swarb.co.uk - law index
These cases are from the lawindexpro database. They are now being transferred to the swarb.co.uk website in a better form. As a case is published there, an entry here will link to it. The swarb.co.uk site includes many later cases.
Negligence - From: 2004 To: 2004
This page lists 25 cases, and was prepared on 02 April 2018.
Sandra Estelle Fielding v The Royal Bank of Scotland Plc [2004] EWCA Civ 64; Times, 26 February 2004
11 Feb 2004
CA
Mr Justice Charles The Hon Mr Justice Parker Lord Justice Potter
Banking, Negligence
The husband and wife had signed a bank mandate allowing the bank to act upon the authorisation of either of them. The wife complained that the bank should not be able to recover from her any sums expended by the husband. Held: The mandate extended to all borrowings on the joint account and without limit. The wife was liable.
1 Cites
1 Citers
[ Bailii ]
Oxford Aviation Services Limited v Godolphin Management Company Limited [2004] EWHC 232 (QB)
13 Feb 2004
QBD
The Honourable Mr Justice Cooke
Agency, Negligence
An aircraft crashed. It was owned by the claimant and flown by the defendant. The claimant sought payment of various heads of damages relating to the loss of the aircraft. The parties disputed the terms of the bailment. Held: The evidence suggested the aircraft was on hire, and to be insured by the defendant, who had to pay damages accordingly.
[ Bailii ]
Garratt v Saxby [2004] EWCA Civ 341; Gazette, 18 March 2004; [2004] 1 WLR 2152
18 Feb 2004
CA
Ward, Buxton, Dyson LJJ
Road Traffic, Negligence, Litigation Practice, Costs
There had been a Part 36 offer to settle the action. It was disclosed inadvertently to the judge. Held: There had been no serious procedural irregularity, and fairness and justice did not require a rehearing before different judge.
1 Cites
1 Citers
[ Bailii ]
Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis v Lennon [2004] EWCA Civ 130; Times, 25 February 2004; Gazette, 18 March 2004; [2004] 2 All ER 266
20 Feb 2004
CA
Lord Justice Mummery Lord Justice Ward Lord Justice Rix
Employment, Negligence, Police, Negligence
The claimant police officer considered being transferred to Northern Ireland. He asked and was incorrectly told that his housing allowance would not be affected by taking time off work. Held: The break between employments had affected his entitlements. The finding of a duty of care and its breach involved no new extension of the law. The officer had assumed responsibility to the claimant for the advice, and was responsible and had access to special knowledge. The relationship between the claimant and respondent was not that of employer and employee, but for these purposes was sufficiently close.
1 Cites
1 Citers
[ Bailii ]
Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis v Lennon [2004] EWCA Civ 130; Times, 25 February 2004; Gazette, 18 March 2004; [2004] 2 All ER 266
20 Feb 2004
CA
Lord Justice Mummery Lord Justice Ward Lord Justice Rix
Employment, Negligence, Police, Negligence
The claimant police officer considered being transferred to Northern Ireland. He asked and was incorrectly told that his housing allowance would not be affected by taking time off work. Held: The break between employments had affected his entitlements. The finding of a duty of care and its breach involved no new extension of the law. The officer had assumed responsibility to the claimant for the advice, and was responsible and had access to special knowledge. The relationship between the claimant and respondent was not that of employer and employee, but for these purposes was sufficiently close.
1 Cites
1 Citers
[ Bailii ]
Binod Sutradhar v Natural Environment Research Council [2004] EWCA Civ 175; Times, 19 March 2004; Gazette, 01 April 2004
20 Feb 2004
CA
Lord Justice Clarke Lord Justice Kennedy Mr Justice Wall
Negligence
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 and foreseeability. The report was a short term pilot report, and could not be used as a base for a claim in negligence. The claim was properly struck out. (Lord Justice Clarke dissenting)
1 Cites
1 Citers
[ Bailii ]
Bennetts v Ministry of Defence [2004] EWCA Civ 486
16 Mar 2004
CA
Personal Injury, Negligence
[ Bailii ]
Crossley v Faithfull and Gould Holdings Ltd [2004] EWCA Civ 293; Times, 29 March 2004; Gazette, 08 April 2004
16 Mar 2004
CA
Sir Andrew Morritt VC, Dyson LJ, Thomas LJ
Employment, Insurance, Negligence
The employee claimant was to retire. On his employer's negligent advice he resigned and opted for discretionary benefits. Held: The employer owed no general duty of care to an employee's financial interests. Nor could a term requiring such a standard of care be implied within the contract. Rather than focus upon necessity, it was better to before such a standard term could be implied, the court should assess its reasonableness, fairness, and the appropriate balance between employer and employee. Given that the House of Lords had recently refused to introduce such a substantial implied term, it would be wrong for the Court of Appeal to do so.
1 Cites
[ Bailii ]
Gabriel v Kirklees Metropolitan Council [2004] EWCA Civ 345; Times, 12 April 2004
24 Mar 2004
CA
Construction, Personal Injury, Negligence
The claimant (aged 6) sought damages after being hurt when other children playing on a building site threw stones from the site, hitting him as he passed by. Held: The case raised questions of law and it was incumbent on the judge to provide detailed findings on the facts. A question of law was arguable, but the court was unable to determine the issue without the necessary findings of fact. The case would be remitted for retrial before a different judge.
