Alexandrou v Oxford
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 16 February 1990 |
| Date | 16 February 1990 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
Court of Appeal
Before Lord Justice Slade, Lord Justice Parker and Lord Justice Glidewell
Negligence - duty of care - special relationship
It was necessary for a plaintiff seeking to establish that a defendant owed him a duty to take reasonable care to prevent his being caused loss by the act of another person that the defendant stood in a special relationship to the plaintiff from which that duty of care arose.
The Court of Appeal so stated in allowing an appeal by Kenneth Gordon Oxford, formerly Chief Constable of Merseyside, against the award of £7,500 damages to the plaintiff, Socrates Alexandrou, by Mr Justice Hodgson on February 17, 1989, for the negligence of Merseyside Police officers.
Mr Brian Leveson, QC and Mr Graham Morrow for the chief constable; Mr Rodney Scholes, QC and Mr Ian Trigger for the plaintiff.
LORD JUSTICE GLIDEWELL said that the plaintiff occupied a retail clothing store in the Grange Precinct, Birkenhead, and had installed a burglar alarm system which, when activated, raised the alarm at a police station in Birkenhead. At 7.20pm on January 26, 1986 the burglar alarm was activated and a 999 call was received at the police control room.
Police attended within a few minutes and apparently found the front and rear of the premises to be secure. Thereafter attention was paid to the shop on a number of occasions by a particular officer who, at about 9.30pm, realized the interior alarm bell had stopped.
He said that he then checked the rear of the shop and again found it secure. The police were unable to contact the person holding the keys of the shop.
Mr Justice Hodgson had not accepted the evidence of the officer about checking the rear of the premises on either occasion and had held that the police had owed the defendant a duty of care.
It was possible to envisage an agreement between an occupier of property protected by a burglar alarm and the police which would impose a contractual liability on the police. That was not, however, the situation in the present case.
The communication with the police had been by a 999 telephone call followed by a recorded message.
If as a result of that communication the police came under a duty of care to the plaintiff, it must follow...
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