The claimants were car auctioneers. They had been instructed to sell a car, but to withhold the cherished number plate. By mistake it was transferred with the car. Before the plate could be returned, the defendant had transferred it to his partner. . .
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 – Eastgate Group Ltd v Lindsey Morden Group Inc, and Smith and Williamson (a Firm) CA 10-Oct-2001
The defendant faced a claim for breach of warranties given by vendors in a company share sale agreement. The sought a contribution from the purchasers accountants who had prepared figures upon which the purchase decision was based. The defendants’ . .

Cited by:

Appeal from – City Index Ltd and others v Gawler and others; Charter plc v City Index Ltd CA 21-Dec-2007
A senior employee of Charter had fraudulently spent substantial sums with City Index. City Index had paid out on a claim of knowing receipt, and sought contributions from directors of Charter and their auditors, saying that they had known of the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Equity, Torts – Other, Damages

Updated: 11 February 2022; Ref: scu.246077

Robinson v National Bank of Scotland: HL 10 Apr 1916

The pursuer claimed for false and fraudulent misrepresentation againt his bankers.
Held: A duty of care is not only owed in cases of fiduciary relationship in the narrow sense of relationships which had been recognised by the court of Chancery as being of a fiduciary character. There are other special relationships.

Judges:

Lord Haldane, Earl Loreburn

Citations:

[1916] SC (HL) 154, [1916] UKHL 4, 1916 1 SLT 336

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Explained – Nocton v Lord Ashburton HL 19-Jun-1914
The defendant solicitor had persuaded his client to release a charge, thus advancing the solicitor’s own subsequent charge on the same property. The action was started in the Chancery Division of the High Court. The statement of claim alleged fraud . .
Cited – Derry v Peek HL 1-Jul-1889
The House heard an action for damages for deceit or fraudulent misrepresentation.
Held: The court set out the requirements for fraud, saying that fraud is proved when it is shown that a false representation has been made knowingly or without . .

Cited by:

Cited – Hedley Byrne and Co Ltd v Heller and Partners Ltd HL 28-May-1963
Banker’s Liability for Negligent Reference
The appellants were advertising agents. They were liable themselves for advertising space taken for a client, and had sought a financial reference from the defendant bankers to the client. The reference was negligent, but the bankers denied any . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Scotland, Negligence, Torts – Other, Banking

Updated: 11 February 2022; Ref: scu.216365

Roberts v J and F Stone Lighting and Radio Ltd: 1945

Claim for damages against witness who fails to attend court though summonsed when the case was lost.
Held: the reason why no such claim had in fact succeeded was because of the difficulty in establishing the loss.

Judges:

Asquith J

Citations:

(1945) 172 LT 240

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Re N CA 20-May-1999
The claimant was a victim of a rape. She alleged that the police had mishandled the prosecution, resulting in the dismissal of the charges against the defendant, which in turn, she said exacerbated her own post traumatic stress disorder.
Held: . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other

Updated: 07 February 2022; Ref: scu.224416

Jamieson, Official Liquidator of The Garpel Heamatite Co (Ltd), Petitioner: SCS 13 Mar 1867

Articles and a memorandum of association were subscribed by the intending partners of a limited company, bearing that the ‘nominal capital of the company is pounds 105,000, divided into 1000 shares of pounds 105 each, whereof pounds 100,000 is paid up, and pounds 5000 remains to be called.’ A petition was presented by the official liquidator, in the winding-up of the company, alleging that the statement as to paid-up capital was false, that, in fact, no part of the subscribed capital was paid up, and that the subscribers to the memorandum and articles knew this to be the case; and craving the Court to settle a list of contributories as proposed by him, and make a call of pounds 30 per share. In a question between the petitioner and certain parties, who had purchased shares from original shareholders subsequent to the formation of the company, and who disputed their liability for more than pounds 5 per share or such part thereof as remained unpaid, held, by a majority of the whole Court, that the petitioner was entitled to a proof of the grounds upon which he contended that the names of these parties ought to be placed on the list of contributories. Opinion, by majority, that the limit of liability depended not on the bona fides of purchasers of shares, but on the fact, how far the amount of the shares was paid or unpaid. Held, that to the effect of enforcing any statutory liability of the share-holders to the creditors of the company the liquidator represents the creditors.

Citations:

[1867] SLR 5 – 372

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

Scotland

Company, Torts – Other

Updated: 01 February 2022; Ref: scu.574832

Tuke v Hood: CA 14 Jan 2022

A person is deceived by a fraudster into selling to him, at an under-value, a valuable and appreciating chattel which he bought as an investment and which, but for the deceit, he would otherwise have retained for himself (and thus benefited from any appreciation in its value). The issue raised in this appeal is whether, in the computation of damages for deceit, and specifically, the head of damages compensating the victim for the loss of that investment opportunity, the victim is obliged to give credit to the fraudster not only for the cash he received as part of the fraudulently induced sale transaction, but also for the ‘time value’ of that money in the period between that transaction and the trial.

Judges:

Lord Justice Coulson
Lord Justice Baker
And
Lady Justice Andrews

Citations:

[2022] EWCA Civ 23

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Damages, Torts – Other

Updated: 01 February 2022; Ref: scu.671228

Hickox v Dickinson and Another: ChD 22 Sep 2020

Trial of a Part 8 claim under which the Claimant is seeking information relating to an oil painting entitled Calanque de Canoubier (Pointe de Bamer) made by the impressionist painter Paul Signac in 1896 (‘the Painting’). The Claimant contends that the Painting was stolen from her by a third party Mr Timothy Sammons. Mr Sammons is a former art dealer who was convicted of grand larceny and fraud in New York on 2 July 2019. The Defendants are art dealers and advisors based in London. Their connection to the Painting is that the Second Defendant acted as agent for a purchaser of the Painting. The Claimant seeks information from them as to the location of the Painting and any transactions involving it, including the identity of any purchaser.

Judges:

Ms Clare Ambrose

Citations:

[2020] EWHC 2520 (Ch)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Torts – Other, Litigation Practice

Updated: 31 January 2022; Ref: scu.654531

Spiliada Maritime Corporation v Cansulex Ltd, The Spiliada: HL 1986

Forum Non Conveniens Restated

The House reviewed the authorities on the principle of forum non conveniens and restated how to apply the principle where the defendant seeks a stay of proceedings on the ground that there is another more appropriate forum.
Held: ‘In the result, it seems to me that the solution of disputes about the relative merits of trial in England and trial abroad is pre-eminently a matter for the trial judge . . An appeal should be rare and the appellate court should be slow to interfere.’
Lord Goff of Chieveley said that despite the use of the Latin adjective conveniens the real question in these cases was, which was the more appropriate forum: ‘[It] is not merely that the burden of proof rests on the plaintiff to persuade the court that England is the appropriate forum for the trial of the action, but that he has to show that this is clearly so.’ and a ‘defendant can apply to have service set aside on the ground that there is an alternative jurisdiction ‘in which the case may be tried more suitably for the interests of all the parties and for the ends of justice’
The burden is on the claimant to persuade the court that England is clearly the most appropriate forum for trial. ‘The key to the solution of this problem lies, in my judgment, in the underlying fundamental principle. We have to consider where the case may be tried ‘suitably for the interests of all the parties and for the ends of justice.’ Let me consider the application of that principle in relation to advantages which the plaintiff may derive from invoking the English jurisdiction. Typical examples are: damages awarded on a higher scale; a more complete procedure of discovery; a power to award interest; a more generous limitation period. Now, as a general rule, I do not think that the court should be deterred from granting a stay of proceedings . . simply because the plaintiff will be deprived of such an advantage, provided that the court is satisfied that substantial justice will be done in the available appropriate forum. Take, for example, discovery. We know that there is a spectrum of systems of discovery applicable in various jurisdictions . . No doubt each of these systems has its virtues and vices; but, generally speaking, I cannot see that, objectively, injustice can be said to have been done if a party is, in effect, compelled to accept one of these well-recognised systems applicable in the appropriate forum overseas . . Then take the scale on which damages are awarded. Suppose that two parties have been involved in a road accident in a foreign country, where both were resident, and where damages are awarded on a scale substantially lower than those awarded in this country. I do not think that an English court would, in ordinary circumstances, hesitate to stay proceedings brought by one of them against the other in this country merely because he would be deprived of a higher award of damages here. . . . But the underlying principle requires that regard must be had to the interests of all the parties and the ends of justice; and these considerations may lead to a different conclusion in other cases . . [T]ake the example of cases concerned with time bars . . Now, to take extreme examples, suppose that the plaintiff allowed the limitation period to elapse in the appropriate jurisdiction, and came here simply because he wanted to take advantage of a more generous time bar applicable in this country; or suppose that it was obvious that the plaintiff should have commenced proceedings in the appropriate jurisdiction, and yet he did not trouble to issue a protective writ there; in cases such as these, I cannot see that the court should hesitate to stay the proceedings in this country, even though the effect would be that the plaintiff’s claim would inevitably be defeated by a plea of the time bar in the appropriate jurisdiction. Indeed a strong theoretical argument can be advanced for the proposition that, if there is another clearly more appropriate forum for the trial of the action, a stay should generally be granted even though the plaintiff’s action would be time barred there. But, in my opinion, this is a case where practical justice should be done. And practical justice demands that, if the court considers that the plaintiff acted reasonably in commencing proceedings in this country, and that, although it appears that (putting on one side the time bar point) the appropriate forum for the trial of the action is elsewhere than England, the plaintiff did not act unreasonably in failing to commence proceedings . . in that jurisdiction within the limitation period applicable there, it would not, I think, be just to deprive the plaintiff of the benefit of having started proceedings within the limitation period applicable in this country . . ‘
Lord Templeman said: ‘I hope that in future the judge will be allowed to study the evidence and refresh his memory of the speech of my noble and learned friend Lord Goff of Chieveley in this case in the quiet of his room without expense to the parties; that he will not be referred to other decisions on other facts; and that submissions will be measured in hours and not days. An appeal should be rare and the appellate court should be slow to interfere’.

Judges:

Lord Templeman, Lord Goff of Chieveley

Citations:

[1987] 1 AC 460, [1986] 3 All ER 843, [1986] 3 WLR 972, [1986] UKHL 10

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Sim v Robinow 1892
The task of the court in deciding jurisdiction is to identify the forum in which the case can be suitably tried for the interests of all the parties and for the ends of justice: . .

