Actionable Torts in UK Law

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Leading Cases
  • OBG Ltd and another v Allan and Others
    • House of Lords
    • 02 Mayo 2007

    In my opinion, and subject to one qualification, acts against a third party count as unlawful means only if they are actionable by that third party. The qualification is that they will also be unlawful means if the only reason why they are not actionable is because the third party has suffered no loss. In the case of intimidation, for example, the threat will usually give rise to no cause of action by the third party because he will have suffered no loss.

    In my opinion the courts should be similarly cautious in extending a tort which was designed only to enforce basic standards of civilised behaviour in economic competition, between traders or between employers and labour. Otherwise there is a danger that it will provide a cause of action based on acts which are wrongful only in the irrelevant sense that a third party has a right to complain if he chooses to do so.

    In other words, a case where loss to the claimant is the obverse side of the coin from gain to the defendant. The defendant's gain and the claimant's loss are, to the defendant's knowledge, inseparably linked. The defendant cannot obtain the one without bringing about the other. If the defendant goes ahead in such a case in order to obtain the gain he seeks, his state of mind will satisfy the mental ingredient of the unlawful interference tort.

    Nevertheless, the common thread is striking through a third party who might otherwise be doing business with your target, whether by buying his goods, hiring his barges or working for him or whatever. The refinement proposed by my noble and learned friend, Lord Hoffmann, is entirely consistent with the underlying principles to be deduced from the decided cases. It is also consistent with legal policy to limit rather than to encourage the expansion of liability in this area.

  • Sorrell v Smith
    • House of Lords
    • 15 Mayo 1925

    How any definite line is to be drawn between acts, whose real purpose is to advance the defendants' interests, and acts, whose real purpose is to injure the plaintiff in his trade, is a thing which I feel at present beyond my power. When the whole object of the defendants' action is to capture the plaintiff's business, their gain must be his loss. The defendants' success is the plaintiff's extinction and they cannot seek the one without ensuing the other.

  • Esso Petroleum Company Ltd v Mardon
    • Court of Appeal (Civil Division)
    • 06 Febrero 1976

  • Smith New Court Securities Ltd v Scrimgeour Vickers (Asset Management) Ltd and Another
    • House of Lords
    • 21 Noviembre 1996

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Legislation
  • Crime and Courts Act 2013
    • UK Non-devolved
    • 1 de Enero de 2013
    ... ... the Secretary of State to sustain loss or damage is to be actionable, at the Secretary of State's suit or instance, against the person in ... (I735133) In the Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977—(a) in section 4(4) —(i) for ... ...
  • Consumer Protection Act 1987
    • UK Non-devolved
    • 1 de Enero de 1987
    ... ... statutory duty, a contravention of any such obligation shall be actionable accordingly ... (2) This Act shall not be construed as conferring any ... 26; S.I. 2003/1397, art. 2(1), Sch. (with art. 10) ... The Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977 ... (5) In section 1 of the M46Torts ... ...
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Books & Journal Articles
  • THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LAW OF TORTS IN ISRAEL
    • No. 24-3, May 1961
    • The Modern Law Review
    ... ... : The Ordinance does not deal with the following torts which are well-known civil wrongs in English law, but are not actionable in Israeli law, as they are not included in the Civil Wrongs Ordinance : Master and servant: claims for seduction and loss of ... ...
  • Comparative Notes on Injunction and Wrongful Risk-Taking
    • No. 17-1, March 2010
    • Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law
    • 0000
    This article looks into the role of injunctive relief in tort law. More specifically, it focuses on the role of injunction in cases concerning wrongful risk-taking behaviour (as opposed to intentio...
    ... ... mechanisms for injunctive relief i n cases concerning deliberate torts was as daunting to the Romans as considering a n overarching conception of ... ing between categories of wrongful acts which a re actionable per se and those that only give rise to a c ause of action if ... ...
  • A Tort‐Based Approach to Damages under the Human Rights Act 1998
    • No. 72-5, September 2009
    • The Modern Law Review
    This article argues that a strong case can be made for departing from the current approach to damages under the Human Rights Act 1998, and for the adoption of an alternative tort‐based approach. Th...
    ... ... and corporeal integ rity are protected both by Convention rights and torts such as false imprisonmen t and trespassto the person. It wo uld take ... In particular, human rights l a w and torts actionable per s e serve similar underl ying vindicato ry functions and prot ect ... ...
  • Notes Of Cases
    • No. 20-6, November 1957
    • The Modern Law Review
    ... ... the wide-held view that the master is liable for the torts of his servant, it may be said that the husband’s ... for enabling the employer to escape liability for actionable torts committed by his servants in the course of ... ...
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Law Firm Commentaries
  • The Power of the Freezer
    • JD Supra United Kingdom
    In a helpful decision for claimants, the UK Supreme Court has confirmed that conspiring to breach a Freezing Order constitutes “unlawful means” for the purposes of the tort of Unlawful Means Conspi...
    ... ... Conspiracy is one of a group of torts commonly known as economic torts and allows a party to recover damages ... or fiduciary duties, breach of civil statutory duties, torts actionable by third parties (other than the claimant) and criminal acts. Which of ... ...
  • Threats Of IP Infringement And The Amendments To S70 Patents Act
    • Mondaq United Kingdom
    ... ... provision making unjustifiable threats of infringement actionable being incorporated in the Patents, Designs and Trade Marks Act of 1883 ... Several common law torts can be, and have been, used to achieve much the same result as the ... ...
  • Threats Of IP Infringement And The Amendments To S70 Patents Act
    • Mondaq United Kingdom
    ... ... provision making unjustifiable threats of infringement actionable being incorporated in the Patents, Designs and Trade Marks Act of 1883 ... Several common law torts can, and have been, used to achieve much the same result as the statutory ... ...
  • Michael Douglas Photo Exclusive And Other Stories
    • Mondaq United Kingdom
    ...House of Lords re-defines the law on economic torts and commercial confidentiality: OBG v Allan; Douglas v Hello! Limited; and ... any photographs of the wedding, and that was, in his view, an actionable right of confidentiality which Hello! had breached ... In one of the two ... ...
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