Jql v Ntp
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Lewis |
| Judgment Date | 27 May 2020 |
| Neutral Citation | [2020] EWHC 1349 (QB) |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division |
| Docket Number | Case No: QB-2018-000787 |
| Date | 27 May 2020 |
HIS HONOUR JUDGE Lewis
(Sitting as a Judge of the High Court)
Case No: QB-2018-000787
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS LIST
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
Gervase de Wilde (instructed by Brett Wilson LLP) for the Claimant
David Hirst (instructed by direct access) for the Defendant
Hearing dates: 17 – 20 March 2020
Approved Judgment
I direct that pursuant to CPR PD 39A para 6.1 no official shorthand note shall be taken of this Judgment and that copies of this version as handed down may be treated as authentic.
HIS HONOUR JUDGE Lewis
In this case JQL seeks damages and an injunction against NTP for misuse of private information and breach of confidence.
The claim arises out of a post on Facebook by NTP on 19 July 2018 (“the NTP Post”). JQL says this disclosed that she had received treatment for her mental health and had self-harmed, things she says she has always kept private.
On issue, Master Eastman ordered that the parties be referred to by ciphers. At trial, on notice to the media, I continued reporting restrictions and made orders in respect of the identification of witnesses and access to court documents.
The Family
This case arises out an acrimonious family dispute. JQL is NTP's niece. The parties have agreed a naming convention for the family.
JQL is 24, a graduate hoping to train as a lawyer. She has five siblings: “the First Brother” (now 31); “the Second Brother” (now 29); “the Third Brother” (now 27); “the Fourth Brother” (now 26); and “the Sister” (a child, now 17). The Second Brother's fiancé is the “Sister-in-Law”.
“the Mother” is JQL's mother and NTP's sister. She is the oldest of four siblings, the next oldest being NTP, then twins, “the Aunt” and “the Uncle”. The Aunt's partner is “the Aunt's Partner” and her children include “Cousin One” (now 18) and “Cousin Two” (now 15).
“the Grandmother” was the mother of NTP, the Uncle, the Aunt and the Mother. She died in December 2018. The Grandmother's sister is “the Great Aunt”.
A feature of this family is the extent to which they fall out, with some disputes lasting years. One of the more significant feuds started in June 2015 at a family meal in a restaurant, when an argument between the Mother and the Uncle became physical. JQL intervened to support the Mother. Precisely what happened is disputed, but is not particularly relevant to this case.
Up until then, the Mother and the Grandmother had been very close. The Grandmother was often at the Mother's home, and the Mother said she was her closest confidant. The Mother and NTP were also close. NTP refers in his statement to all the support he provided to the Mother over the years and how he had been fully involved with her family.
Since the meal, the Mother and the Uncle have not spoken. The Mother has only spoken to NTP once, when he was seriously ill in April 2016. They did not even speak at the First Brother's wedding in May 2016, nor when the Grandmother died. JQL, and some of her siblings, have also stopped speaking to their uncles.
The Grandmother apparently took the ‘side’ of the Uncle, which affected her relationship with the Mother. In around October 2017, it is said that the Grandmother made disparaging comments to the Mother. This proved to be the end of their relationship. On seeing how upset the Mother was, JQL sent the Grandmother an abusive and vicious message. She sent a further offensive message to the Grandmother in November 2017.
The First Brother was estranged from the Mother from 2017 until 2019. He says this was because he was disgusted at the way JQL and the Mother were treating the Grandmother, with whom he had lived for a period after being asked to move out of the family home aged 18.
The Facebook Publication
On 18 July 2018, JQL, the Mother, the Aunt, the Sister, the Sister-in-Law and Cousin Two had an afternoon and evening out to see the X-Factor auditions.
At 15.13, the Aunt posted onto her Facebook account a photo of herself and Cousin Two and said they were going with the Mother and the Sister to see the X-Factor. The post received eight ‘likes’. Comments were posted by a few of the Aunt's friends and Cousin One.
The Grandmother posted the response “have a nice day”. Her post was seen by JQL, who posted a reply, “thank you”. The Grandmother then deleted her post. It is agreed she would have done this upon realising that JQL was also present, given the acrimony between them.
