“The Commissioner has demanded an immediate investigation into the circumstances surrounding the officers’ refusal to give evidence relating to this arrest in 2003. Whilst the arrest and subsequent events are historic this is a serious matter which has been referred to the IPCC.”
“…, [T]here are many circumstances in which an employee’s reputation may suffer from his having been associated with an unsuccessful business, or an unsuccessful department within a business. In the ordinary way this will not found a claim of the nature made in the present case, even if the business or department was run with gross incompetence. A key feature in the present case is the assumed fact that the business was dishonest or corrupt.”
“… [R]ather than focus on the elusive concept of necessity, it is better to recognise that, to some extent at least, the existence and scope of standardised implied terms raise questions of reasonableness, fairness and the balancing of competing policy considerations.”
“It is preferable, in my view, that the law should develop novel categories of negligence incrementally and by analogy with established categories, rather than by a massive extension of a prima facie duty of care restrained only by indefinable considerations which ought to negative, or to reduce or limit the scope of the duty or the class of person to whom it is owed.”
“… I incline to agree with the view … that the incremental test is of little value as a test in itself, and is only helpful when used in combination with a test or principle which identifies the legally significant features of a situation. The closer the facts of the case in issue to those of a case in which a duty of care has been held to exist, the readier a court will be, on the approach of Brennan J adopted in Caparo Industries plc v Dickman, to find that there has been an assumption of responsibility or that the proximity and policy conditions of the threefold test are satisfied. The converse is also true.”
“The law allows every person to employ its process for the purpose of trying his rights, without subjecting him to any liability, unless he acts maliciously and without probable cause.”
“Although in many cases a relationship between two parties which supports common interest privilege will be one which also gives each of them a right to obtain disclosure of confidential documents relating to the matter in which they are both interested, one can readily think of situations in which that would not be so. Take the example given by Donaldson LJ in Buttes v Hammer (No 3) of tenants in a block of flats. One tenant, acting entirely for his own benefit, obtains legal advice concerning a dispute with the landlord over a provision in the lease which affects other tenants in a similar way. If he chooses to give a copy of the document containing that advice in confidence to another tenant who is willing to cooperate with him in pursuing a claim their common interest would be sufficient for the document to remain privileged in the latter’s hands. I do not, however, see any basis upon which the second tenant could have insisted on seeing the advice if the first tenant did not wish to show it to him, even though they had a common interest in the subject matter. Both as a matter of principle and authority … it is not enough that the person seeking disclosure of confidential documents can show that he has an interest in the subject matter which would be sufficient to give rise to common interest privilege if the documents had been disclosed to him; he must be able to establish a right to obtain access to them by reason of a common interest in their subject matter which existed at the time the advice was sought or the documents were obtained.”