Cited by:

Cited – Staines v Walsh, Howard ChD 14-Mar-2003
The claimant sought an account from the defendant share broker for the proceeds of share transactions. The defendant said the matter should be tried in Hong Kong.
Held: The claimant must show a good arguable case. Here there was evidence to . .
Cited – Mukta Gokaldas Hindocha (widow of C S Gheewala) and Others v Mahesh Shamjibhal Juthabhai Gheewala and Others PC 20-Nov-2003
PC (Jersey) The defendant sought a stay of the action, arguing it should be heard in another jurisdiction. He wanted the estate to be administered in Kenya, a jurisdiction which would apply Hindu laws of . .
Cited – Turner v Grovit and others HL 13-Dec-2001
The applicant was a solicitor employed by a company in Belgium. He later resigned claiming unfair dismissal, saying he had been pressed to become involved in unlawful activities. The defendants sought to challenge the jurisdiction of the English . .
Cited – Tryg Baltic International (UK) Ltd v Boston Compania De Seguros Sa and others ComC 28-May-2004
Four defendants from Argentina sought to have set aside an order for them to be served, saying the appropriate jursidiction, if there was a triable issue, would be Argentina.
Held: The agreements were to be construed according to English Law. . .
Cited – Lewis and others v King CA 19-Oct-2004
The claimant sought damages for defamation for an article published on the Internet. The claimant Don King sued in London even though he lived in the US as did the defendants.
Held: A publication via the internet occurred when the material was . .
Cited – Dow Jones and Co Inc v Jameel CA 3-Feb-2005
Presumption of Damage in Defamation is rebuttable
The defendant complained that the presumption in English law that the victim of a libel had suffered damage was incompatible with his right to a fair trial. They said the statements complained of were repetitions of statements made by US . .
Cited – Pt Pan Indonesia Bank Ltd Tbk v Marconi Communications International Ltd CA 27-Apr-2005
The parties disputed the jurisdiction of the English courts over a letter of credit. It foresaw payment here and in sterling, made by the English bank as against the appropriate documents. Authority had been given for service out of the . .
Cited – Limit (No 3) Ltd and others v PDV Insurance Company CA 11-Apr-2005
There had been substantial oil leaks in Venezuela, which had been insured and then re-insured in London. Permission had been given to serve the defendant out of the jurisdiction, but that permission had been set aside. The claimant now appealed.
Cited – Crofts and others v Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd and others CA 19-May-2005
The claimants were airline pilots employed by the respondent company with headquarters in Hong Kong. The court was asked whether an English Tribunal had jurisdiction to hear their complaints of unfair dismissal.
Held: The pilots were employed . .
Cited – Sawyer v Atari Interactive Inc ChD 1-Nov-2005
The claimant owned the copyright in several successful computer games. He had granted licenses for the use of the software, which licences were assigned to the defendants. Disputes arose as to the calculation of royalty payments, and the claimant . .
Cited – Islamic Republic of Pakistan v Zardari and others ComC 6-Oct-2006
The claimant alleged that the defendants had funded the purchase of various properties by secret and unlawful commissions taken by them whilst in power in Pakistan. They sought to recover the proceeds. They now sought permission to serve proceedings . .
Cited – Ashton Investments Ltd. and Another v OJSC Russian Aluminium (Rusal) and others ComC 18-Oct-2006
The claimants sought damages for breach of confidence saying that the defendants had hacked into their computer systems via the internet to seek privileged information in the course of litigation. The defendants denied this and said the courts had . .
Cited – Dellar v Zivy and others ChD 9-Oct-2007
Disappointed beneficiaries said they had been told that the deceased would leave certain shares to them. He did not do so, and they said the will had incorrectly interpreted his instructions. The defendants denied that the English court had . .
Cited – Cooley v Ramsey QBD 1-Feb-2008
The claimant sought damages after being severely injured in a road traffic accident in Australia caused by the defendant. The defendant denied that the court had jurisdiction to permit service out of the jurisdiction. The claimant said that the . .
Cited – Berezovsky v Forbes Inc and Michaels; Glouchkov v Same HL 16-May-2000
Plaintiffs who lived in Russia sought damages for defamation against an American magazine with a small distribution in England. Both plaintiffs had real connections with and reputations in England. A judgment in Russia would do nothing to repair the . .
Cited – 889457 Alberta Inc v Katanga Mining Ltd and others ComC 5-Nov-2008
The parties had set out on a joint venture with deeds providing for control of the shareholdings in each other. The claimant asserted a breach of the deed and sought a remedy. The first defendant company, incorporated in Bermuda argued that the . .
Cited – Pacific International Sports Clubs Ltd v Soccer Marketing International Ltd and Others ChD 24-Jul-2009
The parties disputed ownership of shares in the football club Dynamo Kiev. Claims were to be made under Ukrainian company law and in equity. The claimant (a company registered in Mauritius) sought to proceed here. The defendants (largely companies . .
Cited – Agbaje v Akinnoye-Agbaje SC 10-Mar-2010
The parties had divorced in Nigeria, but the former wife now sought relief in the UK under section 10 of the 194 Act. The wife said that she lived here, but the order made in Nigeria was severely detrimental requiring her either to live here in . .
Cited – Lubbe (Suing As Administrator Of The Estate Of Rachel Jacoba Lubbe) and 4 Others v Cape plc and Related Appeals HL 22-Jun-2000
South African asbestosis victims suing in England submitted that to stay their proceedings in favour of the South African forum would violate their article 6 rights. A stay was refused on the non-Convention ground that, because of the lack of . .
Cited – Ashby and Others v Birmingham City Council QBD 3-Mar-2011
The claimants appealed against the strike out of their claims for damages for breach of contract on imposing changes in employment contract and conditions. The County Court had accepted the Council’s arguments on the construction and application of . .
Cited – Birmingham City Council v Abdulla and Others CA 29-Nov-2011
The Council appealed against an order dismissing its application for the claimants’ claims under equal pay legislation to be struck out for want of jurisdiction. The claims had been brought in the High Court rather than te hEmployment Tribunal, thus . .
Cited – Birmingham City Council v Abdulla and Others SC 24-Oct-2012
Former employees wished to argue that they had been discriminated against whilst employed by the Council. Being out of time for Employment Tribunal Proceedings, they sought to bring their cases in the ordinary courts. The Council now appealed . .
Cited – VTB Capital Plc v Nutritek International Corp and Others SC 6-Feb-2013
The claimant bank said that it had been induced to create very substantial lending facilities by fraudulent misrepresentation by the defendants. They now appealed against findings that England was not clearly or distinctly the appropriate forum for . .
Cited – Novus Aviation Ltd v Onur Air Tasimacilik As CA 27-Feb-2009
The defendant appealed against a refusal to set aside the grant of leave to serve outside the jurisdiction granted to the claimant. Neither party conducted and business in England, and the contract was made in Switzerland, but was expressed to be . .
Cited – Vidal-Hall and Others v Google Inc QBD 16-Jan-2014
The claimants alleged misuse of their private information in collecting information about their internet useage when using Google products. Google now applied for an order setting aside consent for service out of the jurisdiction.
Held: The . .
Cited – Ahuja v Politika Novine I Magazini Doo and Others QBD 23-Nov-2015
Action for misuse of private information and libel. Application to have set aside leave to serve out of the jurisdiction. The defendant published a newspaper in Serbian, in print in Serbia and online. Though in Serbian, the claimant said that online . .
Cited – Vedanta Resources Plc and Another v Lungowe and Others SC 10-Apr-2019
The claimants alleged negligence causing them personal injury and other losses arising from pollution from mining operations of the defendants in Zambia. The company denied jurisdiction. In the Court of Appeal the defendants’ appeals were dismissed. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Jurisdiction, Torts – Other

Leading Case

Updated: 30 January 2022; Ref: scu.192613

AAA and Others v Unilever Plc and Another: CA 4 Jul 2018

Sales LJ said: ‘There is no special doctrine in the law of tort of legal responsibility on the part of a parent company in relation to the activities of its subsidiary, vis-a-vis persons affected by those activities. Parent and subsidiary are separate legal persons, each with responsibility for their own separate activities. A parent company will only be found to be subject to a duty of care in relation to an activity of its subsidiary if ordinary, general principles of the law of tort regarding the imposition of a duty of care on the part of the parent in favour of a claimant are satisfied in the particular case. The legal principles are the same as would apply in relation to the question whether any third party (such as a consultant giving advice to the subsidiary) was subject to a duty of care in tort owed to a claimant dealing with the subsidiary. Helpful guidance as to relevant considerations was given in Chandler v Cape plc; but that case did not lay down a separate test, distinct from general principle, for the imposition of a duty of care in relation to a parent company.’ and ‘Although the legal principles are the same, it may be that on the facts of a particular case a parent company, having greater scope to intervene in the affairs of its subsidiary than another third party might have, has taken action of a kind which is capable of meeting the relevant test for imposition of a duty of care in respect of the parent.’

Judges:

Lady Justice Gloster
Lord Justice Sales
And
Lord Justice Newey

Citations:

[2018] EWCA Civ 1532

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Vedanta Resources Plc and Another v Lungowe and Others SC 10-Apr-2019
The claimants alleged negligence causing them personal injury and other losses arising from pollution from mining operations of the defendants in Zambia. The company denied jurisdiction. In the Court of Appeal the defendants’ appeals were dismissed. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, International

Updated: 30 January 2022; Ref: scu.618967

Ogale Community and Others v Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Another: CA 14 Feb 2018

The claimants sought damages after widescale historic damage to areas of Nigeria by subsidiaries of the defendant. The defendant said that the court did not have jurisdiction to hear such a claim.
Held: The claimants had not established the existence of a duty of care in the respondent, and the case would be bound to fail.

Judges:

Sir Geoffrey Vos CH, Sales, Simon LJJ

Citations:

[2018] EWCA Civ 191, [2018] WLR(D) 92, [2018] Bus LR 1022

Links:

Bailii, WLRD

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

At FTT – HRH Emere Godwin Bebe Okpabi and Others v Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Another TCC 26-Jan-2017
Claims for damages arising from failures in oil pipeline management in Nigeria. . .

Cited by:

Appeal from (CA) – Okpabi and Others v Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Another SC 12-Feb-2021
. .
Cited – Vedanta Resources Plc and Another v Lungowe and Others SC 10-Apr-2019
The claimants alleged negligence causing them personal injury and other losses arising from pollution from mining operations of the defendants in Zambia. The company denied jurisdiction. In the Court of Appeal the defendants’ appeals were dismissed. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Environment, Torts – Other, Negligence

Updated: 30 January 2022; Ref: scu.605187

Jomast Accommodation Ltd v G4S Care and Justice Services (UK) Ltd: ChD 9 Feb 2017

Assorted claims for breach of contract and fraudulent misrepresentation in sub-contract for provision of accomodation to asylum seekers.

Judges:

Lesley Anderson QC

Citations:

[2017] EWHC 200 (Ch)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Contract, Torts – Other

Updated: 29 January 2022; Ref: scu.574095

Kimathi and Others v The Foreign and Commonwealth Office: QBD 9 Feb 2017

Application notice seeking an order that certain issues be listed for hearing as a preliminary point.

Judges:

Stewart J

Citations:

[2017] EWHC 203 (QB)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

See Also – Kimathi and Others v The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Strike out) QBD 24-Nov-2016
The defendant sought to have struck out from the group litigation, as a nullity the claim by one claimant who had been deceased at the time of issue. His PRs responded that the court could deal with the matter under CPR Pt 3.
Held: The court’s . .
See Also – Kimathi and Others v The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Cross examination request) QBD 24-Nov-2016
Application to cross examine translators of claimant witness statements. . .

