Teacher succeeds in appeal of stress claim

Mrs Connor joined the New Monument Primary School in Surrey as deputy head in 1994, was promoted to head in 1998 and continued as head until September 2005 when she ceased work due to ill health. There were no real problems until 2003 when new members joined the school’s governing body. The conduct of two of these, Mr Martin and Mr Saleem caused Mrs Connor considerable problems with the intention of imposing their own agenda to introduce an increasing role for the Muslim religion in the school. At first instance it was held that the delay in setting up an interim executive board to replace the governing body and the decision to set up an independent inquiry were negligent because they disregarded the health and welfare of Mrs Connor and her staff.

Held

The Court of Appeal upheld the decision in favour of the Claimant. Reviewing the evidence, Lord Justice Laws concluded that the claims of Mr Martin and his associates were generally given weight, whilst the anxieties of the demoralised Claimant were generally sidelined, as the Council feared the charge of racism. The Court of Appeal also rejected the argument put forward by the Council that the actions it took in the discharge of its duty of care to the Claimant were not justiciable in private law proceedings. It held that the law will in an appropriate case require the duty-ower to fulfil his pre-existing private law duty by the exercise of a public law discretion, but only if that may (as in this case) be done consistently with full performance of his public law obligations.

Comment

This is the latest in a line of decisions applying the Court of Appeal's judgment in Hatton v Sutherland [2002] in relation to claims for stress at work.

Defendants and their insurers will want to consider claims for stress at work carefully, in particular given the substantial damages and costs that can be involved. As a result of this decision, Mrs Connor will retain an award of damages approaching £400,000 and there is no doubt that substantial legal costs will also have been incurred, given the complex evidential background to the claim.

However, despite a number of decisions against defendants, claims can still be successfully defended. For example, in Paterson v Surrey Police Authority [2008] the Claimant alleged that he suffered a nervous breakdown as a result of having to work long hours to perform his duties as an estate manager. He failed on the basis that it was not reasonably foreseeable that he would suffer injury to his health. Each case will be considered on its own merits.