1 Cites
[ Bailii ]
AB and others v Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust, Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust; QBD 26-Mar-2004 - [2004] EWHC 644 (QB); Times, 12 April 2004; (2004) 77 BMLR 145; [2004] 2 FLR 365; [2004] 3 FCR 324; [2004] Fam Law 501; [2005] 2 WLR 358; [2005] Lloyd's Rep Med 1; [2005] QB 50
Simmons v British Steel plc; HL 29-Apr-2004 - [2004] UKHL 20; Times, 04 May 2004; [2004] ICR 585; 2004 GWD 14-315; [2004] PIQR P33; 2004 SLT 595
A v Ministry of Defence; Re A (A Child) Times, 17 May 2004; Gazette, 03 June 2004; [2004] EWCA Civ 641; [2005] QB 183
7 May 2004
CA
Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers MR, Tuckey, Wall LJ
Negligence, Armed Forces
The wife of a British Army soldier serving in Germany delivered a premature baby, 'A', with a German obstetrician in a German hospital. A suffered brain damage in the birth as a result of the obstetrician's negligence. The mother claimed against the MoD and the English NHS Trust which had contracted with the MoD to arrange for designated German hospital providers to provide health care for servicemen and their dependents. She alleged a non-delegable duty of care in the MoD and in the Trust to ensure that she and 'A' were provided with medical treatment that was administered with due skill and care. Held: Lord Phillips MR disapproved the decision in M v Calderdale and Kirklees Health Authority [1998] Lloyd's Rep Med 157 on a number of grounds including the fact that it was based on the observations of Lord Greene MR in Gold v Essex County Council and Denning LJ in Cassidy v Ministry of Health, "although in neither instance did these represent the reasons for the decision of the majority of the court."
However, he observed "in each of these cases the court was concerned with the duty of the hospital that was actually carrying out the treatment of the patient". He rejected the submission that on policy grounds the non-delegable duty of care should be extended beyond cases where the hospital was actually carrying out the treatment.
A further argument advanced on behalf of 'A' was based on the position of the MoD before it ceased running its own hospitals.
Lord Phillips said: "The starting point of Mr Tattersall's argument was that, when the MoD was running its own hospitals in Germany, it owed service personnel and their dependents a non-delegable duty of care in relation to the secondary medical treatment that they received. The second stage in the argument was that, because the duty was non-delegable, it remained binding upon the MoD after the transfer in 1996 of the provision of secondary health care from the military hospitals to the DGPs.
As to the first limb of the argument, I was attracted by the Australian jurisprudence on which Mr Tattersall has relied. It seems to me that there are strong arguments of policy for holding that a hospital, which offers treatment to a patient, accepts responsibility for the care with which that treatment is administered, regardless of the status of the person employed or engaged to deliver the treatment. Lord Browne-Wilkinson in X (Minors) v Bedfordshire County Council [1995] 2 AC 633 proceeded on the premise that this is established English law.
I am, however, unable to accept the second limb of Mr Tattersall's argument. We put to him in argument the possibility that, in England, the MoD might abolish all military hospitals and leave service personnel to seek hospital treatment under the NHS. Even in that situation he contended that the non-delegable duty undertaken by the MoD before 1996 would persist.
The answer to Mr Tattersall's argument, as Mr Lloyd Jones submitted, is that the basis of the duty asserted by Mr Tattersall, assuming such duty to be made out, was the fact that the MoD itself undertook the hospital care of its personnel and their dependants. Only while it continued to do so would the duty persist."
1 Cites
1 Citers
[ Bailii ]
Re-Source America International Ltd. v Platt Site Services Ltd. and Another, Barkin Construction Ltd [2004] EWCA (Civ) 665
2 Jun 2004
CA
Lord Justice Laws Lord Justice Tuckey Lord Justice Brooke
Insurance, Construction, Negligence, Damages
"Section 2 of the 1978 Act is not expressed exclusively in terms of causative responsibility for the damage in question, although obviously the court must have regard to this, as the section directs, and it is likely to be the most important factor in the assessment of relative responsibility which the court has to make. But in the result the court's assessment has to be just and equitable and this must enable the court to take account of other factors as well as those which are strictly causative. Such an assessment made by a trial judge will only be altered on appeal if it is clearly wrong."
