High Court: Queen's Bench Division judgments, 2006

In a claim arising from the suicide of a patient compulsorily detained under section 3 of the Mental Health Act 1983, the substantive positive obligation under…

Confidentiality arising from documents obtained by a professional regulator does not create a blanket exemption from disclosure or inspection in separate civil…

A manufacturer’s duty of care in disposing of asbestos waste depends on what injury was reasonably foreseeable at the relevant time and which persons fell…

For statutory domicile, residence and substantial connection are separate requirements. Residence means a settled or usual place of abode and requires some…

Service of a claim form may be dispensed with retrospectively under CPR 6.9 in an exceptional or very unusual case. This includes an ineffective attempt, made…

In assessing damages for severe brain injury, future care must be evaluated broadly and realistically. The court must balance the claimant’s need for structure…

An insured may be excluded from professional indemnity cover where civil liability arises from dishonesty or a fraudulent act or omission committed or condoned…

Where proceedings are served abroad, the court must consider the law of the country of service and the applicable procedural rules. CPR 3.10 cannot…

Interest on a Part 36 payment paid into court for a claimant under a disability is allocated according to the date of valid acceptance. Under CPR 21.10…

On an application to amend a claim, the court should not refuse a proposed case merely because its prospects appear finely balanced. The question is whether it…

A public authority exercising statutory functions may owe a common-law duty of care where the decision is justiciable, sufficient proximity and foreseeability…

Publication of defamatory allegations to a commercially relevant audience is not merely technical where the readers include people likely to deal with the…

Vicarious liability for a police constable’s intentional torts is governed by the ordinary close-connection test. The fact that a constable is apparently or…

Where liability is alleged for deliberate abuse by an employee, the claim may fall in trespass and be subject to the non-extendable six-year limitation period.…

In medical negligence, the relevant question is whether the defendant followed a reasonable and acceptable practice, not whether it adopted the preferred or…

Under sections 14 and 33 of the Limitation Act 1980, historic abuse claims require an individual assessment of knowledge, inhibition, delay and evidential…

When assessing periodical payments for future care, the court must seek to preserve the real value of the payments throughout the claimant’s life and to…

A general practitioner is not negligent merely because an earlier referral might have produced a better medical outcome. Where the alleged breach is a failure…

Capacity to manage property and affairs is assessed transactionally. The question is whether the person can recognise the relevant problem, obtain and…

An adjudication under the Scheme for Construction Contracts is confined to a single dispute unless all parties consent to the adjudicator determining more than…

A person may be falsely imprisoned where their movements are constrained by apprehension of violence, even without physical restraint. Consent to sexual…

The graduated fees scheme is intended to operate mechanically and formulaically. The number of pages of prosecution evidence is a rough measure of case weight…

Section 273 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 applies to a transferred life prisoner transferred after the commencement of that section, even where the original…

A pharmacist must exercise independent professional judgment when dispensing a prescription. Where the pharmacy’s records show a substantial and unexplained…

In insurance non-disclosure cases, materiality is assessed objectively by asking what would influence the judgment of a prudent insurer, having regard to the…

An interim privacy injunction may be granted against persons unknown where the description identifies the intended defendants with sufficient certainty and the…

A director may incur personal liability for deceit where he knowingly makes, or procures his company to make, false representations about the company’s ability…

When granting an injunction under section 187B of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, the court must independently assess whether relief is necessary and…

In assessing damages for catastrophic injury, a court should not reduce the award for future care merely because a local authority may provide direct payments.…

Relief from a procedural sanction must be determined by considering all relevant circumstances, including the interests of justice and the comparative…

Permission to rely on additional expert evidence after an experts’ discussion is exceptional. A party’s dissatisfaction with its own expert’s changed or…

A solicitor-negligence claim accrues when the underlying claim has become doomed to failure or its value has been substantially diminished because a strike-out…

Under section 35 of the Limitation Act 1980, substitution may be permitted where a defendant’s name was given in a claim in mistake for the name of the proper…

Under section 58 of the Highways Act 1980, a highway authority must prove that it took such care as was reasonably required to keep the highway safe. Where a…

An oral agreement concerning the use of a business telephone number is construed objectively. Where the agreement gives one party exclusive use of a number…

An unincorporated association may be sued representatively under CPR 19.6 where it is sufficiently coherent, even if it deliberately lacks formal…

A social worker investigating suspected child abuse does not owe the suspected parent a duty of care in the conduct of that investigation. The duty cannot be…

A partly oral and partly written construction agreement is established by objectively assessing the parties’ communications and conduct. The court may reject…

