Malicious prosecution of civil claims—a difficult claim to pursue. Kathryn Garbett & Mehmet Karagoz report
- The findings in Willers v Joyce & Nugent which considered a claim for malicious prosecution of a civil claim. The claim was unsuccessful and the decision shed light on the matters the court will consider in this type of claim.
In Willers v Joyce & Nugent ([2018] EWHC 3424 (Ch)) Mrs Justice Rose DBE (as she then was) considered Mr Willers’s claim for malicious prosecution of a civil claim against Mr Gubay. The claim was initially struck out on the grounds that there was no tort known to English law of malicious prosecution where the case which is alleged to have been maliciously brought was a civil action rather than a criminal prosecution (Willers v Gubay [2015] EWHC 1315 (Ch)). The judge who struck out the claim granted a ‘leapfrog’ certificate so the case could proceed directly to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court held by a majority of five to four that the tort of malicious prosecution includes the prosecution of civil proceedings