The Mother then published a series of comments sniping about the Grandmother, all of which appear to have been sent from the X-Factor arena. JQL then added the following: “[the Grandmother – full name] I forgive you for being a terrible grandmother and forgetting all of us. But I love you and forgive you for your behaviour. You're old and don't mean it. I'm sure you'll regret it one day. I hope your well even though you don't care about us. Love you, even though I don't understand why you can't love me too”. JQL said in evidence that her message was intended to be an “olive branch”, but it is difficult to see how this could be so, particularly given that JQL posted her comment knowing others would see it.
The Mother then added: “[JQL – full name] she does not like girls never has never will poor [name of a great granddaughter] has never had a chance can't imagine having three great grand-children who don't have a clue who you even are [Grandmother – full name]”.
The next day, in response to this goading, the Grandmother posted the following comment at 19.13: “Below is one of the messages this evil little troll [JQL – full name] sent that I have taken to the police asking Them to stop her, see her true colours…”. The Grandmother had not, in fact, gone to the police at this point. The Grandmother then included the text of the message sent to her by JQL in November 2017 (referred to above): “You toxic bitch. Stay away from [Second Brother's children]. You don't give two fucks about them and trying to get into their lives to piss off mum shows how fucked in the head you really are. Fuck off out of all our lives. You don't give a shit about [Second Brother] so fuck off you stupid bitch. Stop trying to affect my mother's life. You're dead to her so stay that way and pipe down”.
NTP says the Grandmother had not seemed herself that day, so he called her to check she was okay. She told him about the comments and her response. NTP then looked at Facebook. He tried calling the Grandmother back, without success, so instead he posted his own response, the NTP Post, at 19.47, just 34 minutes after the Grandmother. Eleven minutes later, he re-posted having made some typographical corrections (amendments shown):
“On my God, can't believe your you're getting sucked in to [the Mother] and [JQL]'s sick world, I know it's not easy when they've been sending sick texts and the endless abusive calls and online abuse – don't put any more online, you unlike them have you your dignity, all you your kids are from one man and you've never had treatment for mental health and self harm – leave them to the police – what's going on with getting the injunction against the 2 suck sick bitches”
The focus of this claim is on the words “treatment for mental health and self harm”, which for convenience I will refer to as the words complained of, although JQL does, in fact, rely on the entirety of the NTP Post.
At around 20.00 JQL submitted a take-down request to Facebook, on grounds of hate speech, in respect of the posts of both the Grandmother and NTP. The NTP Post was removed by Facebook at 22.53 the same day for violation of its community standards, approximately three hours after it was posted. Facebook refused to remove the Grandmother's post.
The next day, the Great Aunt posted at 10.34: “I can't believe what I've just read, horrific abuse, I am so shocked. No wonder your mums been so ill”. The Great Aunt clarified that she meant to say “grandmother”, as her message was directed at JQL. I accept that she did not see the NTP Post, which we know had been removed the day before.
Legal proceedings
A letter of claim was sent on 7 August 2018, threatening to bring proceedings not only for misuse of private information and breach of confidence, but for libel and breach of GDPR. JQL sought (i) an “irrevocable apology” in terms that included acceptance that what was said was “unlawful and indefensible” and an apology; (ii) an undertaking in respect of not saying anything further about her mental health or self-harming; (iii) damages, to be assessed by the court if not agreed; and (iv) legal costs of just short of £2,000.
NTP sent three responses to the letter of claim, the first two of which were in defiant terms, refusing to apologise. The first he wrote himself on 17 August 2018. I note that four days later, the Grandmother went to the police for the first time about JQL's two messages. NTP's second response was sent through solicitors on 29 August 2018. His third response was sent on 25 September 2018, having obtained specialist advice. He offered an apology and undertakings and suggested, quite sensibly, that the parties attend mediation, or use ADR.
Reference and Meaning
There is a dispute about whether the NTP Post identified JQL in respect of the words complained of and, if so, what information it disclosed about her, if any.
The approach to be taken is addressed in Tugendhat and Christie, The Law of Privacy and the Media, Third Edition, at 5.30: “Case law indicates that where, despite its accuracy, a publication could nevertheless be interpreted in different ways, the court will determine its meaning for the purposes of misuse of private information claim.”. It was agreed that I should take into account...
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...could not come into play at stage 1, but only at stage 2. He referred to the decision of HHJ Lewis (sitting as a High Court judge) in JQL v NTP [2020] EWHC 1349 (QB), where the judge said: “134. An overview of the general principles which relate to claims for misuse of private information ......