is an

English tort law English tort law concerns the compensation for harm to people's rights to health and safety, a clean environment, property, their economic interests, or their reputations. A "tort" is a wrong in civil, rather than criminal law, that usually requ ...

case concerning the arguments for a tort of privacy, and the action for

battery Battery most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source *Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...

Facts

Alan Wainwright, along with his mother, went to visit his stepbrother, who was detained in Leeds Prison awaiting trial. Because the stepbrother was suspected of taking drugs in jail, both visitors were asked to consent to a

strip search A strip search is a practice of searching a person for weapons or other contraband suspected of being hidden on their body or inside their clothing, and not found by performing a frisk search, but by requiring the person to remove some or al ...

under Rule 86(1) of the Prison Rules 1964 (consolidated 1998), which grants prison authorities a power to search any person entering a prison. They reluctantly consented and were searched by prison officers, which they found upsetting. In particular, Alan Wainwright was handled in a way that Home Office counsel that later conceded was

. The Wainwrights then consulted a solicitor, who arranged for them to be examined by a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist concluded that Alan, who had physical and learning difficulties, had been so severely affected by his experience that he suffered

post-traumatic stress syndrome Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on a ...

. Mrs Wainwright had suffered emotional distress but no recognised psychiatric illness.

Judgment

At Leeds County Court, the judge held that the searches were wrongful (and hence not protected by statutory authority) because of the battery and invasion of the Wainwrights' "right to privacy", which he conceived to be a trespass to the person. He awarded Alan Wainwright £3,500 basic and £1,000 aggravated damages, and Mrs Wainwright £1,600 basic and £1,000 aggravated damages. The Court of Appeal did not agree with the judge's extensions of the notion of trespass to the person and did not consider that apart from the battery, which was unchallenged, the prison officers had committed any wrongful act. It thus set aside the judgments in favour of the Wainwrights with the exception of the damages for battery, which it valued at £3,750. The plaintiffs appealed to the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...

Lord Hoffmann Leonard Hubert "Lennie" Hoffmann, Baron Hoffmann (born 8 May 1934) is a retired senior South African–British judge. He served as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1995 to 2009. Well known for his lively decisions and willingness to break ...

held that there was no tort for invasion of privacy because, based on experience in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, it was too uncertain. Moreover, a claim under Article 8 of the

European Convention on Human Rights The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is an international convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by ...

(ECHR), for the right to privacy and a family life, did not help because the ECHR was merely a standard that applied to whatever was already present in the common law. Common-law protection was sufficient privacy protection for the ECHR's purpose. The assertion that there may have been a breach of Article 3 (

inhuman and degrading treatment Cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment (CIDT) is treatment of persons which is contrary to human rights or dignity, but is not classified as torture. It is forbidden by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 3 of the European Convention ...

) was completely unfounded. He held that there was also no claim for a tort of intention to cause harm under the ''

Wilkinson v Downton is an English tort law decision in which the Common Law first recognised the tort of intentional infliction of mental shock. At the time, this was not covered under the law of negligence. Background Thomas Wilkinson was the landlord of the Albi ...

'' case. In Lord Scott's opinion, the way that the strip searches were carried out had humiliated and caused distress to both Mrs Wainwright and to Alan and was "calculated (in an objective sense)" to do so, even if that was not the intention of the prison officers. However, that was not tortious at common law even if the humiliation and distress were intended.at para 62 The appeal was dismissed unanimously by the Law Lords.

Notes

External links

* {{cite book, last1=Coleman, first1=Jules, last2=Mendlow, first2=Gabriel, chapter=Theories of Tort Law, title=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edition=Fall 2010, editor-first1=Edward N., editor-last1=Zalta, chapter-url = http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2010/entries/tort-theories/ English tort case law 2003 in England English psychiatric injury case law English privacy case law 2003 in case law House of Lords cases Home Office litigation 2003 in British law Strip search