Tort Law Master Document
Topic One: Introduction
Allen v. Flood [1898] AC 1
Iron-workers: no violation of legal rights.
Bourhill v Young [1943] AC 92
A woman miscarried after seeing blood in an accident and tried to sue the driver.
The case failed as Young did not commit a tort in relation to her.
Osman v Ferguson [1993] 4 All ER 344
Police were sued for not protecting a boy from a headmaster who was obsessed with him.
The claim was rejected on the basis of the police not owing DOC to protect the boy from the
headmaster, which was declared incompatible with article 6 by the ECHR.
Topic Two: Harassment
Majrowski v St Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Trust [2006] 3 WLR 125
Bullying by manager. Was D, NHS Trust, vicariously liable for tort of manager? Yes, if there is
a course of conduct amounting to harassment.
Thomas v News Group Newspapers [2001] EWCA Civ 1233
Harassing newspaper articles. It was harassment.
Harassment is ‘conduct targeted at an individual which is calculated to produce [alarm or
distress] and which is oppressive and unreasonable’ (Lord Phillips).
Levi v Bates [2015] EWCA Civ 206
Disclosure of C’s address to harass C’s partner. Since anxiety was not felt by C, claim failed.
Iqbal v Dean Manson Solicitors [2011] EWCA Civ 123
Not every element in the course of conduct needed to be experienced as harassment.
Hayes v Willoughby [2013] UKSC 17
Personal vendetta against C, sending letters to try to suggest he was tax evading etc. At the
outset, there was a reasonable basis for D’s suspicions. Could D rely on defence of s.1(3)(a),
Topic One: Introduction
Allen v. Flood [1898] AC 1
Iron-workers: no violation of legal rights.
Bourhill v Young [1943] AC 92
A woman miscarried after seeing blood in an accident and tried to sue the driver.
The case failed as Young did not commit a tort in relation to her.
Osman v Ferguson [1993] 4 All ER 344
Police were sued for not protecting a boy from a headmaster who was obsessed with him.
The claim was rejected on the basis of the police not owing DOC to protect the boy from the
headmaster, which was declared incompatible with article 6 by the ECHR.
Topic Two: Harassment
Majrowski v St Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Trust [2006] 3 WLR 125
Bullying by manager. Was D, NHS Trust, vicariously liable for tort of manager? Yes, if there is
a course of conduct amounting to harassment.
Thomas v News Group Newspapers [2001] EWCA Civ 1233
Harassing newspaper articles. It was harassment.
Harassment is ‘conduct targeted at an individual which is calculated to produce [alarm or
distress] and which is oppressive and unreasonable’ (Lord Phillips).
Levi v Bates [2015] EWCA Civ 206
Disclosure of C’s address to harass C’s partner. Since anxiety was not felt by C, claim failed.
Iqbal v Dean Manson Solicitors [2011] EWCA Civ 123
Not every element in the course of conduct needed to be experienced as harassment.
Hayes v Willoughby [2013] UKSC 17
Personal vendetta against C, sending letters to try to suggest he was tax evading etc. At the
outset, there was a reasonable basis for D’s suspicions. Could D rely on defence of s.1(3)(a),