An employer’s reference must be true, fair and accurate when read as a whole. A reasonable referee is not required to provide a full or comprehensive…

A party alleging fraudulent or negligent misrepresentation bears the burden of proving the constituent elements. Where recollections of old meetings conflict…

An employer or police chief officer may be liable in negligence for psychiatric injury caused by workplace bullying, victimisation or unfair disciplinary…

Protocol No 10 suspended the application of the acquis, including Regulation No 44/2001, to matters concerning the TRNC-controlled area. An enforcing court…

In a clinical negligence claim, the claimant must prove on the balance of probabilities that the defendant’s breach caused the injury. Abnormal cardiotocograph…

An employer may be liable in negligence for psychiatric injury caused by workplace bullying where the conduct, viewed cumulatively, creates a foreseeable risk…

Prison correspondence rules may lawfully permit the opening, reading or stopping of a prisoner’s correspondence in defined circumstances. An accidental breach…

A claim based on holding out succeeds where the evidence, viewed as a whole, establishes that a solicitor represented another person as a fellow solicitor and…

In a work-related stress claim, general awareness that excessive work may cause illness does not by itself make psychiatric injury to a particular employee…

A written agreement governing a professional performance assessment may be contractually binding where the parties intended legal relations, even if some…

In a defamation claim, the court must identify the single meaning conveyed by the words in their full context. A defamatory allegation is not substantially…

An order made by a court with jurisdiction to make that type of order, but reached through an error of law, must ordinarily be challenged by appeal. It cannot…

Under section 33 of the Limitation Act 1980, the court must decide whether it is equitable, meaning fair between the parties, to disapply the limitation bar.…

A mandatory mortgage indemnity fee charged under a secured loan agreement is a charge forming part of the total charge for credit, rather than an insurance…

Interim relief restraining publication of defamatory material requires careful reconciliation of freedom of expression with reputation and privacy. A defendant…

An application to set aside judgment must be made and pursued promptly once the judgment is known, particularly where there is a genuinely arguable defence.…

An appeal from a refusal of summary judgment should succeed where the defendant has no real prospect of establishing that a written retainer was a sham or…

Pre-action disclosure may be ordered where the applicant establishes an arguable claim and the statutory or Norwich Pharmacal conditions are satisfied. The…

A contractual disciplinary procedure governing NHS consultants must be followed according to its terms. At the sanction stage, the employer may rely only on…

Where a defendant is added to a defamation claim after the limitation period has expired, the addition generally operates retrospectively and removes any…

Where one defendant accepts an offer of amends under Defamation Act 1996 and another remains liable for the same libel, the court must assess one overall sum…

For compulsory motor insurance purposes, a police constable is not an employee merely because legislation treats the office-holder as an employee for…

On an application for an injunction under section 187B of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, the court must not re-determine the planning merits. It must…

In determining the meaning of allegedly defamatory words, the court must identify the single natural and ordinary meaning conveyed to the ordinary reasonable…

A commercial agent who treats an agency agreement as repudiated, without being entitled to do so, repudiates the agreement himself. The principal may accept…

Damages for breach of a passenger contract are principally confined to financial loss caused by the breach and proved by the claimant. Expenses incurred by a…

An expert witness enjoys immunity from suit, or absolute privilege, in respect of statements made for the purpose of giving evidence in judicial proceedings.…

A guarantee is construed according to the obligations which the guarantor expressly undertook. Where a joint venture agreement and a facility letter are…

An employer's duty of trust and confidence does not create a general obligation to investigate every factual dispute raised by an employee. Whether an…

A court may use its inherent jurisdiction to control its own processes, together with the broad case-management powers in the Civil Procedure Rules 1998, to…

An assault, as distinct from a battery, requires conduct causing the claimant to apprehend immediate unlawful force. Whether words convey such a threat depends…

A marine insurance broker who effects a policy and advances, or becomes liable for, the premium may have a lien against the assured and intermediaries in the…

On an application under section 187B of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, the court must accept the planning merits as determined within the planning…

A statutory body may owe a common-law duty of care to workers even where the workers are allocated to, and controlled by, another employer. The existence of a…

Medical negligence is assessed by reference to the practice accepted as proper by a responsible body of practitioners, provided that the opinion has a logical…

Where a party succeeds on an appeal concerning a stay, the court may order the opposing party to pay the costs of both the lower-court application and the…

A private laboratory may owe a duty of care to prospective parents where it performs part of a prenatal testing process. The absence of direct communication or…