Civil Liability (Contribution) Act 1978 2
1 Citers
[ Bailii ]
Parkinson v Dyfed Powys Police [2004] EWCA Civ 802
10 Jun 2004
CA
Road Traffic, Negligence
1 Cites
[ Bailii ]
Ringland v South Eastern Education and Library Board [2004] NIQB 89
16 Jun 2004
QBNI
Northern Ireland, Personal Injury, Negligence
1 Cites
[ Bailii ]
AB and others v British Coal Corporation and Coal Mining Contractor Defendants [2004] EWHC 1372 (QB)
22 Jun 2004
QBD
The Honourable Sir Michael Turner
Insurance, Negligence
Civil Liability Act 1978
1 Cites
1 Citers
[ Bailii ]
Blake v Galloway [2004] EWCA Civ 814; Times, 19 July 2004; [2004] 1 WLR 2844; [2004] 3 All ER 315
25 Jun 2004
CA
Lord Justice Clarke VC, The Vice-Chancellor Lord Justice Dyson
Personal Injury, Negligence
The claimant was injured whilst playing about with other members of his band throwing sticks at each other. The defendant appealed against a denial of his defence on non fit injuria. Held: The horseplay in which the five youths were engaged was not a regulated sport or game played according to explicit rules, nor was it organised in any formal sense. The offending blow was caused by a piece of bark which was thrown in accordance with the tacit understandings or conventions of the game. This was an unfortunate accident, and no more. There was no breach of the duty to take reasonable care.
1 Cites
1 Citers
[ Bailii ]
A and Kanidagli, Regina (on the Application Of) v Secretary of State for Home Department [2004] EWHC 1585 (Admin)
6 Jul 2004
Admn
Keith J
Administrative, Torts - Other, Negligence
The claimants, having been granted leave to remain in the UK, sought damages saying that maladministration by the defendant had led to serious delays in their receiving statutory welfare benefits. Held: It was fair, just and reasonable that an administrative error of this kind, involving no judgement but simple administration and with a predictable financial effect for which there was no other remedy, should be regarded as arising out of a sufficiently proximate relationship to found a claim for damages.
1 Citers
[ Bailii ]
David Lannigan v Glasgow City Council
12 Aug 2004
OHCS
R.F.Macdonald, Q.C.
Scotland, Negligence, Education, Limitation
The pursuer said the teachers employed by the defendant had failed to identify that was dyslexic, leading him to suffer damage. The defenders said the claim was time barred, which the pursuer admitted, but then said that the claim ought to go ahead under the court's equitable discretion. Held: After reviewing the authorities, the onus was on the pursuer to satisfy the court that it is equitable to allow him to bring the action notwithstanding that it is time-barred. 'This was a case where the responsibility for the action not having been raised in time rests entirely with the pursuer as responsible for the first agents, that he has a remedy against them if he is not allowed to bring this action out of time and that, if he were allowed to bring the action out of time, the defenders would be prejudiced by losing their statutory defence and having to prepare for and contest a lengthy proof, the expenses of which they may not recover even if successful.' The application was denied.
Limitation Act 1980 19A
1 Cites
[ ScotC ]
Maguire v Lancashire County Council [2004] EWCA Civ 1637
11 Nov 2004
CA
Negligence, Personal Injury
Highways Act 1980 41
[ Bailii ]
Customs and Excise v Barclays Bank Plc [2004] EWCA Civ 1555; [2005] 1 WLR 2082
22 Nov 2004
CA
Lord Justice Peter Gibson Lord Justice Longmore Mr Justice Lindsay
Litigation Practice, Banking, Negligence
The claimant had obtained judgment against customers of the defendant, and then freezing orders for the accounts. The defendants inadvertently or negligently allowed sums to be transferred from the accounts. The claimants sought repayment by the bank. Held: The bank was liable. "a duty ought to be imposed on the Bank, towards claimants who have obtained a freezing order, to take care that funds of a person whose account has been frozen pursuant to that order should not be dissipated in breach of that order. I would not be deterred by the apparent absence of any express or deliberate assumption of responsibility on the part of the Bank since I would hold that the law ought to decide that such responsibility should be imposed and that that, in accordance with Phelps, is sufficient. I do not believe that the absence of an express assumption of responsibility should be fatal to the conclusion reached by relying on the first approach. I further conclude, applying the third (incremental) approach, that the imposition of such a duty of care is not to impose on banks liabilities different in kind from the sort of liabilities to which banks have become used at the hands of their customers and others for many years."
1 Cites
1 Citers
[ Bailii ]
DN (By her Father and Litigation Friend RN) v London Borough of Greenwich [2004] EWCA Civ 1659; Times, 23 December 2004
8 Dec 2004
CA
Lord Justice Brooke Sir Martin Nourse Lord Justice May The Vice President Of The Court Of Appeal (Civil Division)
Education, Negligence, Legal Aid
The defendant sought to appeal her case. Held: There were serious deficiencies in the way her case had been prepared as a result of severe limitations on the public funding available to conduct the case. The trial process could not in this case be seen as satisfactory.
[ Bailii ]
Allport v Wilbraham [2004] EWCA Civ 1668
15 Dec 2004
CA
Personal Injury, Negligence
Injury during rugby match - claim against referee
[ Bailii ]
Bluett v Suffolk County Council and others [2004] EWCA Civ 1707
20 Dec 2004
CA
Personal Injury, Negligence
[ Bailii ]
T v Boys and Girls Welfare Service [2004] EWCA Civ 1747
21 Dec 2004
CA
Lord Justice Chadwick Lord Justice Latham Sir Swinton Thomas
Personal Injury, Local Government, Negligence
Damages claim for sex abuse whilst in care home.
[ Bailii ]
