Damages claims against public authorities remain an uphill battle, says Daniel Saoul
There is perhaps nothing new in the fact that the courts are protective of public bodies sued for negligence or for breaches of the Human Rights Act 1998. Policy arguments such as the concern over the diversion of public resources to costly litigation, causing public authorities to do their work in an overly defensive manner and the “floodgates” theory are used to justify restricting the duty of care public authorities owe persons whose lives their actions or omissions adversely affect. Yet, as the case of Jain & Jain v Trent Strategic Health Authority [2009] UKHL 4, [2009] 1 All ER 957 shows, that remains the position even in the face of gross incompetence by public authorities resulting in galling injustice to members of the public.
Jain: an appeal to justice
Jain may not be a headline-grabber in terms of its facts—the claim being one for economic loss following the closure of a nursing home—but the intuitive unfairness of the claimants' predicament is no less compelling for that. As Baroness Hale