Damages for future care must reflect the claimant’s reasonable needs, assessed objectively. Existing family arrangements may demonstrate that a proposed regime…

Under the offer of amends procedure, acceptance must correspond with the offer made. An acceptance coupled with an assertion of a right to pursue a materially…

Under sections 8 to 10 of the Defamation Act 1996, summary disposal requires separate consideration of whether the claim or defence has a realistic prospect of…

Claims alleging negligent educational provision require proof of professional breach, not merely inadequate teaching, breach of statutory guidance, or failure…

In a professional negligence claim arising from the loss of an appeal, damages require proof that the lost appeal offered a real rather than fanciful prospect…

A dispute about a solicitor’s obligation to provide client files under statutory disclosure regulations may also be a dispute concerning an alleged breach of…

An employer is liable for stress-related psychiatric injury only where a real risk of harm to health was reasonably foreseeable and reasonable steps were not…

A package tour operator’s contractual responsibility for proper performance does not impose English safety standards on an overseas hotel. The claimant must…

A Group Litigation Order is not justified merely because claims share a broad factual background or involve similar complaints. Applicants must identify the…

A commercial railway infrastructure owner was not a core public authority under the Human Rights Act 1998. Its maintenance of track and points was in any event…

In group litigation, a claimant whose individual claim succeeds on findings specific to that claim should not ordinarily bear a proportion of generic-trial…

There is no rebuttable presumption of law that material placed on an openly accessible Internet website has been substantially published within the…

Qualified privilege may protect publication of allegations made in an ongoing political dispute where the publication objectively reports competing allegations…

Professionals investigating suspected child abuse do not owe a common-law duty of care to a parent suspected of causing the abuse. The controlling…

A claim against an insurance broker is not necessarily time-barred when the alleged breach includes a continuing post-placement duty. Whether such a duty…

A sporting body’s administrative instruction to a testing laboratory may alter the reporting level for a prohibited substance without altering the governing…

A settlement with a bank will not be set aside for undue influence or economic duress merely because the customer is vulnerable and indebted. Where the bank is…

Under the Consumer Protection Act 1987, a product is defective where its safety is less than persons generally are entitled to expect, having regard to all…

An employer owes an employee a duty to provide a reasonably safe system of work and to take reasonable steps against a foreseeable risk of psychiatric injury…

Under the Evidence (Proceedings in Other Jurisdictions) Act 1975, the High Court may assist a foreign court only within the statutory limits governing the…

Section 139 of the Mental Health Act 1983 protects acts purportedly done under the Act, whether or not the act is expressly required by the Act and whether or…

Cover under a personal accident policy required the accidental bodily injury to occasion permanent total disablement solely and independently of any other…

For an order for periodical payments, the court must be satisfied that continuity of payment is reasonably secure. Absolute security is not required. The…

On an application for summary judgment, a claimant must provide an evidential basis for alleging responsibility for publication. Bare assertion, suspicion and…

For limitation purposes, a claimant has knowledge when he knows enough about the significant injury, its broad attribution to the defendant’s act or omission…

An agent owes continuing loyalty to the principal throughout the agency. The duty includes acting in good faith, avoiding conflicts, and disclosing matters…

Under section 151(4) of the Road Traffic Act 1988, an insurer avoids liability for an injured passenger where the passenger knew, or had reason to believe…

Successive proceedings may amount to an abuse of process even where the earlier proceedings ended for procedural reasons and the later claim is brought by an…

In a defamation claim involving a Lucas-Box plea of justification, particulars must support the pleaded level of meaning. A Level 3 meaning alleging grounds to…

A claim or appeal may be struck out as an abuse of process where misconduct jeopardises the fairness of the trial, such that a judgment for the offending party…

Undue influence may be established by proving actual influence or by showing a relationship of trust and confidence together with a transaction calling for…

Under section 12 of the Human Rights Act 1998, an interim injunction restraining publication should not be granted unless the claimant’s prospects at trial are…

Compensation under the statutory offer of amends procedure is assessed in two stages. The court first identifies the damages that would have been awarded at…

Permission to appeal may be granted where the court is just persuaded that there is a sufficient prospect of success, even though the application is attended…

Permission to amend a statement of case is generally granted where amendment will enable the real issues to be tried, unless resulting prejudice cannot be…

An abuse-of-process application requires a broad, merits-based assessment of all the public and private interests. The court must ask whether, in all the…

A director may be liable for breach of fiduciary and contractual duties where he takes an unacceptable commercial risk, misapplies company assets, diverts a…