Cited by:

See Also – Kimathi and Others v The Foreign and Commonwealth Office QBD 28-Mar-2018
Claim as to allegations of abuse in Kenya in the 1950s. . .
See Also – Kimathi and Others v The Foreign and Commonwealth Office QBD 18-Apr-2018
Continued dispute as to admissibility of certain documents . .
See Also – Kimathi and Others v The Foreign and Commonwealth Office QBD 9-May-2018
Admissibility of extracts from Hansard . .
See Also – Kimathi and Others v The Foreign and Commonwealth Office QBD 24-May-2018
The Claimants claimed damages against the Defendant for alleged abuses arising during the course of the Kenyan Emergency during the 1950s. . .
See Also – Kimathi and Others v The Foreign and Commonwealth Office QBD 2-Aug-2018
Allegations of abuse by persons for whose conduct it is alleged the Defendant is liable, arising out of the Kenyan Emergency. . .
See Also – Kimathi and Others v The Foreign and Commonwealth Office QBD 21-Nov-2018
. .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Litigation Practice

Updated: 29 January 2022; Ref: scu.574093

ASK v The Secretary of State for The Home Department: Admn 9 Feb 2017

The claimant said that he as unlawfully detained in an Immigration Removal Centre pending removal from the United Kingdom and, once he was definitively declared unfit to fly, detained for an unreasonably long period of time before eventual transfer to a psychiatric unit.

Judges:

Green J

Citations:

[2017] EWHC 196 (Admin)

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Mental Health Act 1983 2 3 48

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Health, Torts – other

Updated: 29 January 2022; Ref: scu.573922

Cruddas v Calvert and Others: CA 21 Jun 2013

The claimant sought damages alleging both defamation and malicious falsehood. The parties appealed against the ruling that in a malicious falsehood claim, the court would accept mutiple meanings of the words used.

Judges:

Longmore, Rafferty LJJ, Sir Stephen Sedley

Citations:

[2013] EWCA Civ 748, [2014] EMLR 5

Links:

Bailii, Gazette

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

See Also – Cruddas v Calvert and Others QBD 1-May-2013
Application for leave to amend particulars of claim. . .
See Also – Cruddas v Calvert and Others QBD 5-Jun-2013
. .

Cited by:

See Also – Cruddas v Calvert and Others QBD 26-Jun-2013
. .
See Also – Cruddas v Calvert and Others QBD 31-Jul-2013
Judgment on the second stage of the trial of a claim for libel and malicious falsehood.
Held: Tugendhat J adopted the meaning ‘more likely than not to cause pecuniary damage’ for ‘calculated to’. . .
See Also – Calvert and Others v Cruddas CA 16-Apr-2014
Renewed application for leave to appeal against damages award in defamation and malicious falsehood. The defendant newspaper had published critical articles, derived from recordings made by undercover reporters, and pleaded justification.
Cited – Stocker v Stocker SC 3-Apr-2019
The parties had been married and divorced. Mrs S told M S’s new partner on Facebook that he had tried to strangle her and made other allegations. Mrs S now appealed from a finding that she had defamed him. Lord Kerr restated the approach to meaning . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Defamation, Torts – Other

Updated: 29 January 2022; Ref: scu.511032

Lungowe and Others v Vedanta Resources Plc and Another: CA 13 Oct 2017

Appeal against jurisdiction order

Judges:

Jackson, Simon, Asplin LJJ

Citations:

[2017] EWCA Civ 1528, [2017] BCC 787, [2018] 1 WLR 3575, [2017] WLR(D) 741

Links:

Bailii, WLRD

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal from – Lungowe and Others v Vedanta Resources Plc and Another TCC 27-May-2016
‘The claimants are 1,826 Zambian citizens who are residents of four communities (Shimulala, Hellen, Kakosa and Hippo Pool) in the Chingola region of Zambia. On 31 July 2015, they commenced these proceedings alleging personal injury, damage to . .

Cited by:

Appeal from – Vedanta Resources Plc and Another v Lungowe and Others SC 10-Apr-2019
The claimants alleged negligence causing them personal injury and other losses arising from pollution from mining operations of the defendants in Zambia. The company denied jurisdiction. . .
See Also – Lungowe v Vedanta Resources Plc and Others TCC 27-Mar-2020
. .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Personal Injury, Torts – Other, Jurisdiction

Updated: 29 January 2022; Ref: scu.596092

DZ (Eritrea), Regina (on The Application of) v The Secretary of State for The Home Department: CA 19 Jan 2017

Appeal against rejection of claim for unlawful immigration detention.

Judges:

Gloster VP CA, David Richards LJJ, Sir Stephen Tomlinson

Citations:

[2017] EWCA Civ 14

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Immigration, Torts – Other

Updated: 29 January 2022; Ref: scu.573607

Ashley and Another v Sussex Police: CA 27 Jul 2006

The deceased was shot by police officers raiding his flat in 1998. The claimants sought damages for his estate. They had succeeded in claiming damages for false imprisonment, but now appealed dismissal of their claim for damages for assault and misfeasance. The judge below had accepted that the officer had acted in self-defence, and entered summary judgment against the claimants.
Held: The appeal succeeded. The burden of proving self-defence is on the defendant. The principles of the criminal law and the civil law have diverged in this area. In a civil case the defendant has to show that his mistaken belief is genuine, not that it was reasonable: ‘i) In criminal proceedings the burden of negativing self-defence is on the prosecution. By contrast, in civil proceedings the burden is on the defendant to establish self-defence.
ii) In criminal proceedings a defendant who mistakenly but honestly believes that it is necessary to act in self-defence is entitled to be judged on the basis that his mistaken belief is true. By contrast, in civil proceedings, his belief must be both honestly and reasonably held.
iii) In both criminal and civil proceedings, action taken in self-defence must be reasonable but, in judging what is reasonable, the court must have regard to all the circumstances of the case, including the fact that the action may have to be taken in the heat of the moment.’
As to the allegations of misfeasance in the coduct of the investigation, the claimants did not need to establish any duty of care to them. The allegations were capable of supporting a claim, and the trial should proceed.

Judges:

Sir Anthony Clarke MR, Auld LJ, Arden LJ

Citations:

[2007] 1 WLR 398, Times 30-Aug-2006, [2006] EWCA Civ 1085

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Fatal Accidents Act 1976, Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1934

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Watkins v Secretary of State for The Home Departmentand others CA 20-Jul-2004
The claimant complained that prison officers had abused the system of reading his solicitor’s correspondence whilst he was in prison. The defendant argued that there was no proof of damage.
Held: Proof of damage was not necessary in the tort . .
Cited – Watkins v Home Office and others HL 29-Mar-2006
The claimant complained of misfeasance in public office by the prisons for having opened and read protected correspondence whilst he was in prison. The respondent argued that he had suffered no loss. The judge had found that bad faith was . .
Cited – Cope v Sharpe (No 2) CA 1912
The court considered defences to assault; whether the defendant was justified in doing certain acts of trespass on the plaintiff’s land for the purpose of preventing heath fire and consequent loss and damage to the property of the defendant’s . .
Cited – Dumbell v Roberts CA 1944
The court discussed the nature of reasonable grounds for suspicion for an arrest. The threshold for the existence of reasonable grounds for suspicion is low, and the requirement is limited. Scott LJ said: ‘The protection of the public is safeguarded . .
Cited – Cresswell v Sirl CA 1948
The defendant shot and killed the plaintiff’s dog. The plaintiff claimed damages for trespass to property, the property being the dog. The defence was that the defendant was justified in killing the dog because it was threatening his sheep.
Cited – Palmer v The Queen PC 23-Nov-1970
It is a defence in criminal law to a charge of assault if the defendant had an honest belief that he was going to be attacked and reacted with proportionate force: ‘If there has been an attack so that defence is reasonably necessary, it should be . .
Cited – Chan Kau v The Queen PC 1955
In a criminal trial for assault, once the evidence is shown to have raised a possible defense of self-defense, the burden is on the prosecution to prove that the defendant intended to apply unlawful force to the victim: ‘Even under the common law . .
Cited – Dallison v Caffery CACD 1965
It is for the detaining authority to justify all periods of detention.
The court described the common law duty on a prosecutor to disclose material. Lord Denning MR said: ‘The duty of a prosecuting counsel or solicitor, as I have always . .
Cited – Regina v Lobell CCA 11-Mar-1957
The court considered the different standards of proof required for civil and criminal accusations of assault.
Held: Appeal allowed. The onus of proving self-defence as a defence to murder, or a defence of ‘killing se defendendo’, was on the . .
Cited – Freeman v Home Office (No 2) CA 1984
A prisoner brought an action in battery against a prison doctor for administering drugs to him by injection. He argued that he was incapable of consenting to the procedure because he was in the defendant’s custody. . He failed at trial.
Held: . .
Cited – 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 – Parkinson v St James and Seacroft University Hospital NHS Trust CA 11-Apr-2001
A mother had undergone a negligent sterilisation, and in due course she gave birth to a disabled child.
Held: The right to bodily integrity is the first and most important of the interests protected by the law of tort. The cases saying that . .
Cited – Wilson v Pringle CA 26-Mar-1986
Two boys played in a school yard. D said he had pulled a bag from the other’s shoulder as an ordinary act of horseplay. The plaintiff said it was a battery.
Held: The defendant’s appeal against summary judgment was allowed. A claim of trespass . .
Cited – F v West Berkshire Health Authority HL 17-Jul-1990
The parties considered the propriety of a sterilisation of a woman who was, through mental incapacity, unable to give her consent.
Held: The appeal succeeded, and the operation would be lawful if the doctor considered it to be in the best . .
Cited – Regina v Williams CACD 1986
The defendant was charged with threatening to kill.
Held: Evidence of previous threatening and violent conduct of Williams towards the victim was rightly admitted to establish an intention on the part of the defendant that the victim should . .
Cited – Blackburn and Others v Bowering and Another CA 5-Nov-1993
It was self defence if the defendant honestly believes the victim was not an officer of court. The issue was the genuineness of the belief, not its reasonableness. . .
Cited – Beckford v The Queen PC 15-Jun-1987
(Jamaica) Self defence permits a defendant to use such force as is reasonable in the circumstances as he honestly believed them to be. ‘If then a genuine belief, albeit without reasonable grounds, is a defence to rape because it negatives the . .
Cited – Regina v Weston 1879
. .
Cited – Regina v Chisam CCA 1963
A defendant’s belief founding a plea of self defence must be both honest and reasonable. A sufficient justification was established if the accused genuinely believed on reasonable grounds that a relative or friend was in imminent danger of injury, . .
Cited – Regina v Fennell CACD 1971
A father was accused of assaulting a police constable in order to release his son from custody. He pleaded self defence, saying that he had believed the arrest unlawful.
Held: The defence failed. A defendant seeking to justify an assault, . .
Cited – New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad Company v Jopes 1891
(United States Supreme Court) The test of necessity as a defence to an accusation of assault is one of the actual presence of imminent danger and a reasonably apparent necessity of taking such action as was taken: ‘We hold, therefore, that the . .
Cited – Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police v Hepburn CA 13-Dec-2002
The claimant sought damages from the police. They had executed a search warrant, and one officer detained the claimant during the raid.
Held: A person who mistakenly restrained an individual in the mistaken belief that he had been lawfully . .
Cited – Lonhro Plc and Others v Fayed and Others (No 5) CA 6-Oct-1993
The plaintiff sought to amend a conspiracy claim, based on arrangements to publish defamatory statements, by adding a claim for damage to reputation and feelings.
Held: Such a claim could not be made in conspiracy. A Plaintiff’s motives in . .
Cited – Regina v Morgan HL 30-Apr-1975
The defendants appealed against their convictions for rape, denying mens rea and asserting a belief (even if mistaken) that the victim had consented.
Held: For a defence of mistake to succeed, the mistake must have been honestly made and need . .
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 – Regina v Kimber CACD 1983
For mens rea, it is the defendant’s belief, not the grounds on which it is based, which goes to negative the intent. The guilty state of mind was the intent to use personal violence to a woman without her consent. If the defendant did not so intend, . .
Cited – Regina v Williams (Gladstone) CACD 28-Nov-1983
The defendant believed that the person whom he assaulted was unlawfully assaulting a third party. That person was a police officer, who said he was arresting the other, but did not show his warrant card.
Held: The court considered the issue of . .
Cited – Three Rivers District Council and Others v Governor and Company of The Bank of England (No 3) HL 22-Mar-2001
Misfeasance in Public Office – Recklessness
The bank sought to strike out the claim alleging misfeasance in public office in having failed to regulate the failed bank, BCCI.
Held: Misfeasance in public office might occur not only when a company officer acted to injure a party, but also . .
Cited – Regina v Chief Constable of West Midlands Police Ex Parte Wiley; Other Similar HL 14-Jul-1994
Statements made to the police to support a complaint against the police, were not part of the class of statements which could attract public interest immunity, and were therefore liable to disclosure.
Lord Woolf said: ‘The recognition of a new . .
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 – Taylor v Anderton (Police Complaints Authority Intervening) CA 19-Jan-1995
Reports, which had been prepared for the purposes of a police complaint procedure, could be entitled to protection from disclosure under a public interest immunity certificate. The court also considered the relationship between the documentation and . .
Cited – In re McKerr (Northern Ireland) HL 11-Mar-2004
The deceased had been shot by soldiers of the British Army whilst in a car in Northern Ireland. The car was alleged to have ‘run’ a checkpoint. The claimants said the investigation, now 20 years ago, had been inadequate. The claim was brought under . .

