Temple Garden Chambers is a leading common law set based in London and The Hague.
With excellence from top to bottom Chambers provides a first class service in a number of different fields.
Temple Garden Chambers is a leading common law set based in London and The Hague.
With excellence from top to bottom Chambers provides a first class service in a number of different fields.
01/03/2011
Court of Appeal judgement on breach of duty and causation appeal in assault case
Andrew Prynne KC and Marcus Grant appeared for the Appellant, a special needs teacher assaulted by a 14-year-old pupil on the ASD spectrum. The Respondent, through it’s headmaster, engaged in a cover-up by fabricating documentary evidence and giving perjured oral evidence in Court, in an attempt to protect itself from criticism that it had not devised and maintained a safe system of work for the Appellant. The Court of Appeal described this conduct as ‘reprehensible’. The Court of Appeal overturned both findings. It fond that on the Judge’s own primary factual findings there had been a breach of duty. Furthermore, whilst it was difficult for the Claimant to show precisely what the school should have done to avoid the assault, such difficulty did not automatically mean that her claim should fail. There was sufficient evidence to establish on a balance of probability, that but for the multiple breaches in the Respondent’s duty of care to her, she would not have sustained injuries in the assault. Costs of the liability trial were awarded on the indemnity.
