Public authority liability Flashcards
(6 cards)
Preliminary matters
East Suffolk Rivers Catchment Board v Kent: “Where a statutory authority is entrusted with a mere power, it cannot be made liable for any damage sustained by a member of the public [C], by reason of a failure to exercise that power”
Poole BC v GN: re-emphasised that public authorities do not owe a DoC at common law merely because they have the statutory power to do so (even if by exercising the statutory functions they could prevent someone from suffering harm)
Policy/operational distinction: e.g. in Dorset Yacht Co v Home Office the failure was a purely operational one (and so D is capable of being liable)
Not liable for pure omissions- Stovin v Wise
- Robinson v West Yorkshire Police: referred to it as distinguishing between causing harm and failing to confer a benefit
How to establish a DoC- different ways
Positive actions by public authority (Robinson v CC of West Yorkshire Police)
Making it worse
Assumption of responsibility (for C rather than the ‘common good’)
Social work cases
May also discuss Caparo, East Berkshire was recognised that proximity and public policy could not be separated
Assumption of responsibility
to an individual rather than the public
Health services:
- assume responsibility for their patients- Darnely v Croydon Health Services NHS Trust
Ambulance service: Kent v Griffiths, mentions how ambulance is different from fire and police in that the others have a duty to the public at large instead
Fire and police? No
- Capital & Countries plc v Hampshire CC: fire brigade not under duty to answer the call for help, get there in time, etc
Michael v South Wales Police: unsuccessful
Tindall v Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police: unsuccessful
Chief Constable of Northamptonshire v Woodcock: unsuccessful
making matters worse
Tindall v Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police: argument that if the police had done nothing original driver would have kept warning people was dismissed as unrealistic, police could not foresee that their attendance would displace attempts otherwise made to prevent road users from suffering harm
Capital & Countries plc v Hampshire CC: where the public authority makes the matter much worse (or creates the danger) there is no ground for granting immunity
Social work cases
X v Bedfordshire: OG case (now eroded) which said no DoC owed
Barrett v Enfield LBC: D owed C a DoC, to act in loco parentis and provide him with the standard expected of a reasonable parent, including providing a home and education and taking reasonable steps to protect him from physical, emotional, psychiatric, or psychological injury
JD v East Berkshire Community Health NHS Trust; RK and MAK v Dewsbury Healthcare NHS Trust: wrongful accusations of abuse, taking children away from the home, separating family- Ds arguably owe DoC in all these situations BUT not to the parents
- interests of the parents and children are frequently in conflict, council cannot carry out duties to the child if they are also concerned with possible liability to the parents
NXS v Camden LBC: it is now well-established that a local authority which carried out investigations into suspected child abuse owes a duty of care to a child who is potentially at risk, including duty to take reasonable steps to avoid or prevent her from suffering personal injury
N v Poole BC: council had not taken any positive action in respect of the neighbours, and they had not assumed any responsibility to protect the family against actions by TPs, so no DoC was owed
incidental DoC
may be owed where PA performs activities carelessly during the course of undertaking its statutory duties or powers, but where those activities are quite separate from the nature of the statutory functions ordinarily undertaken by that authority
Home Office v Mohammed: example of a gas meter-reader who lights a cigarette in C’s premises and causes severe property damage, or an environmental health officer who is inspecting C’s premises and breaks the china carelessly
The way in which the accidents happen is quite unconnected with the particular function which the public authority was meant to perform- DoC will be owed to C
