Articles tagged as Tort Law
Latest Law Papers tagged as Tort Law
Including law essays, dissertations, problem questions, case summaries, and law lectures, suitable for law students working towards their LLB / LLM qualifications or those studying for the new SQE.
Secretary of State for Health and another v Servier Laboratories Ltd and others [2021] UKSC 24
Case Summaries
The NHS bodies alleged that deception of the European Patent Office and the courts had delayed generic competition and increased their costs. Even assuming the allegations were true, could they sue for the tort of causing loss by unlawful means when those institutions did not deal with them? The dispute The Secretary of State for […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Khan v Meadows [2021] UKSC 21
Case Summaries
It was accepted that, with correct medical advice, the claimant would have made a different decision and her child would not have been born. That established factual causation. It did not answer which costs were within the scope of the doctor’s duty to advise about the risk of haemophilia. The consultation and the birth Ms […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
R (on the application of Jalloh (formerly Jollah)) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] UKSC 4
Case Summaries
An eight-hour nightly curfew, enforced by an electronic tag and the threat of prosecution or further immigration detention, was imprisonment at common law. The Supreme Court dismissed the Secretary of State’s appeal and refused to narrow that long-standing concept so that it matched deprivation of liberty under article 5 of the European Convention on Human […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Whittington Hospital NHS Trust v XX [2020] UKSC 14
Case Summaries
After the hospital’s admitted negligence left XX unable to carry a pregnancy, she sought the cost of surrogacy as damages. The Supreme Court considered whether using donor eggs could restore part of what she had lost, and whether English public policy barred an award for commercial arrangements lawful abroad. The hospital admitted errors in reporting […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
WM Morrison Supermarkets plc v Various Claimants [2020] UKSC 12
Case Summaries
The Supreme Court held that Morrisons was not vicariously liable for a senior auditor who copied staff payroll data and published it online in order to harm the company. The courts below had treated a close link in time and causation, and the supposed irrelevance of motive, as enough to make the employer liable. Lord […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Stoffel & Co v Grondona [2020] UKSC 42
Case Summaries
Maria Grondona dishonestly obtained a mortgage advance so that Mr Mitchell could raise finance, and her solicitors then failed to register the transfer and the related charges. She claimed the loss caused by that failure. The Supreme Court held that her mortgage fraud did not bar the claim. Ms Grondona agreed to obtain mortgage finance […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Ecila Henderson v Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust [2020] UKSC 43
Case Summaries
An NHS trust admitted that negligent care had allowed an event to occur which would otherwise have been avoided. Ms Henderson sought damages for losses resulting from her own offence of manslaughter and the order imposed by the criminal court. The Supreme Court considered where the illegality defence limited that claim. The conviction and the […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Perry v Raleys Solicitors [2019] UKSC 5
Case Summaries
Raleys admitted that they had negligently failed to advise Mr Frank Perry, a retired miner with vibration white finger, to claim a services award for help with domestic tasks. The Supreme Court held that he still had to prove, on the balance of probabilities, that competent advice would have led him to make an honest […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Poole Borough Council v GN (through his litigation friend “The Official Solicitor”) and another [2019] UKSC 25
Case Summaries
Two children alleged that their local authority had failed to protect them from harassment by neighbours. The Supreme Court held that the pleaded facts did not show an assumption of responsibility by the council or its social workers. Nor did those facts disclose grounds to take the children into care. Their negligence claim therefore could […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Stocker v Stocker [2019] UKSC 17
Case Summaries
Nicola Stocker told her former husband’s new partner on Facebook that he had “tried to strangle” her. The Supreme Court held that an ordinary reader would understand that as a violent grip on the neck, not an attempt to kill, and that the trial judge had been wrong to let dictionary definitions decide the point. […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Lachaux v Independent Print Ltd and another [2019] UKSC 27
Case Summaries
The Supreme Court held that section 1 of the Defamation Act 2013 requires a claimant to show, as a matter of fact, that a publication has caused or is likely to cause serious harm to reputation, rather than relying only on the words’ inherent tendency to injure. In Bruno Lachaux’s libel actions over newspaper allegations […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Edwards on behalf of the estate of the late Thomas Arthur Watkins v Hugh James Ford Simey Solicitors [2019] UKSC 54
Case Summaries
The Supreme Court held that a miner who accepted a settlement of his vibration white finger claim on negligent advice had lost a services claim of some value under the special compensation scheme. Later medical evidence of a milder condition was irrelevant, because the scheme would not have reopened the original staging. The solicitors’ appeal […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Robinson v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police [2018] UKSC 4
