An agency worker's negligence caused injury on a building site. The Court of Appeal, considering which of two contractors was liable, established a significant precedent: two separate 'employers' can share control and therefore be held jointly vicariously liable for an employee's tort. Facts Viasystems (Tyneside) Ltd engaged Thermal Transfer (Northern) Ltd (‘Thermal Transfer’) as the main contractor for works at its factory. Thermal Transfer subcontracted ducting installation to CAT Metalwork Services Ltd (‘CAT’). CAT hired two fitters, Mr Taylor (a CAT employee) and Mr Megson (his mate), to perform the work. Mr Megson was technically employed by an employment agency,
Giles Van Colle was murdered by a suspect he was due to testify against. The police knew of prior intimidation. His family sued the police. The House of Lords held there was no common law negligence liability but considered the police's positive obligations under Article 2 of the ECHR, clarifying the 'real and immediate risk' test. Facts Giles Van Colle was a key prosecution witness in a theft trial against his former employee, Daniel Brougham. In the months preceding the trial, Brougham engaged in a campaign of intimidation against Van Colle, including threatening phone calls and setting his car on
A tractor driver turned right and was hit by a speeding motorcyclist who died. The trial judge found the tractor driver 100% liable. The Court of Appeal reversed this, finding the motorcyclist 80% contributorily negligent due to his excessive speed. Facts Ms Turnbull, the defendant, was driving a tractor and trailer. She intended to turn right from a minor road, cross the B1249 main road, and enter a field gateway directly opposite. The B1249 had a 60 mph speed limit. Before commencing the turn, she saw the headlight of a motorcycle, which she estimated to be about 400 metres away,
A council water pipe burst, damaging Transco's gas main. Transco sued under the strict liability rule in Rylands v Fletcher. The House of Lords held the council was not liable, as supplying water through ordinary pipes was a natural, not a non-natural, use of land. Facts The respondent, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, owned a 22-storey block of flats. They were responsible for a large high-pressure pipe which supplied water from the mains to storage tanks in the building. A fracture occurred in this pipe, which was located in the basement of the flats. The leak was not detected for a
A man became tetraplegic after diving into a shallow lake at a country park, despite clear warning signs. The House of Lords ruled the council was not liable, as the obvious danger arose from the claimant's own voluntary actions, not the state of the premises. Facts The claimant, Mr John Tomlinson, then aged 18, visited Brereton Heath Country Park, owned and occupied by Congleton Borough Council. In a reckless act, he performed a shallow dive into a lake (a former sand quarry) and struck his head on the sandy bottom. The impact severed his spinal cord, resulting in tetraplegia. The
A 13-month-old child ingested dishwasher powder after opening a 'child-resistant' cap which complied with British Standards. The Court of Appeal held that Tesco was not liable under the Consumer Protection Act 1987, as the product's safety met public expectations. Facts The claimant, Ben Pollard, a 13-month-old child, was found with the cap off a bottle of Tesco’s own-brand dishwasher powder. He had opened the ‘child-resistant’ cap and ingested some of the powder, causing a corrosive injury to his oesophagus. The cap was of the ‘push and turn’ variety and complied with the relevant British Standard (BS 6652:1985), which was in
Footballer John Terry sought an injunction to stop a newspaper from reporting an alleged affair. The court discharged the injunction, balancing his Article 8 right to privacy against the Article 10 right to freedom of expression, considering the information's prior availability. Facts The claimant, John Terry, a well-known professional footballer and captain of the England football team, sought an interim injunction to prevent the defendant, identified as ‘Persons Unknown’ but understood to be Associated Newspapers Ltd (publishers of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday), from publishing details of an alleged extra-marital affair. An initial injunction had been granted by
A daughter witnessed her mother's sudden death at home, the result of an injury sustained in a work accident three weeks prior. Her claim for psychiatric injury as a secondary victim failed because she lacked proximity to the original accident. Facts The claimant’s mother, Mrs Taylor, was injured in an accident at her workplace on 19th August 2008, when a stack of racking boards fell on her. The defendant, her employer, admitted liability for this accident. Mrs Taylor sustained injuries to her head and foot but was discharged from hospital and appeared to be recovering. However, three weeks later, on
A libel claim against Google for comments on its Blogger platform was struck out. The court held that after notification, Google's liability as a publisher was for a very brief period, and the publication was too trivial to constitute a real and substantial tort. Facts The claimant, Mr Payam Tamiz, brought a libel claim against Google Inc. concerning allegedly defamatory comments posted by anonymous users on a blog titled ‘London’s Dirty Little Secret’. The blog was hosted on Google’s ‘Blogger’ platform. The eight comments in question were posted between April and August 2011. Mr Tamiz’s solicitors sent a letter of
A Bangladeshi national sued a UK research council for his arsenic poisoning, arguing it had a duty to test for arsenic when surveying water in Bangladesh. The House of Lords held no duty of care existed as the survey's purpose was different. Facts The claimant, Mr Sutradhar, a citizen of Bangladesh, suffered from skin lesions caused by arsenic poisoning after drinking water from a well in his village. The defendant, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), is a UK-based public body. Its subsidiary, the British Geological Survey (BGS), conducted a hydrogeological survey of groundwater resources in Bangladesh, funded by the