Cited by:

Appeal from – Ashley and Another v Chief Constable of Sussex Police HL 23-Apr-2008
The claimants sought to bring an action for damages after a family member suspected of dealing drugs, was shot by the police. At the time he was naked. The police officer had been acquitted by a criminal court of murder. The chief constable now . .
See Also – Ashley and Another v Sussex Police (1) QBD 19-Dec-2008
The court considered the terms under which copies of the Moonstone report could be redacted and disclosed. . .
See Also – Ashley and Another v Sussex Police (2) QBD 19-Dec-2008
. .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Police

Updated: 28 January 2022; Ref: scu.243977

Roberts v The Attorney General and Another: QBD 20 Dec 2016

Appeal against a decision by which the judge struck out a claim for damages for negligent misstatement against the defendants. In summary, the claimant had applied for the post of Chief Constable of Dyfed-Powys Police. The second defendant attended a selection panel meeting of the local police authority and made certain statements about the claimant which are alleged to be false and which are alleged to have been made negligently.

Lewsi J
[2016] EWHC 3219 (QB)
Bailii
England and Wales

Torts – Other

Updated: 27 January 2022; Ref: scu.572642

Gibson v Douglas and Another: CA 8 Dec 2016

Appeal against rejection of claim for damages for wrongful eviction and damages to goods.
Held: The judge had found not that the defendant had failed to give appropriate notice, but that he had not been personally involved other than as an interested onlooker in the eviction. The appeal failed.

Sir James Munby P FD, Briggs LJ
[2016] EWCA Civ 1266
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Minister of Health v Bellotti CA 1944
298 blocks of flats had been requisitioned to provide accommodation for persons evacuated from Gibraltar during the war. The evacuees occupied the various flats as licensees. They were given only one week’s notice terminating their licences.
Cited – Robson v Hallett CA 1967
A police officer had been impliedly invited onto land, and was asked to leave, but was then assaulted before he had chance to leave.
Held: The conviction was upheld.
There is an implied licence available to members of the public on . .
Cited – Parker v Parker ChD 24-Jul-2003
Lord Macclesfield claimed a right to occupy a castle. The owners claimed that he had only a mere tenancy at will. The exact rooms in the castle which had been occupied had varied over time.
Held: The applicant was entitled to reasonable . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing, Torts – Other

Updated: 27 January 2022; Ref: scu.572414

Taberna Europe Cdo Ii Plc v Selskabet Af 1 September 2008 In Bankruptcy: CA 8 Dec 2016

Moore-Bick VP CA, Tomlinson, Simon LJJ
[2016] EWCA Civ 1262, [2016] WLR(D) 660
Bailii, WLRD
Misrepresentation Act 1967 2(1)
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – Taberna Europe Cdo Ii Plc v Selskabet Af1.September 2008 In Bankruptcy ComC 30-Mar-2015
The claimant claimed substantial damages in respect of one or more alleged misrepresentations made by or on behalf of the defendant which, it is said, induced Taberna into entering into a secondary market purchase of certain subordinated notes . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other

Updated: 27 January 2022; Ref: scu.572421

McGill v The Sports and Entertainment Media Group and Others: CA 4 Nov 2016

The claimant football agent had claimed against a footballer client for breach of contract and against the client’s new agent for inducing a breach of contract.

Lloyd Jones LJ, Henderson J
[2016] EWCA Civ 1063, [2016] WLR(D) 571
Bailii, WLRD
England and Wales

Contract, Torts – Other, Damages

Updated: 25 January 2022; Ref: scu.571228

Barkhuysen v Hamilton: QBD 10 Nov 2016

Claims had been made between neighbours in the course of a long running neighbour dispute. In particular a claim was made of malicious prosecution as regards a complaint made to the police.
The claimant had ‘amply made out the third and fourth elements of this tort: the defendant made a false, entirely unfounded, and malicious accusation. That accusation set in train the actions of the police that followed: the claimant’s arrest and detention, the seizure of his property, the intimate sampling and other steps I have identified above. The defendant procured a criminal investigation of the claimant lasting several months.’
However, there was no prosecution for the purposes of the tort. Warby J explained: ‘All of that shows that there was a false arrest and false imprisonment thereafter, which were maliciously procured by the defendant. But in my judgment that is not enough to bring home the claim for damages for malicious prosecution. I accept Mr Samson’s argument that there was no ‘prosecution’ for the purposes of this tort. Ms Marzec submits that the underlying principle of the law of malicious prosecution is that an abuse of the process of the law that causes another injury is actionable; the key feature in considering whether there has been a ‘prosecution’ is whether the actions taken against the claimant were such as to cause him injury. She refers me to Churchill v Siggers (1854) 3 E and B 929, Mohamed Amin v Banerjee [1947] AC 322 at 331 (PC), Roy v Prior [1971] AC 470, 477-9 (HL) and the recent decision of the Supreme Court in Willers v Joyce [2016] UKSC 43. But in none of those cases was a mere arrest held to be actionable in the tort of malicious prosecution. Nor, in my judgment, does any of them stand as authority for any principle that would make a mere arrest so actionable. It is important not to treat passages in judgments, however high their authority, as tantamount to statutory wording.
The pleaded case for the defendant is that a prosecution begins when a person is charged. Mr Samson submits that this is too generous an approach. He argues that the authorities point to the conclusion that the malicious institution of proceedings before a judicial body is actionable in this tort, but not anything short of that. I agree, and add that the established rationale of the tort appears to be that compensation should be available for injury caused by a malicious abuse of the judicial power of the state. All of the cases cited above can be explained on this basis. See also the analysis of Sir Timothy Lloyd in Crawford v Jenkins [2014] EWCA Civ 1035 [2014] EMLR 25 [48]-[50].’ (emphasis added)

Warby J
[2016] EWHC 2858 (QB)
Bailii
England and Wales
Cited by:
See also – Barkhuysen v Hamilton QBD 23-Dec-2016
. .
Cited – CXZ v ZXC QBD 26-Jun-2020
Malicious Prosecution needs court involvement
W had made false allegations against her husband of child sex abuse to police. He sued in malicious prosecution. She applied to strike out, and he replied saying that as a developing area of law a strike out was inappropriate.
Held: The claim . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land, Torts – Other

Updated: 25 January 2022; Ref: scu.571114

Rudall v The Crown Prosecution Service and Another: QBD 14 Nov 2016

The claimant solicitor alleged that the repeated and failed prosecutions of him and the obtaining of search warrants had been an improper attempt to stop him practising.

Phillips J
[2016] EWHC 2884 (QB)
Bailii
Limitation Act 1980 32
England and Wales

Administrative, Limitation, Torts – Other

Updated: 25 January 2022; Ref: scu.571115

Mortgage Agency Services Number One Ltd (T/A Britannia Commercial Lending) v Cripps Harries Llp: ChD 12 Oct 2016

Action in which a lender sought damages for fraud, conspiracy and (originally) inducing breach of contract against a borrower’s solicitors, the defendants, on the basis that two employees of the defendant firm deliberately misled the claimant in a manner which led to its lending to a property owner and developer. There has been a serious shortfall in recovery in respect of the loan and the lender seeks to recover its losses accordingly.

Mann J
[2016] EWHC 2483 (Ch)
Bailii
England and Wales

Torts – Other, Legal Professions

Updated: 24 January 2022; Ref: scu.570344

Creggy v Barnett and Another: CA 11 Oct 2016

Appeal by the defendant, against an order requiring Mr Creggy to pay to the claimants the sum of US$2,305,795.68 including interest as equitable compensation for his breach of fiduciary duty in transferring in 1998 approximately US$1.2m to a Maltese lawyer. The monies came from the Swiss bank accounts of two Liberian companies, Pound Investments Inc and Glacier Investments Inc which, together with other offshore structures, were established by Mr Creggy for the purpose, as the judge found, of tax avoidance.

Sir Terence Etherton MR, Patten, Sales LJJ
[2016] EWCA Civ 1004
Bailii
England and Wales

Equity, Torts – Other

Updated: 24 January 2022; Ref: scu.570109

Boswell v Coaks (No 2): 1894

An English judgment is impeachable in an English court on the ground that the first judgment was obtained by fraud but only by the production and establishment of evidence newly discovered since the trial and not reasonably discoverable before the trial

(1894) 86 LT 365n
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Takhar v Gracefield Developments Ltd and Others SC 20-Mar-2019
The claimant appellant alleged that properties she owned were transferred to the first defendant under undue influence or other unconscionable conduct by the second and third defendants. The claim was dismissed. Three years later she claimed to set . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Litigation Practice

Updated: 24 January 2022; Ref: scu.671569

Pile v Chief Constable of Merseyside Police: QBD 18 Sep 2020

The claimant ‘brings this appeal to establish the liberty of inebriated English subjects to be allowed to lie undisturbed overnight in their own vomit soaked clothing. Of course, such a right, although perhaps of dubious practical utility, will generally extend to all adults of sound mind who are intoxicated at home. Ms P, however, was not at home. She was at a police station in Liverpool having been arrested for the offence of being drunk and disorderly. She had emptied the contents of her stomach all over herself and was too insensible with drink to have much idea of either where she was or what she was doing there. Rather than leave the vulnerable claimant to marinade overnight in her own bodily fluids, four female police officers removed her outer clothing and provided her with a clean dry outfit to wear. The claimant was so drunk that she later had no recollection of these events.’
Held: Dismissed.

