Dr Theodore Piepenbrock v London School of Economics and Political Science
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Mrs Justice Heather Williams |
| Judgment Date | 17 January 2023 |
| Neutral Citation | [2023] EWHC 52 (KB) |
| Court | King's Bench Division |
| Docket Number | Case No: QB-2021-003782 |
[2023] EWHC 52 (KB)
THE HONOURABLE Mrs Justice Heather Williams DBE
Case No: QB-2021-003782
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
KING'S BENCH DIVISION
MEDIA & COMMUNICATIONS LIST
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
Garry Piepenbrock, addressing the Court as McKenzie Friend for the Claimant
Angus Piper (instructed by Weightmans LLP) for the Ninth Defendant
Hearing date: 24 November 2022
Approved Judgment
Introduction
The Claimant was employed as a Teaching Fellow by the London School of Economics and Political Science (“LSE”) between September 2011 and September 2014. After the termination of this employment he commenced High Court proceedings against the LSE in negligence, breach of contract and under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 (“PHA 1997”). In a judgment handed down on 5 October 2018, [2018] EWHC 2572 (QB), Nicola Davies J (as she then was) rejected the PHA 1997 claim and accepted some of the allegations of negligence and breach of contract, but dismissed those causes of action as the psychiatric illness upon which the Claimant relied had not been reasonably foreseeable. I refer to this as “the 2018 Judgment”. Following this, articles about the Claimant's case were published in the MailOnline on 10 and 12 October 2018 and in the Daily Mail on 13 October 2018. The Claimant began QB-2019-003622, a claim for defamation against Associated Newspapers Limited (“ANL”), as the publishers of the articles; and against the LSE and an employee, Joanne Hay, on the basis that she was the anonymous source referred to in two of the articles (“the 2020 Claim”). On 1 July 2020, Nicklin J declared that the Claim Form was not served during its period of validity and consequently the court had no jurisdiction over the claim: [2020] EWHC 1708 (QB) (“the 2020 Judgment”).
On 7 October 2021 the Claimant commenced the current action, relying on claims in negligence and under the PHA 1997, the Equality Act 2010 (“EQA 2010”), the Human Rights Act 1998 (“ HRA 1998”), the Data Protection Act 2018 (“ DPA 2018”) and the General Data Protection Regulations 2018 (“GDPR 2018”). The Second to Eighth Defendants were sued on the basis of their relationship to the LSE. The Ninth Defendant, HPN (“D9”) was formerly a graduate teaching assistant (“GTA”) at the LSE. The Eleventh to Fifteenth Defendants were sued on the basis of their relationship to ANL.
I determined the strike out and summary judgment applications brought by the LSE Defendants and the ANL Defendants in a judgment handed down on 30 September 2022 (“the September 2022 Judgment”). In short, all the claims were struck out as bound to fail, other than a part of the subject access request (“SAR”) aspect of the data protection claim which was stayed pending payment of costs that the Claimant had been ordered to pay in the 2020 Claim. I subsequently refused an application for permission to appeal.
D9 was not involved in those applications. The applications before me at this stage are:
i) The Claimant's application dated 6 April 2022 for an extension of time for serving the Claim Form on D9. Although not expressly requested in the application notice, he also seeks permission to serve outside of the jurisdiction if I take the view that such permission is required. Dr Piepenbrock's primary position is that permission to serve out is not required. I will refer to this as “the Extension of Time Application”;
ii) D9's application dated 25 April 2022 seeking a declaration that the court has no jurisdiction in relation to the claims against her, as the Claim Form had not been properly served during its period of validity (“the Jurisdiction Application”); and
iii) The Claimant's application dated 4 May 2022 seeking to set aside the anonymity and related orders made by Nicklin J on 27 April 2022 (“the Set-Aside Application”).
D9's position is that whilst the Jurisdiction Application was made out of caution, if the court refuses the Extension of Time Application, then it follows in any event that the court should declare that it has no jurisdiction to determine the claim against D9, as the proceedings against her will not have been validly served. D9 also asks the court to certify that the Claimant's claim against her and his applications are totally without merit. She does not seek a civil restraint order at this stage.
The Extension of Time application is supported by a witness statement from the Claimant dated 6 April 2022. The Jurisdiction Application is supported by the first witness statement from Peter Wake (D9's solicitor), dated 25 April 2022. The Set-Aside application is supported by a witness statement from the Claimant dated 4 May 2022. Each of the applications are contested.
