Robert O’Leary returns to the subject of who bears the risk for a working prisoner’s negligence
Who should bear the risk if a working prisoner negligently injures a member of the prison staff (or, for that matter, another working prisoner)?
In Cox v MoJ [2014] EWCA Civ 132, [2014] All ER (D) 183 (Feb) the claimant (C) was the catering department manager at HMP Swansea. The population of over 400 inmates was fed with meals prepared in the prison kitchen. The catering department comprised four members of staff and 20 prisoners who assisted in the preparation of food and in the delivery of goods from suppliers into the stores. During one such delivery, someone dropped a sack of rice. C, having instructed the prisoners to stop what they were doing, knelt beside the broken sack to prevent its contents spilling into a walkway. As she was doing so, a prisoner (P) tried to pass her carrying two 25kg sacks and stumbled, dropping them and injuring the claimant. By the appeal it was not in dispute that P had been negligent.
Vicarious
C alleged that the