[2020] EWHC 2472 (QB)
Bailii
England and Wales

Police, Torts – Other

Updated: 22 January 2022; Ref: scu.653959

Reynolds v Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis: CA 18 May 1982

The plaintiff had been awarded andpound;12,000 damages for false imprisonment by the Commissiner’s officers. Officers had suspected the existence of a repeat arsonist operating an insurance fraud. The plaintiff’s husband owned one of the properties. That was the sole ground for her arrest. The judge had found no ground for reasonable suspicion of her.
Held: The grounds were not capable of amounting to a proper suspicion. The damages award was higher than might be awarded by others but was within the proper range.

Waller, O’Connor LJJ, Sir George Baker
[1982] EWCA Civ 7, [1982] Crim LR 600
Bailii
England and Wales
Cited by:
See Also – 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 . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Police, Torts – Other, Damages

Updated: 22 January 2022; Ref: scu.262676

Chic Fashions (West Wales) Ltd v Jones: CA 12 Dec 1967

Lord Denning MR said that a constable equipped with a search warrant: ‘may seize not only the goods which he reasonably to be covered by the warrant, but also any other goods which he believes on reasonable grounds to have been stolen and to be material evidence on a charge of stealing or receiving against the person in possession of them or anyone associated with him.’
Salmon LJ: ‘If the preservation of law and order requires that a policeman shall have the power to arrest a man whom he believes on reasonable grounds to be a thief or a receiver, it is difficult to understand why the policeman should not have the power to seize goods on that man’s premises which the policeman believes on reasonable grounds that he has stolen or received’
Police officers had entered the plaintiff’s shop premises armed with a search warrant authorising them to search for goods stolen from A. They found none of A’s goods there, but did find and seize goods which they believed on reasonable grounds to have been stolen from B, C and D. They had no warrant to seize these goods, and there was no previous decided case which indicated that they were entitled to do so. The plaintiff said they had acted unlawfully.
Held: Diplock LJ said: ‘unless forced to do so by recent binding authority, I decline to accept that a police officer who is unquestionably justified at common law in arresting a person whom he has reasonable grounds to believe is guilty of receiving stolen goods, is not likewise justified in the less draconian act of seizing what he, on reasonable grounds, believes to be the stolen goods in that person’s possession.’

Lord Denning MR, Salmon LJ
[1968] QB 299, [1967] EWCA Civ 4, (1968) 132 JP 175, [1968] 1 All ER 229, [1968] 2 WLR 201
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Entick v Carrington KBD 1765
The Property of Every Man is Sacred
The King’s Messengers entered the plaintiff’s house and seized his papers under a warrant issued by the Secretary of State, a government minister.
Held: The common law does not recognise interests of state as a justification for allowing what . .

Cited by:
Cited – Director of the Assets Recovery Agency v Szepietowski and others Admn 29-Sep-2006
The respondent had objected that the appointment of an interim receiver had been based upon information obtained in the course of investigations undertaken in connection with different proceedings and allegations.
Held: The enforcement agency . .
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 . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Police, Torts – Other

Updated: 22 January 2022; Ref: scu.247610

National Mercantile Bank Ltd v Rymill: CA 1881

The plaintiff was the owner of horses the subject of a bill of sale. The grantor of the bill sold the horses privately in the defendant’s auction yard and following the sale, on the grantor’s instructions, the auctioneer delivered the horses to the buyer. It was held that there had been no conversion.
Held: The auctioneer did not claim to transfer the title and did not purport to sell; all the dominion he exercised over the chattels was to redeliver them to the person to whom the man from whom he had received them had told him to redeliver them. On the evidence there had been no sale by the auctioneer. A bailee escapes liability for conversion, not only where he merely redelivers to his bailor, but where he delivers at the bailor’s directions to a third party without knowledge of any adverse claim, though with knowledge that such delivery is in pursuance of a sale or other disposition.

Bramwell LJ, Brett and Cotton LJJ
[1881] 44 LTNS 767
England and Wales
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 . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Agency, Torts – Other

Updated: 22 January 2022; Ref: scu.182754

Montefiori v Montefiori: 1746

A note, given fraudulently, to carry on a marriage treaty, shall be good against the drawer, though given without any consideration.
Lord Mansfield said: ‘no man shall set up his own iniquity as a defence, any more than as a cause of action’.

Lord Mansfield
[1746] EngR 363, (1746-1779) 1 Black W 363, (1746) 96 ER 203
Commonlii
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Takhar v Gracefield Developments Ltd and Others SC 20-Mar-2019
The claimant appellant alleged that properties she owned were transferred to the first defendant under undue influence or other unconscionable conduct by the second and third defendants. The claim was dismissed. Three years later she claimed to set . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Family, Torts – Other

Updated: 22 January 2022; Ref: scu.380751

Owens v Noble: CA 10 Mar 2010

The respondent had been awarded substantial damages after an accident for which the appellant was responsible. The appellant now said that the claimant had exaggerated his injuries and misled the judge. The defendant argued that the correct approach where fraud was alleged was to commence an action to set aside the judgment.
Held: Permission to appeal was granted, the new evidence admitted, the appeal allowed and the matter remitted for rehearing. Where new evidence, which might show that the judge at first instance had been deliberately misled, was admitted at appeal, a new trial should be ordered only if the fraud was admitted or if the evidence was incontrovertible. If neither applied, then the issue of the fraud should be settled before a decision was made on further progress.

Sedley, Smith, Elias LJJ
[2010] EWCA Civ 224, [2010] WLR (D) 73
Bailii, WLRD, Times
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Ladd v Marshall CA 29-Nov-1954
Conditions for new evidence on appeal
At the trial, the wife of the appellant’s opponent said she had forgotten certain events. After the trial she began divorce proceedings, and informed the appellant that she now remembered. He sought either to appeal admitting fresh evidence, or for . .
Cited – Flower v Lloyd CA 11-Jun-1877
The plaintiffs tried to restrain the defendant from infringing their patent. They succeeded at first instance but the order was overturned on appeal. An expert went to inspect the process at the defendant’s works. Later, employees gave affidavits . .
Followed – Jonesco v Beard HL 1930
The plaintiff was a race horse trainer. He had made two claims against the defendant owner alleging first that the defendant had agreed to give him a share in some horses and second that the plaintiff had sold two horses to him but not been paid for . .
Cited – Hamilton v Al Fayed CA 21-Dec-2000
The claimant sought an order saying that his counsel had discarded confidential documents which were retrieved from his dustbin by a Mr Pell who then sold them to his opponent who had used them to obtain an unfair advantage.
Lord Phillips MR . .
Cited – De Beauville v Swycher and Co and Another 22-Nov-1999
. .
Cited – Mulholland v Mitchell HL 1971
The House was asked whether to re-open an assessment of damages where there had been a very marked change in the injured person’s situation shortly after the trial. There was no suggestion of fraud. The Court of Appeal had decided to admit the fresh . .
Cited – Skone v Skone and Another HL 1971
The husband appealed, seeking a new trial of a divorce petition following the discovery of fresh evidence consisting of a bundle of love letters from the co-respondent to the wife clearly showing that, contrary to his sworn evidence, he had . .
Cited – Roe and Another v Robert McGregor and Sons Ltd; Bills v Roe CA 1968
The plaintiff was driving a van at night. He didn’t see a ‘road closed’ sign erected by the defendant contractors, and proceede down a 30 ft bank injuring himself and his passenger. He said the contractors’ the sign was inadequate and that he had . .
Cited – Hip Foong Hong v H Neotia and Co PC 15-Jul-1918
An appellate Court has inherent power to set aside a judgment obtained through fraud. Lord Buckmaster described how an appellate court should deal with an allegation that an earlier judgment had been obtained by fraud: ‘Where a new trial is sought . .
Cited – Sir William Jaffray and others v The Society of Lloyds CA 20-Jun-2007
The appellant sought to re-open a decision of the Court of Appeal saying that fresh evidence had emerged which he said demonstrated that Lloyd’s had misled the court at first instance. . .
Instructive – Hamilton v Brodie Brittain Racing Ltd CA 13-Dec-1995
The defendant disputed at trial the authenticity of invoices, but provided no forensic evidence to support his challenge. The trial judge had accepted the invoices as authentic. The defendant subsequently adduced evidence which strongly suggested . .
Cited – Sohal v Sohal CA 30-Jul-2002
It was alleged that a verdict upholding a will had been obtained by fraud. Permission was sought to appeal.
Held: It is possible to seek to establish that a judgment was obtained by fraud by adducing fresh evidence on an appeal: ‘There is no . .
Cited – Taylor v Lawrence CA 4-Feb-2002
A party sought to re-open a judgment on the Court of Appeal after it had been perfected. A case had been tried before a judge. One party had asked for a different judge to be appointed, after the judge disclosed that he had been a client of the firm . .

Cited by:
Main Judgment – Owens v Noble CA 18-Mar-2010
In its principal judgment the court referred the case back to the judge to assess whether one or more of the parties had committed a fraud on the court. The court now explained its answer to submissions made on the draft judgment.
Held: It was . .
Cited – Sharland v Sharland CA 10-Feb-2014
Appeal against the order of Sir Hugh Bennett dismissing the application of the appellant wife to resume the hearing of her claim for financial provision following her divorce from the respondent.
Held: (Briggs LJ dissenting) The appeal failed. . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Litigation Practice

Updated: 21 January 2022; Ref: scu.403316

Lazarus Estates Ltd v Beasley: CA 1956

There was a privative clause in the 1954 Act. A landlord’s declaration under the Act that work of a specified value, supporting an increase in rent, had been carried out on leased premises, could not be questioned after 28 days of its service on the tenant.
Held: The validity of the declaration could be challenged as fraudulent in proceedings for arrears of rent.
Lord Denning said: ‘No Court in this land will allow a person to keep an advantage he has obtained by fraud. No judgment of a court, no order of a Minister, can be allowed to stand if it has been obtained by fraud. Fraud unravels everything. The court is careful not to find fraud unless it is distinctly pleaded and proved; but once it is proved it vitiates judgments, contracts and all transactions whatsoever; see, as to deeds, Collins v Blantern (1767) (2 Wils. KB 342), as to judgments, Duchess of Kington’s Case (1776) (1 Leach 146), and, as to contracts, Master v Miller (1791) (4 Term Rep 320). [38] There are however serious problems with the debtors’ case in fraud. While fraud gives rise to an exception, the ability to raise fraud cannot be open-ended. If there was a genuine argument as to fraud the debtors had the same obligation to raise it in the Court of Appeal as they had for all other grounds they have since raised in their attempt to attack the District Court judgment.’ and ‘The Court is careful not to find fraud unless it is distinctly pleaded and proved.’ and
‘No other objections were taken in the county court to the documents, but I do not wish it to be assumed that this court approves of them. The statutory forms require the documents to be ‘signed’ by the landlord, but the only signature on these documents (if such it can be called) was a rubber stamp ‘Lazarus Estates Ltd.’ without anything to verify it. There was no signature of a secretary or of any person at all on behalf of the company. There was nothing to indicate who affixed the rubber stamp. It has been held in this court that a private person can sign a document by impressing a rubber stamp with his own facsimile signature on it: see Goodman v J. Eban Ltd., but it has not yet been held that a company can sign by its printed name affixed with a rubber stamp.’
Lord Parker LJ observed that fraud ‘vitiates all transactions known to the law of however high a degree of solemnity.’