Case Summaries
Police officers attempting to arrest a suspected drug dealer on a busy Huddersfield shopping street knocked down Mrs Elizabeth Robinson, a frail 76-year-old passer-by, and fell on top of her. The Supreme Court held that they owed her an ordinary duty to take reasonable care not to cause reasonably foreseeable injury, and that the police […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Steel and another v NRAM Limited [2018] UKSC 13
Case Summaries
A commercial lender released security after the borrower’s solicitor wrongly told it that the whole loan was being repaid. The lender’s own records showed that only part of the security was to be released. The Supreme Court considered whether it was reasonable for the lender to rely on the solicitor without checking those records. The […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Dryden and others v Johnson Matthey Plc [2018] UKSC 18
Case Summaries
After Johnson Matthey Plc breached its duty and exposed them to platinum salts, the claimants developed platinum salt sensitisation. The condition caused no symptoms, but further exposure was likely to bring on an allergy, so they could no longer do that work and said they had lost earnings. The Supreme Court held that the sensitisation […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
James-Bowen and others v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [2018] UKSC 40
Case Summaries
The Supreme Court held that the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis owes no duty of care to her officers, when defending a claim that she is vicariously liable for their alleged misconduct, to take reasonable care to protect them from economic and reputational harm. Four officers sued after the Commissioner settled such a claim […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Banca Nazionale del Lavoro SPA v Playboy Club London Limited and others [2018] UKSC 43
Case Summaries
The Supreme Court held that a bank was not liable to the Playboy Club for a negligent credit reference on which the Club had secretly relied. The reference was addressed to an associated company, and the bank neither knew of the Club nor had reason to think that anyone else would act on it. Describing […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Darnley v Croydon Health Services NHS Trust [2018] UKSC 50
Case Summaries
Told by an accident and emergency receptionist that he might have to wait four to five hours, Michael Darnley left after 19 minutes and later suffered permanent brain damage. The trial judge found that correct information would have led him to stay and make a very near full recovery. The Supreme Court held that the […] ...
Last modified: 3rd Nov 2026
BPE Solicitors and another v Hughes-Holland [2017] UKSC 21
Case Summaries
Mr Gabriel lost the £200,000 he lent in connection with the development of a disused building. The Supreme Court held that solicitors who negligently confirmed his belief that the money would be spent on the development were not liable for that loss. The project would have failed even if the money had been spent as […] ...
Last modified: 3rd Nov 2026
Lowick Rose LLP v Swynson Ltd and another [2017] UKSC 32
Case Summaries
An accountant’s negligence exposed Swynson Ltd to losses on a loan. When the borrower repaid that loan and a second advance, it used money lent by Swynson’s owner personally. The issue was whether the owner could pursue the accountants for money the company itself had now recovered. Swynson Ltd, controlled and beneficially owned by Mr […] ...
Last modified: 3rd Nov 2026
Armes v Nottinghamshire County Council [2017] UKSC 60
Case Summaries
A child in council care suffered abuse in two foster homes. Her claim raised two separate questions. Had the council itself undertaken to ensure that reasonable care was taken in the homes? Could it instead be liable for the foster carers’ wrongdoing because of the relationship between the carers and the council? The placements Ms […] ...
Last modified: 3rd Nov 2026
Tiuta International Limited v De Villiers Surveyors Limited [2017] UKSC 77
Case Summaries
Tiuta refinanced an existing loan and advanced some extra money on the strength of a new property valuation. If that valuation was negligent, how much loss had it caused? The lender would already have been exposed to the unpaid first loan. On the facts assumed for the appeal, only the additional lending could have made […] ...
Last modified: 3rd Nov 2026
Mohamud v WM Morrison Supermarkets plc [2016] UKSC 11
Case Summaries
Mohamud had used a petrol station kiosk and approached a member of staff with a question. The employee responded in an aggressive manner and demanded that Mohamud leave immediately. ...
Last modified: 3rd Nov 2026
Kennedy v Cordia (Services) LLP [2016] UKSC 6
Case Summaries
Miss Kennedy, a home carer, slipped on snow and ice while walking to a client’s house and injured her wrist. The UK Supreme Court held that her employer had failed to make a suitable assessment of that known risk and to provide anti-slip attachments, and was liable under the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations […] ...
Last modified: 3rd Nov 2026
Knauer v Ministry of Justice [2016] UKSC 9
Case Summaries
The Supreme Court decided that, when damages are assessed for financial dependency after a wrongful death, the multiplier for future losses should be taken from the date of trial rather than the date of death. Calculating it from death discounts the award for money the dependant has not yet received and therefore under-compensates. The Court […] ...
Last modified: 3rd Nov 2026
