Manley v Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis: CA 28 Jun 2006

The claimant succeeded in his action against the respondent for assault, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution. He appealed his award of damages for malicious prosecution. He had a bad record, and the essential issue was the extent to which the award should be discounted for this.
Held: ‘the figures at the bottom of the judge’s brackets, so far as basic damages are concerned, simply cannot be said to have compensated this appellant for the way he was treated. Any reasonable jury should have appreciated that a failure to award something other than a substantial sum for aggravated damages would send out an entirely wrong message to the respondent. The police officers humiliated the appellant during the incident; they behaved in a high-handed, insulting, malicious and oppressive manner; those who were parties to the incident lied to found false charges, lied at the criminal trial and lied at the civil trial. The custody sergeant then fabricated or supported the fabrication of a story as well. No disciplinary proceedings of any kind have apparently resulted. No jury in my view could have awarded less than andpound;10,000 as aggravated damages. ‘ The award for malicious prosecution was raised also to andpound;4,000.

Judges:

Waller LJ, Moses LJ, Wilson LJ

Citations:

[2006] EWCA Civ 879

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

CitedThompson v Commissioner of Police of Metropolis; Hsu v Same CA 20-Feb-1997
CS Damages of 200,000 pounds by way of exemplary damages had been awarded against the police for unlawful arrest and assault.
Held: The court gave a guideline maximum pounds 50,000 award against police for . .
CitedClark v Chief Constable of Cleveland Police CA 7-May-1999
It was appropriate for courts in all cases to give juries both general guidance on awarding damages and guidance as to the range of awards available in the circumstances. The court aslo set out the proper approach to the award of aggravated damages . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Damages, Police

Updated: 07 July 2022; Ref: scu.242898