Denning LJ, Lord Parker LJ
[1956] 1 QB 702, [1956] 1 All ER 341, [1956] 2 WLR 502
Housing and Repairs Act 1954
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Master v Miller 1793
Buller J said: ‘It is a common saying in our law books, that fraud vitiates every thing. I do not quarrel with the phrase, or mean in the smallest degree to impeach the various cases which have been founded on the proof of fraud. But we must . .

Cited by:
Cited – HIH Casualty and General Insurance Limited and others v Chase Manhattan Bank and others HL 20-Feb-2003
The insurance company had paid claims on policies used to underwrite the production of TV films. The re-insurers resisted the claims against them by the insurers on the grounds of non-disclosure by the insured, or in the alternative damages for . .
Cited – Prest v Petrodel Resources Ltd and Others SC 12-Jun-2013
In the course of ancillary relief proceedings in a divorce, questions arose regarding company assets owned by the husband. The court was asked as to the power of the court to order the transfer of assets owned entirely in the company’s names. The . .
Cited – Moynihan v Moynihan (No 2) FD 1997
The Queen’s Proctor applied to have set aside a decree absolute of divorce obtained by fraud on the part of the petitioner, the by then deceased Lord Moynihan. The particulars set out in the petition were false in a number of material respects; the . .
Cited – Rapisarda v Colladon (Irregular Divorces) FC 30-Sep-2014
The court considered applications to set aside some 180 petitions for divorce on the grounds that they appeared to be attempts to pervert the course of justice by wrongfully asserting residence in order to benefit from the UK jurisdiction.
Cited – HIH Casualty and General Insurance Limited and others v Chase Manhattan Bank and others HL 20-Feb-2003
The insurance company had paid claims on policies used to underwrite the production of TV films. The re-insurers resisted the claims against them by the insurers on the grounds of non-disclosure by the insured, or in the alternative damages for . .
Cited – Hayward v Zurich Insurance Company Plc SC 27-Jul-2016
The claimant had won a personal injury case and the matter had been settled with a substantial payout by the appellant insurance company. The company now said that the claimant had grossly exaggerated his injury, and indeed wasfiully recovered at . .
Cited – Takhar v Gracefield Developments Ltd and Others SC 20-Mar-2019
The claimant appellant alleged that properties she owned were transferred to the first defendant under undue influence or other unconscionable conduct by the second and third defendants. The claim was dismissed. Three years later she claimed to set . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Contract, Torts – Other, Administrative, Company

Updated: 21 January 2022; Ref: scu.219283

McIlkenny v Chief Constable of the West Midlands: CA 1980

The appellant had been convicted of an IRA bombing, causing loss of many lives. The appellant and his other co-accused alleged that their confessions had been induced by police violence. The trial judge ruled that their confessions were voluntary and they were accordingly convicted. The appellant now brought a civil claim against the police for damages for assault based on the alleged violence inflicted in the course of extracting his confession.
Held: Prima facie, re-litigation of an issue which has previously been finally decided by a court of competent jurisdiction is an abuse of process.
The court refused to allow the case to go ahead because the allegations were so serious they could not be believed. Lord Denning MR said: ‘This is such an appalling vista that every sensible person in the land would say: It cannot be right that these actions should go any further’.
The Court of Appeal has no function or power to make a pronouncement of innocence. It may observe that the effect of the material considered in the course of the appeal is demonstrative of innocence but it has no statutory function to make a finding to that effect.
Lord Denning MR said: ‘It has long been recognised that estoppel per rem judicatam or issue estoppel is not an absolute bar to the matter in dispute being tried again. The party concerned can avoid the effect of the previous decision if he can prove the same to have been obtained by fraud or collusion. That was the unanimous opinion of the judges in the Duchess of Kingston’s Case. To which we can add now that the party concerned can avoid the effect of the previous decision if he can show that a new fact has come to light (which he could not have ascertained before by reasonable diligence) which entirely changes the aspect of the case: see Phosphate Sewage Co Ltd v Molleson (1879) 4 App Cas 801, 814 per Earl Cairns LC. This is a much stricter test than we require when we admit fresh evidence on an appeal.’
Reginald Goff LJ said: ‘In my judgment, however, where the issue at the first trial was which of two parties or their witnesses was committing perjury, it is not sufficient merely to aver that the judgment was obtained by perjury since that is no more than to say the decision ought to have gone the other way. There must be sufficient fresh evidence to support the allegation.’

Lord Denning MR, Reginald Goff LJ, Sir George Baker
[1980] QB 283, [1980] 2 All ER 227, [1980] 2 WLR 689
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Regina v Connor and another; Regina v Mirza HL 22-Jan-2004
Extension of Inquiries into Jury Room Activities
The defendants sought an enquiry as to events in the jury rooms on their trials. They said that the secrecy of a jury’s deliberations did not fit the human right to a fair trial. In one case, it was said that jurors believed that the defendant’s use . .
Appeal from – Hunter v Chief Constable of the West Midlands Police HL 19-Nov-1981
No collateral attack on Jury findigs.
An attempt was made to open up in a civil action, allegations of assaults by the police prior to the making of confessions which had been disposed of in a voir dire in the course of a criminal trial. The plaintiffs had imprisoned having spent many . .
Cited – Adams, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice SC 11-May-2011
The three claimants had each been convicted of murders and served time. Their convictions had been reversed eventually, and they now appealed against the refusal of compensation for imprisonment, saying that there had been a miscarriage of justice. . .
Cited – Nunn v Suffolk Constabulary and Another Admn 4-May-2012
The claimant had been convicted of murder and his appeal had failed. He now sought disclosure of the forensic material held by the police to his own legal team.
Held: Permission to apply for review was granted, but the claim failed. ‘It is . .
Cited – Takhar v Gracefield Developments Ltd and Others SC 20-Mar-2019
The claimant appellant alleged that properties she owned were transferred to the first defendant under undue influence or other unconscionable conduct by the second and third defendants. The claim was dismissed. Three years later she claimed to set . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Police, Torts – Other, Estoppel

Updated: 21 January 2022; Ref: scu.192247

Gould v Vaggelas: 1984

Brennan J said: ‘A knave does not escape liability because he is dealing with a fool.’

Brennan J
(1984) 58 ALJR 560;, [1984] Aust Torts Reports 80-313, [1984] ASC 55-376, (1984) 56 ALR 31, (1984) 157 CLR 215, [1984] HCA 68
Australia
Cited by:
Cited – Takhar v Gracefield Developments Ltd and Others SC 20-Mar-2019
The claimant appellant alleged that properties she owned were transferred to the first defendant under undue influence or other unconscionable conduct by the second and third defendants. The claim was dismissed. Three years later she claimed to set . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other

Updated: 21 January 2022; Ref: scu.671567

McDonald v McDonald: 13 Aug 1965

HCA – Appeal – New Trial – Fresh evidence – Tending to prove verdict obtained by fraud – Principles of grant of new trial on grounds of fraud and discovery of fresh evidence.
the High Court of Australia applied Hip Foong Hong and Jonesco v Beard and rejected the notion that, to set aside a judgment obtained by fraud, it had to be shown that evidence of the fraud could not have been obtained by reasonable diligence before the trial which led to the judgment sought to be set aside.

Barwick CJ(1), Kitto(2), Taylor(3), Menzies(4) and Windeyer(5) Jj
[1965] HCA 45, (1965) 113 CLR 529
Austlii
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Hip Foong Hong v H Neotia and Co PC 15-Jul-1918
An appellate Court has inherent power to set aside a judgment obtained through fraud. Lord Buckmaster described how an appellate court should deal with an allegation that an earlier judgment had been obtained by fraud: ‘Where a new trial is sought . .
Cited – Jonesco v Beard HL 1930
The plaintiff was a race horse trainer. He had made two claims against the defendant owner alleging first that the defendant had agreed to give him a share in some horses and second that the plaintiff had sold two horses to him but not been paid for . .

Cited by:
Cited – Takhar v Gracefield Developments Ltd and Others SC 20-Mar-2019
The claimant appellant alleged that properties she owned were transferred to the first defendant under undue influence or other unconscionable conduct by the second and third defendants. The claim was dismissed. Three years later she claimed to set . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Litigation Practice, Torts – Other

Updated: 21 January 2022; Ref: scu.671568

Clone Pty Ltd v Players Pty Ltd (In Liquidation) (Receivers and Managers Appointed): 21 Mar 2018

Kiefel Cj, Gageler, Keane, Gordon and Edelman Jj
[2018] HCA 12
Austlii
Australia
Cited by:
Cited – Takhar v Gracefield Developments Ltd and Others SC 20-Mar-2019
The claimant appellant alleged that properties she owned were transferred to the first defendant under undue influence or other unconscionable conduct by the second and third defendants. The claim was dismissed. Three years later she claimed to set . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Litigation Practice, Torts – Other

Updated: 21 January 2022; Ref: scu.671562

Toubia v Schwenke: 2002

Supreme Court of New South Wales – Court of Appeal
‘In an action for fraud, a plaintiff must prove that he was deceived but need not prove that he was diligent.’ Handley JA continued: ‘Where the action seeks the judicial rescission of a judgment, the plaintiff must prove that he and the court were deceived and he can only do this by showing that he has discovered the truth since the trial. Where this is done, and the fresh facts are material, fraud is established. Lord Buckmaster [in Hip Foong Hong v H Neotia and Co [1918] AC 888] said that if fraud was proved the judgment was vitiated, and he can only have meant that nothing else had to be proved apart from fraud. That means there is no need to prove due diligence as well.’

Handley Ja, Heydon Ja and Hodgson Ja
(2002) 54 NSWLR 46, [2002] NSWCA 34, (2002) 36 MVR 159
Australia
Cited by:
Cited – Takhar v Gracefield Developments Ltd and Others SC 20-Mar-2019
The claimant appellant alleged that properties she owned were transferred to the first defendant under undue influence or other unconscionable conduct by the second and third defendants. The claim was dismissed. Three years later she claimed to set . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other

Updated: 21 January 2022; Ref: scu.671564

JD Wetherspoon Plc v Harris and Others: ChD 1 May 2013

The chancellor gave reasons for refusing to strike out the claim. The claimant had alleged dishonest assistance in a breach of an agent’s duty by the defendants in two land transactions.

Sir Terence Etherton
[2013] EWHC 1088 (Ch), [2013] WLR(D) 159, [2013] 1 WLR 3296
Bailii, WLRD
England and Wales

Agency, Torts – Other

Updated: 20 January 2022; Ref: scu.491843

Goldtrail Travel Ltd v Aydin and Others: CA 21 Jan 2016

Application for stay of execution of judgment pending appeal

Patten LJ
[2016] EWCA Civ 20
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – Goldtrail Travel Ltd v Aydin and Others ChD 22-May-2014
Claim by company liquidators against former directors alleging misappropriation of company assets, and dishonest assistance. . .