The course of the proceedings
The claim form, issued on 7 October 2021, described the causes of action as follows:
“The Claimant claims compensation for personal injury, loss and damage arising from psychiatric injury caused by negligence and/or breach of statutory duty and/or harassment under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 (including Harassment by Publication) and/or discrimination under the Equality Act 2010 (including sex and disability discrimination), and/or violation of the Human Rights Act 1998 (Articles 8 and 10) and/or the Data Protection Act 2018 and/or the General Data Protection Regulations 2018, by the Defendants, and/or their employees, and/or their owners, and/or agents.”
D9 has lived and worked in the United States for a number of years. It appears that she returned to live there after the events of November 2012 that I refer to below.
On 10 September 2021 Mr Piepenbrock (the Claimant's son) emailed what was described as a Pre-Action Protocol letter to D9. On 29 October 2021, Mr Walshaw of DAC Beachcroft emailed Mr Piepenbrock, confirming that he represented the LSE Defendants, but not D9. Mr Wake was instructed on behalf of D9 from 26 November 2021.
On 24 January 2022 Mr Piepenbrock emailed Mr Walshaw asking him to accept service of the Claim Form on behalf of D9, as well as on behalf of the LSE Defendants. Mr Walshaw replied on 28 January 2022 listing the defendants who he acted for (the LSE Defendants) and agreeing to accept service by email on their behalf.
On 4 February 2022 the Claimant emailed D9 (amongst others) attaching the Claim Form, Particulars of Claim and other documents from the claim pack by way of purported service. The Claimant also sent hard copies of the documents to the Claimant's home address, to her parent's address and to her employer's address. There was no indication in the documents sent that the Claimant was asserting a right to serve proceedings out of the jurisdiction without permission (or that permission to do so had been granted). On instructions, Mr Wake did not respond.
On 6 April 2022, the last day before the end of the six months period from the date of issue of the Claim Form, the Claimant emailed D9 enclosing an unissued version of the Extension of Time Application notice, along with the supporting witness statement and a draft order.
D9's name was used on the Claim Form and the Particulars of Claim. By application notice dated 25 April 2022 she applied for orders anonymising her, imposing reporting restrictions and restricting third-party access to documents on the court file that identified her. By order dated 27 April 2022 (“the April 2022 Anonymity Order”) Nicklin J ordered:
“1. Pursuant to CPR 39.2(4) the name and address of the Ninth Defendant is to be withheld from the public and are not to be disclosed and there shall be substituted for all purposes in these proceedings in place of references to the Ninth Defendant by name, and whether orally or in writing, references to ‘HPN’. The name of the Ninth Defendant will be anonymised in accordance with this paragraph on the CE-File.
2. The address of the Ninth Defendant be stated in all statements of case and other documents to be filed or served in the proceedings as the address of the solicitors acting for the Ninth Defendant.
3. No non-party may inspect or obtain a copy of any document on or from the Court file (other than this order duly anonymised as directed) without the permission of a Master or Judge. Any application for such permission must be made on notice to the Ninth Defendant.
4. Pursuant to s.11 Contempt of Court Act 1981, there shall be no publication in any report of, or otherwise in connection with, these proceedings, of the identity of the Ninth Defendant or of any matter likely to lead to her identification in connection with these proceedings.
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6….
7. Any non-party affected by this Order may apply to vary or discharge by making an Application by Application Notice giving the Ninth Defendant not less than 72 hours' notice.”
In the Reasons section of this order, Nicklin J said:
“The Ninth Defendant has been anonymised by orders of the Court made in previous proceedings (Order of 4 October 2018 in HQ15P0511 and Order of 1 July 2020 in QB-2019-003622). If an anonymity order is not made in these proceedings, then the order made in the earlier proceedings risks being undermined/defeated. I have therefore imposed orders anonymising the Ninth Defendant in these proceedings, imposed a reporting restriction enforcing the same and restricted non-party access to any documents in the proceedings that name or identify the Ninth Defendant…”
The Claimant was ordered to file an Amended Claim Form, replacing D9's name and address,...
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Dr Theodore Piepenbrock v Paul Michell
...[2022] EWHC 2421 (KB), Heather Williams J. That issue was addressed in Heather Williams J's subsequent judgment dated 17 January 2023: [2023] EWHC 52 (KB). In that judgment, she found that: a. Dr Piepenbrock should not be permitted to serve the claim form outside jurisdiction on Ms D since......