In assessing damages for defamation, the court may consider injury to reputation and injury to feelings. Damages are at large, but the court must assess the…

A claimant who brings an unsuccessful claim will ordinarily pay its costs. The court may depart from that starting point to reflect the conduct of the…

A joint venture may amount to a partnership, with fiduciary duties, where the parties agree to carry on business together with a view to profit. Terms…

A creditor who realises security for a principal debtor’s liabilities must take reasonable care to obtain a proper price. That equitable duty is owed both to…

Article 2 may require the police to take preventive operational measures where they knew, or ought to have known, of a real and immediate risk to an identified…

Permission to apply for judicial review may be refused where, even if unlawfulness were established, the court could not grant any substantial public law…

In a libel action, justification succeeds where the defendant proves that the substantial substance of the defamatory imputations is more probably true than…

Security for costs must reflect the additional cost of enforcing a possible costs order in the claimant’s jurisdiction, compared with enforcement in a…

A commercial agent must disclose proposed activities that may create a conflict between duties owed to the principal and duties owed to another business.…

A main contractor may owe a subcontractor’s employee a common-law duty to coordinate and supervise safety where its contractual role, knowledge and…

A claimant alleging workplace exposure to a hazardous substance must prove exposure, breach of duty and causation. Res ipsa loquitur is inappropriate where the…

For a defence of fair comment, readers must be able to recognise the defamatory statement as comment rather than fact. The publication need not set out every…

In construing a detailed asset-sale agreement, the court must give effect to the ordinary meaning of material contractual language unless the agreement clearly…

A registration mark is created by statute and does not generate a common-law right to the mark. Except for rights expressly provided by the statutory scheme…

Medical negligence is assessed by reference to the information reasonably available to the clinician at the time, rather than by hindsight. The question is…

A contractual jurisdiction clause requiring proceedings to be brought in a court of competent jurisdiction in London concerns the commencement of proceedings.…

An injunction under section 187B of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 engages an original judicial discretion. The court must not re-decide the planning…

An election petition must disclose, within the applicable time, sufficient particulars of corrupt or illegal practices capable of satisfying the statutory test…

A defendant who deliberately invades a claimant’s bodily integrity may be liable in trespass to the person. Conduct falling short of battery or assault may…

On an application by a local planning authority under section 187B of the Town & Country Planning Act 1990, the court exercises an original discretion whether…

On an application under CPR Part 24, the court asks whether the claimant has a real prospect of succeeding, not whether the claim can be finally tried on…

A final judgment cannot ordinarily be reopened through fresh proceedings merely because a party considers it wrong or unfair. A judgment may be challenged for…

An employer’s duty to provide a safe system of work must be assessed in the context of the workplace and the risks inherent in it. In a specialist school for…

Summary judgment may be granted where a claim has no real prospect of success and no other compelling reason requires a trial. A claim should not proceed…

Permission to amend pleadings may be refused where the proposed claim is very weak and the applicant has not demonstrated a sufficient need for the amendment.…

A driver who makes an unexpected U-turn on a busy road must take particular care to ensure that it can be completed safely. Gross negligence in making such a…

Where a claim falls within the fixed-cost scheme for specified low-value road-traffic cases, fixed recoverable costs and the prescribed success fee are payable…

An amendment sought after the effective conclusion of proceedings will be refused where it introduces new factual and legal issues that should previously have…

A conditional fee agreement is unenforceable only where a breach of the governing regulations has had a material adverse effect on the protection afforded to…

Damages for future care should not be reduced to reflect uncertain discretionary funding from a local authority for domiciliary care. The defendant must…

Fraudulent misrepresentation requires a false representation made knowingly, without an honest belief in its truth, or recklessly, with the intention that the…

In managing group litigation, the court may require claimants to plead their cases and provide supporting expert evidence within a specified period. An…

Advice on settling litigation must be assessed by the ordinary standard of reasonable skill and care. The settlement context does not impose a different or…

An insurer’s deliberate-act exclusion applies only where the loss results from a deliberate act or omission which is, as a matter of law, the act or omission…

Harassment may include conduct that engages freedom of expression where the conduct is unreasonable and oppressive and causes a continuing impact on another…

Whether an artificial limb is functionally too long is determined by dynamic, patient-specific assessment, rather than by comparison with a predetermined…

The usual rule remains that costs follow the event, but the court may adjust costs where a party has pursued an unreasonable issue or acted unreasonably in…

On an application for an interim injunction preserving contractual employment rights, the court should apply the American Cyanamid approach where the order…