Cited by:
At CA – Goldtrail Travel Ltd v Onur Air Tasimacilik As SC 2-Aug-2017
At first instance the appellant had dishonestly assisted another party to defraud the respondent, and ordered payment of substantial damages. The defendant, non-resident, sought to appeal, and the respondent asked the court to order payment into . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Company

Updated: 19 January 2022; Ref: scu.566839

Herring v Boyle: CExC 1834

A mother went to fetch her 10-year-old son from school on 24 December 1833 to take him home for the Christmas holidays. The headmaster refused to allow her to take her son home because she had not paid the last term’s fees, and he kept the boy at school over the holidays.
Held: Her action for false imprisonment brought on behalf of the boy failed.
Bolland B said: ‘as far as we know, the boy may have been willing to stay; he does not appear to have been cognisant of any restraint, and there was no evidence of any act whatsoever done by the defendant in his presence. I think that we cannot construe the refusal to the mother in the boy’s absence, and without his being cognisant of any restraint, to be an imprisonment of him against his will.’

Bolland B, Baron Gurney
(1834) 1 Cr M and R 377, [1834] EngR 139, (1834) 149 ER 1126, [1834] EngR 140, (1834) 6 Car and P 496, (1834) 172 ER 1335
Commonlii, Commonlii
England and Wales
Cited by:
Extraordinary – 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 . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other

Updated: 19 January 2022; Ref: scu.259573

Rowland v Divall: CA 1923

A car dealer had bought a car to which the seller had no title.
Held: The dealer succeeded in his claim to recover the purchase price on the ground of total failure of consideration. The vendor had gone through the motions of performance of his contract by handing over a car, but in the eyes of the law that was no performance because the car was stolen. In the case of a theft the title acquired by the thief or later possessor is frail, and of likely limited value, but nonetheless remains a title to which the law can afford protection.
Atkin LJ said: ‘It seems to me that in this case there has been a total failure of consideration, that is to say that the buyer has not got any part of that for which he paid the purchase money. He paid the money in order that he might get the property, and he has not got it. It is true that the seller delivered to him the de facto possession, but the seller had not got the right to possession and consequently could not give it to the buyer. . There can be no sale at all of goods which the seller has no right to sell. The whole object of a sale is to transfer property from one person to another . . can it make any difference that the buyer had used the car before he found out that there was a breach of the condition? To my mind it makes no difference at all. The buyer accepted the car in the representation of the seller that he had a right to sell it, and in as much as the seller had no such right he is not entitled to say that the buyer has enjoyed a benefit under the contract. In fact the buyer has not received any part of that which he contracted to receive, namely the property and right to possession – and that being so there has been a total failure of consideration.’

Atkin LJ
[1923] 2 KB 500, [1923] All ER 270, (1923) 129 LT 757
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Costello v Chief Constable of Derbyshire Constabulary CA 22-Mar-2001
The police seized a car from Mr Costello, believing that it was stolen. The seizure was lawful at the time, by virtue of section 19 of PACE. The police never brought any criminal proceedings against Mr Costello, but they refused to return the car to . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Contract

Updated: 19 January 2022; Ref: scu.194107

Spice Girls Ltd v Aprilia World Service Bv: ChD 24 Feb 2000

Disclosure Duties on those entering into contract

The claimants worked together as a five girl pop group. The defendants had signed a sponsorship agreement, but now resisted payment saying that one of the five, Geri, had given notice to leave the group, substantially changing what had been promised. The girls acknowledged that Geri had said she would leave, but insisted that no real intention to leave had existed.
Held: Generally, a person who is about to enter into an agreement is under no duty to disclose material facts which he knows but which the other party does not know. Here the group knew that the other party was relying upon a representation, and could not discharge the requirement to show that they did not know of its falsity, and were liable in damages to the defendant.

Arden J DBE
[2000] EWHC Ch 140
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Royscot Trust Ltd v Rogerson 1991
Doyle -v- Olby (Ironmongers) Ltd was an appropriate way of assessing damages for an action under the Act, and damages are calculated on the basis of fraud.
A client misled into an investment is entitled to the measure of damages he would . .
Cited – Edgington v Fitzmaurice CA 7-Mar-1885
False Prospectus – Issuers liable in Deceit
The directors of a company issued a prospectus, falsely stating that the proceeds were to be used to complete alterations to the buildings of the company, to purchase horses and vans and to develop the trade of the company. In fact it was to pay off . .
Cited – Esso Petroleum Company Ltd v Mardon CA 6-Feb-1976
Statements had been made by employees of Esso in the course of pre-contractual negotiations with Mr Mardon, the prospective tenant of a petrol station. The statements related to the potential throughput of the station. Mr Mardon was persuaded by the . .
Cited – Smelter Corporation v O’Driscoll 1977
(Ireland) In an action for misrepresentation, it did not matter that the representation was made by an agent who did not know that the representation was untrue. . .
Cited – Schneider v Heath 1813
A ship was sold ‘to be taken with all faults’. In fact the vendor knew that she was unseaworthy. The particulars of sale stated that her hull was ‘nearly as good as when launched’. In fact the hull was rotten and the captain took her to a place . .
Cited – Reynell v Sprye 1852
. .
Cited – Walters v Morgan 1861
A person may make a representation by conduct if he fails to correct an impression given by his conduct. . .
Cited – With v O’Flanagan CA 1936
When negotiating to enter into a contract, a person may have a duty to disclose material facts which come to his notice before the conclusion of a contract if they falsify a representation previously made by him. A representation as to the profits . .
Cited – Nottingham Patent Brick Co v Butler 1886
A solicitor stated that he was not aware that property was subject to any restrictions, but his failure to add that he had not read the relevant deeds made his statement a misrepresentation. . .
Cited – Trail v Baring CA 1864
(Orse Traill v Baring) The court considered a misrepresentation by conduct before contract. Turner LJ said: ‘I take it to be quite clear, that if a person makes a representation by which he induces another to take a particular course, and the . .
Cited – Brown v Raphael 1958
This was a sale of an absolute reversion in a trust fund. The particulars stated that: ‘Estate duty will be payable on the death of the annuitant who is believed to have no aggregable estate’ and the name of the solicitors who prepared the . .
Cited – Investors Compensation Scheme Ltd v West Bromwich Building Society HL 19-Jun-1997
Account taken of circumstances wihout ambiguity
The respondent gave advice on home income plans. The individual claimants had assigned their initial claims to the scheme, but later sought also to have their mortgages in favour of the respondent set aside.
Held: Investors having once . .
Cited – Horsfall v Thomas 1852
It is a necessary requirement for an action in misrepresentation, that the misrepresentation induced the other party to enter into the contract. . .
Cited – Smith v London and House Property Corporation CA 1884
Bowen LJ said: ‘In considering whether there was a misrepresentation, I will first deal with the argument that the particulars only contain a statement of opinion about the tenant. It is material to observe that it is often fallaciously assumed that . .
Cited – Smith v Chadwick HL 18-Feb-1884
Unclear Words Insufficient as Representation
A purchaser claimed to have entered into the contract in reliance on the truth of a misrepresentation by the seller. The plaintiff claimed damages for deceit through having been induced to buy shares in an iron company by false representations in a . .

Cited by:
See Also – Spice Girls Ltd v Aprilla World Service BV ChD 5-Apr-2000
It was possible through conduct to make representations which could induce the other party to enter into a contract. Here the contract was entered into at a time when one of the group had decided to leave, but in the period before the contract had . .
See also – Spice Girls Ltd v Aprilla World Service BV (No 3) ChD 20-Jul-2000
After trials and hearings as to the facts, as to damages, and as to costs, and where the parties had previously been shown draft judgments, and been invited to comment, the applicants sought to appeal, on the grounds that losses which had been . .
See Also – Spice Girls Limited v Aprilia World Service Bv CA 24-Jan-2002
When considering the statutory right to rescind for innocent misrepresentation, the representation should be interpreted to bear the meaning in which it would reasonably be understood by the claimant, the natural and ordinary meaning which would be . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Contract, Torts – Other

Leading Case

Updated: 19 January 2022; Ref: scu.135788

Smith v Chadwick: HL 18 Feb 1884

Unclear Words Insufficient as Representation

A purchaser claimed to have entered into the contract in reliance on the truth of a misrepresentation by the seller. The plaintiff claimed damages for deceit through having been induced to buy shares in an iron company by false representations in a prospectus as to the output of the iron works.
Held: His claim failed because the critical words of the prospectus were ambiguous, and the plaintiff had failed to show that he understood them in a sense which was false.
An inference of inducement can be made or rebutted on evidence. Lord Blackburn, said: ‘I think if it is proved that the defendants with a view to induce the plaintiff to enter a contract made a statement to the plaintiff of such a nature as would be likely to induce a person to enter into a contract, and it is proved that the plaintiff did enter into the contract, it is a fair inference of fact that he was induced to do so by the statement.’
. . and ‘In Pasley v Freeman, 2 Smith’s Leading Cases 66, 73, 86 (8th ed), Buller J says: ‘The foundation of this action is fraud and deceit in the defendant and damage to the plaintiffs. And the question is whether an action thus founded can be sustained in a court of law. Fraud without damage, or damage without fraud, gives no cause of action, but where these two concur an action lies, per Croke J, 3 Bulst 95.’
Whatever difficulties there may be as to defining what is fraud and deceit, I think no one will venture to dispute that the plaintiff cannot recover unless he proves damage. In an ordinary action of deceit the plaintiff alleges that false and fraudulent representations were made by the defendant to the plaintiff in order to induce him, the plaintiff, to act upon them. I think that if he did act upon these representations, he shews damage; if he did not, he shews none.’
Lord Selborne LC said: ‘My Lords, I conceive that in an action of deceit, like the present, it is the duty of the plaintiff to establish two things; first, actual fraud, which is to be judged by the nature and character of the representations made, considered with reference to the object for which they were made, the knowledge or means of knowledge of the person making them, and the intention which the law justly imputes to every man to produce those consequences which are the natural result of his acts: and, secondly, he must establish that this fraud was an inducing cause to the contract; for which purpose it must be material, and it must have produced in his mind an erroneous belief, influencing his conduct.’

