Source: All England Reporter
Publisher Citation: [2010] All ER (D) 160 (Jun)
Neutral Citation: [2010] EWCA Civ 698
Court: Court of Appeal, Civil Division
Judge:

Rix, Stanley Burnton and Jackson LJJ
Representation Robert Francis QC and Nigel Poole (instructed by Pannone LLP) for the claimants.
  Monica Carss-Frisk QC and Jane Mulcahy (instructed by Hempsons) for the defendant.
Judgment Dates: 21 June 2010

Catchwords

Human rights - Right to life - Mental health patient - Voluntary patient - Claimants' daughter admitting herself as patient of mental health unit - Patient committing suicide whilst on leave from unit - Claimants bringing claims against defendant hospital trust - Claimants settling claim - Human rights claim continuing although out of time - Judge finding defendant not having operational obligation towards voluntary mental health patient - Judge finding defendant not breaching investigatory obligation and that claimants not victims - Whether judge erring - European Convention on Human Rights, art 2.

The Case

Human rights Right to life. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, upheld the decision of the judge that the defendant NHS hospital trust did not have an operational obligation to the claimants' daughter, a voluntary mental patient, under art2 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court further upheld the decision that the defendant had not been in breach of the investigatory obligation under art2, and that the claimants were not victims for the purposes of s7(7) of the .

Practice Areas

If you are a LexisLibrary subscriber you can read more about this case here.

Lexis®Library

  • An Official transcript is the final version of the judgment prepared by shorthand writers. LexisLibrary contains all judgments from the High Court and aboveView Judgment
  • The All England Law Reports comprises judgments with headnotes and catchwords indicating the area of law and key issues of the case prepared by legally qualified editorsFind AllER Reports
  • Cases related to this particular case that are related to, or discuss this caseView related cases
  • Commentary discussing this particular case from LexisLibrary's comprehensive range of titles including Butterworths, Halsbury's and TolleyView related commentary