An allegation was made of malicious abuse of the legal process by procuring of the arrest of the claimant. The defendant, Mr Griffiths, made a false statement about his business associate Mr Sallows to three recipients within their company. The statement alleged Mr Sallows had acted deceptively towards Mr Griffiths, and led to his summary dismissal at a board meeting. The defendant had falsely and maliciously given a police officer information that the claimant had been guilty of a criminal offence, thereby procuring his arrest. The charges were over his head for six months before being dropped.
Held: The defendant was liable in tort. Damages for the injurious falsehood were available because Mr Sallows had already been compensated for his wrongful dismissal through employment law mechanisms and there was no evidence he would be likely to suffer any other damage from publication to the three internal recipients.
Judges:
Beldam LJ, Staughton LJ
Citations:
[2001] FSR 15
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
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.
Torts – Other
Updated: 07 December 2022; Ref: scu.652136