Lord Blackburn, Lord Selborne LC
(1884) 9 App Cas 187, (1883-1884) 9 App Cas 187, [1884] UKLawRpAC 4
Commonlii
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Assicurazioni Generali Spa v Arab Insurance Group (BSC) CA 13-Nov-2002
Rehearing/Review – Little Difference on Appeal
The appellant asked the Court to reverse a decision on the facts reached in the lower court.
Held: The appeal failed (Majority decision). The court’s approach should be the same whether the case was dealt with as a rehearing or as a review. . .
Cited – Spice Girls Ltd v Aprilia World Service Bv ChD 24-Feb-2000
Disclosure Duties on those entering into contract
The claimants worked together as a five girl pop group. The defendants had signed a sponsorship agreement, but now resisted payment saying that one of the five, Geri, had given notice to leave the group, substantially changing what had been . .
Cited – St Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Co (UK) Ltd v McConnell Dowell Constructors Ltd CA 1995
The court discussed the general principles as to the meaning of ‘inducement’ in the context of insurance contract.
Held: If the three underwriters who gave evidence had been told the truth, on no view would they have underwritten the insurance . .
Cited – Mundi v Lincoln Assurance Ltd ChD 24-Nov-2005
The defendant life insurance company sought to avoid payment alleging non-disclosure. At first they suggested first one then a second and then a third reason for non payment as each previous reason looked like failing. They relied now on . .
Cited – Hayward v Zurich Insurance Company Plc SC 27-Jul-2016
The claimant had won a personal injury case and the matter had been settled with a substantial payout by the appellant insurance company. The company now said that the claimant had grossly exaggerated his injury, and indeed wasfiully recovered at . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Contract, Insurance, Torts – Other

Updated: 19 January 2022; Ref: scu.187266

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 reasonable and probable cause, an action for malicious prosecution could, however, be brought in specific cases. The absence of any reasonable cause or foundation of suspicion may be evidence of malice on the part of a prosecutor.
Brett MR said: ‘It seems to me that an action can be maintained for maliciously procuring an adjudication under the Bankruptcy Act 1869, because by the petition, which is the first process, the credit of the person against whom it is presented is injured before he can shew that the accusation made against him is false; he is injured in his fair fame, even although he does not suffer a pecuniary loss . . he is openly charged with insolvency before he can defend himself. It is not like an action charging a merchant with fraud, where the evil done by bringing the action is remedied at the same time that the mischief is published, namely, at the trial.
The present case, therefore, is reduced to this question, namely, is a petition to wind up a company more like an action charging fraud or more like a bankruptcy petition? In my opinion it is more like a bankruptcy petition, and the very touchstone of this point is that the petition to wind-up is by force of law made public before the company can defend itself against the imputations made against it; for the petitioner is bound to publicly advertise the petition seven days before it is to be heard and adjudicated upon.’
Bowen LJ said that: ‘the very institution of [insolvency] proceedings’ ‘strike home at a man’s credit’. An action for malicious prosecution was available, but ‘No mere bringing of an action, although it is brought maliciously and without reasonable or probable cause, will give rise to an action for malicious prosecution. In no action, at all events in none of the ordinary kind, not even in those based on fraud where there are scandalous allegations in the pleadings, is damage to a man’s fair fame the necessary and natural consequence of bringing the action.’ As to the costs incurred in defending a civil action, he said: ‘The bringing of an ordinary action does not as a natural or necessary consequence involve any injury to a man’s property, for this reason, that the only costs which the law recognises, and for which it will compensate him, are the costs properly incurred in the action itself. For those the successful defendant will have been already compensated, so far as the law chooses to compensate him. If the judge refuses to give him costs, it is because he does not deserve them: if he deserves them, he will get them in the original action: if he does not deserve them, he ought not to get them in a subsequent action. Therefore the broad cannon is true that in the present day, and according to the present law, the bringing of an ordinary action, however maliciously, and however great the want of reasonable and probable cause, will not support a subsequent action for malicious prosecution.’

Bowen LJ, Brett MR
(1883) 11 QBD 674, (1882-1883) 11 QBD 674, [1883] UKLawRpKQB 126
Commonlii
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Savill v Roberts CCP 1790
. .

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 – Watkins v Secretary of State for The Home Departmentand others CA 20-Jul-2004
The claimant complained that prison officers had abused the system of reading his solicitor’s correspondence whilst he was in prison. The defendant argued that there was no proof of damage.
Held: Proof of damage was not necessary in the tort . .
Cited – Mohammed Amin v Jogendra Kumar Bannerjee PC 1947
The Board considered an action for malicious prosecution. Sir John Beaumont said: ‘The foundation of the action lies in abuse of the process of the court by wrongfully setting the law in motion, and it is designed to discourage the perversion of the . .
Cited – 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 – 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 – 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 – 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, Insolvency

Updated: 18 January 2022; Ref: scu.184705

Pierson v Post: CA 1805

Post and his hounds were pursuing a fox on waste ground in Long Island when Pierson intercepted and killed it. Post sued, claiming ownership of the fox, and won at trial. The court was asked: ‘Whether a person who, with his own hounds, starts and hunts a fox on waste and uninhabited ground, and is on the point of seizing his prey, acquires such an interest in the animal, as to have a right of action against another, who in view of the huntsman and his dogs in full pursuit, and with knowledge of the chase, shall kill and carry him away?’
Held: (Livingston J dissenting) On appeal, the judgment was reversed by the New York Supreme Court, the majority view being given by Justice Tompkins. Mere pursuit gave Post no legal right to the fox, but that he became the property of Pierson, who intercepted and killed him.

Tompkins J, Livingston J
(1805) 3 Caines 175
Bailii
United States
Cited by:
Cited – Borwick Development Solutions Ltd v Clear Water Fisheries Ltd CA 1-May-2020
Only Limited Ownership of pond fish
BDS owned land with closed fishing ponds. They sold the land to the respondents, but then claimed that the fish, of substantial value, were not included in the contract. The court as asked whether the captive fish were animals ferae naturae or . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Animals, Torts – Other

Updated: 18 January 2022; Ref: scu.650628

Taiwo and Another v Olaigbe and Others: SC 22 Jun 2016

The claimants had been brought here illegally to act as servants for the defendants. They were taken advantage of and abused. They made several claims, but now appealed against rejection of their claims for discrimination. The court was asked whether discrimination because of, or on grounds of, immigration status amounts to discrimination because of, or on grounds of, nationality. The subsidiary question is whether the employers’ conduct amounted to indirect discrimination against persons who shared that nationality.
Held: The appeals failed: ‘This is not because these appellants do not deserve a remedy for all the grievous harms they have suffered. It is because the present law, although it can redress some of those harms, cannot redress them all. Parliament may well wish to address its mind to whether the remedy provided by section 8 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 is too restrictive in its scope and whether an employment tribunal should have jurisdiction to grant some recompense for the ill-treatment meted out to workers such as these, along with the other remedies which it does have power to grant.’
The reasons for the abuse they suffered related to the immigration vulnerability as migrant workers, and not to their race.

Lady Hale, Deputy President, Lord Wilson, Lord Reed, Lord Hughes, Lord Toulson
[2016] UKSC 31, [2016] WLR(D) 319, [2016] IRLR 719, [2016] 1 WLR 2653, [2016] ICR 756, UKSC 2014/0105
Bailii, Bailii Summary, WLRD, SC, SC Summary
Equality Act 2010 13(1), Modern Slavery Act 2015
England and Wales
Citing:
At EAT – Akwiwu and Another v Onu EAT 1-May-2013
EAT Race Discrimination : Direct
Indirect
Post Employment
UNLAWFUL DEDUCTION FROM WAGES
NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE
WORKING TIME REGULATIONS
The Claimant was a Nigerian woman who had . .
At CA – Onu v Akwiwu and Another CA 13-Mar-2014
Two claimants, Nigerian women, came illegally to work as domestics. They suffered severe abuse by their employers. Whilst each received substantial awards, they appealed now from rejection of their claims for discrimination based upon the advantage . .
Cited – Morris, Regina (on the Application of) v Westminster City Council and Another Admn 7-Oct-2004
The applicant questioned the compatibility of s185 of the 1996 Act with Human Rights law. The family sought emergency housing. The child of the family, found to be in priority housing need, was subject also to immigration control. Though the matter . .
Cited – Attorney General’s Reference (No 4 of 2004) CACD 22-Apr-2005
The defendant was accused of having racially abused the complainant by referring to him as an ‘immigrant doctor’ before the assault. The trial judge had held that the word ‘immigrant’ was so wide in its possible application as not to be capable of . .
Cited – Rogers, Regina v HL 28-Feb-2007
The House was asked whether the use of the phrases ‘bloody foreigners’ and ‘get back to your own country’ counted to make a disturbance created by the defendant a racially aggravated crime.
Held: (Baroness Hale of Richmond) ‘The mischiefs . .
Cited – Schnorbus v Land Hessen ECJ 7-Dec-2000
ECJ Equal treatment for men and women – Rules on access to practical legal training in Land Hesse – Priority for applicants who have completed military or civilian service
Jacobs AG said: ‘The discrimination . .
Cited – Rogers, Regina v HL 28-Feb-2007
The House was asked whether the use of the phrases ‘bloody foreigners’ and ‘get back to your own country’ counted to make a disturbance created by the defendant a racially aggravated crime.
Held: (Baroness Hale of Richmond) ‘The mischiefs . .
Cited – Bressol and Others, Chaverot and Others v Gouvernement de la Communaute francaise ECJ 13-Apr-2010
ECJ Citizenship of the Union Articles 18 and 21 TFEU Directive 2004/38/EC Article 24(1) Freedom to reside Principle of non-discrimination Access to higher education Nationals of a Member State moving to another . .
Cited – Patmalniece v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions SC 16-Mar-2011
The claimant challenged as incompatible with EU law, the Regulations which restricted the entitlement to state pension credit to those entitled to reside in the UK.
Held: The appeal failed (Majority). The conditions imposed by the Regulations . .
Cited – Bull and Another v Hall and Another SC 27-Nov-2013
The court was asked ‘Is it lawful for a Christian hotel keeper, who sincerely believes that sexual relations outside marriage are sinful, to refuse a double-bedded room to a same sex couple?’ The defendants (Mr and Mrs Bull) appealed against a . .
Cited – Hounga v Allen and Another SC 30-Jul-2014
The appellant, of Nigerian origin had been brought here at the age of 14 with false identity papers, and was put to work caring for the respondent’s children. In 2008 she was dismissed and ejected from the house. She brought proceedings alleging . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Employment, Discrimination, Torts – Other

Updated: 18 January 2022; Ref: scu.565832

Ghadami v Bloomfield and Others: ChD 17 Jun 2016

Proceedings against 19 defendants for damages of up to andpound;36,000,000 for conspiracy, interference with a contract or business, inducing or procuring a breach of contract and causing loss by unlawful means. The court now explained how the court had dealt with a letter received from one party, and replied to allegations of bias.

Norris J
[2016] EWHC 1448 (Ch)
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
See Also – Ghadami v Bloomfield and Others CA 14-Jul-2015
. .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Litigation Practice

Updated: 18 January 2022; Ref: scu.565852

AXD v The Home Office: QBD 13 May 2016

Trial of the claim for damages by AXD (‘the Claimant’), a Somali refugee, for unlawful immigration detention, based on the common law tort of false imprisonment and the statutory tort under section 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998 in respect of alleged breaches of Articles 3 and/or 8 of the ECHR.

Jay J
[2016] EWHC 1133 (QB)
Bailii
England and Wales

Torts – Other

Updated: 16 January 2022; Ref: scu.564183

AM, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for The Home Department: CA 26 Apr 2012

AM claimed that she had been illegally detained, purportedly pursuant to paragraph 16(2) of the 1971 Act as an illegal immigrant pending removal.

Rix, Moses LJJ, Briggs J
[2012] EWCA Civ 521
Bailii
Immigration Act 1971 16(2)
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – KV (Sri Lanka) v Secretary of State for The Home Department SC 6-Mar-2019
The claimant said that he had been tortured in Sri Lanka. The SSHD said the injuries were falsifications, inflicted at the claimant’s request.
Held: KV’s appeal succeeded, and the case was remitted for a fresh determination. The Istanbul . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Immigration

Updated: 16 January 2022; Ref: scu.453000