fbpx

Subjected to Groundless Litigation? You Could Win Compensation!

27th October 2016 By Arman Khosravi

A ground-breaking Supreme Court decision has for the first time opened the way for compensation claims by those who are subjected to groundless civil proceedings which have been brought maliciously without reasonable or probable cause.

The case concerned a businessman who was sued by a leisure company for alleged breach of fiduciary and contractual duties following his dismissal as a director. The claim was later withdrawn and the businessman contended that the proceedings had been part of a campaign by a former colleague to do him harm. He launched a claim for malicious prosecution but his case was struck out by the High Court.

In allowing his appeal against that decision, the Supreme Court noted that claims for malicious prosecution had long been familiar in the criminal context. Extending the cause of action to civil cases, the Court noted that it would be instinctively unjust should those who are maliciously subjected to civil proceedings without reasonable cause not be entitled to compensation for the harm intentionally caused.

Those who launch such proceedings in the knowledge that they are without foundation, or to achieve some collateral benefit to which they have no right, are deliberately misusing the legal process. The concept of malice also embraces those litigants who are indifferent as to whether their claims have any foundation. In the circumstances, the Court directed a full hearing of the businessman’s claim.

Source: Concious

Latest News

Another Sad Tale of a Farmer's Disinherited Children – High Court Ruling

24th November, 2023 By

The tale of a devoted son labouring for years on a family farm only to be cut out of his father's will is so often told as to be almost a cliché. However, as a High Court ruling showed, such stories are often reflected in the sad and recurring reality of agricultural inheritance disputes. When he died, a father was the beneficial owner of a 20 per cent stake in his family farm. He also held a 25 per cent share of a company that ran a market gardening business...

Family Judge Treads the Blurred Boundary Between Life and Death

21st November, 2023 By

The ability of modern medical technology to keep patients' hearts beating and their lungs ventilating has led to a blurring of the boundary between life and death. As a High Court ruling showed, it sometimes falls to family judges to make the desperately hard decision as to when that line has been crossed. The case concerned a young man who fell to the ground after being assaulted in a pub garden, sustaining a catastrophic brain injury. He was admitted to hospital in a deep coma and, following weeks of observation...

False Claim to Be a Cash Buyer Ruled Fraudulent in Ground-Breaking Case

16th November, 2023 By

In coming to the aid of a frail and elderly householder, the High Court has ruled in a landmark case that she was on the receiving end of a fraudulent misrepresentation when a would-be purchaser of her home was falsely described to her as a cash buyer. A copy of a contract before the Court indicated that the woman, aged in her 80s, had signed a contract agreeing to the sale of her home for £840,000. Following a purported exchange of contracts, the purchaser, an investment company, launched proceedings against...

Sometimes Parental Love is Not Enough – Court Sanctions Boy's Adoption

13th November, 2023 By

Parents may be worthy of praise and deeply love their children, but it sadly does not always follow that they are able to provide them with a stable home. The High Court made that point in sanctioning a little boy's placement for adoption. Due to concerns that he was not receiving a good enough standard of parenting, a local authority placed him in temporary foster care and sought care and placement orders. His parents, although separated, staunchly resisted plans for his adoption, arguing that his mother was able to look...