Lois Angela Sayers v Cambridgeshire County Council
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 31 July 2006 |
| Neutral Citation | [2006] EWHC 2029 (QB) |
| Docket Number | Case No:TLQ 05 0853 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division |
| Date | 31 July 2006 |
[2006] EWHC 2029 (QB)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
THE HON.MR.JUSTICE RAMSEY
Case No:TLQ 05 0853
Andrew Buchan and Katherine Awadalla (instructed by Archer & Archer, Ely) for the Claimant
Andrew Hogarth QC and Joel Kendall (instructed by Barr Ellison, Cambridge) for the Defendant
Hearing dates: 30, 31 January, 1, 2, 3, 6 and 9 February 2006
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.
THE HON. MR. JUSTICE RAMSEY
Mr. Justice Ramsey:
Introduction
In this action the Claimant, Mrs. Sayers, brings a claim against Cambridgeshire County Council ("the Council") for work related stress in the course of her employment in the Council's Social Services Department.
Prior to working for the Council, Mrs. Sayers started work with the Department of Health and Social Security as a clerical assistant from 1973 to 1977. She then decided to move into Social Work and had a number of posts within Northamptonshire County Council from 1978 until 1993, being promoted and finally being appointed as an Acting Team Manger in Care Management.
Mrs. Sayers decided to seek opportunities elsewhere to progress her career and was first employed by the Council in December 1993, when she was appointed as Team Manager in charge of two separate social work teams at Addenbrooke's Hospital: one group covering children and families; the other dealing with old people. In addition to that hospital, the teams also covered other hospitals both in Cambridge itself and in the County.
After five years she successfully applied for the post of Operations Manager with the Council's Social Services Department with effect from 1 April 1998.
In that post she was the Operations Manager for older people, physical disability, sensory services assessment and care management for the Council's South Cambridgeshire Area.
There was restructuring and from 3 May 1999 Mrs Sayers was appointed as Operations Manager for Old People and Physical Disability ("OPPD") for the whole County.
Towards the end of 2001 the Council decided that a restructuring of Adult Services was necessary. This related to the Government's requirement for Social Services to work more closely with Health Services and the need for the Council's Social Services Department to integrate with the newly formed Primary Care Trusts from April 2002.
As a result, from 1 April 2002 Mrs. Sayers was appointed as Operations Manager for South Cambridgeshire Primary Care Trust.
Mrs. Sayers was evidently concerned at certain aspects of her new role and the way that role developed after April 2002. In June 2002 she applied for the post of Head of Adult Services at Milton Keynes but was not successful. After various events to which I will refer below in more detail, Mrs Sayers left work in August 2002 suffering from psychiatric illness and was unable subsequently to return to work. Eventually these proceedings were commenced on 30 August 2003 and Mrs Sayers' employment with the Council was terminated on the grounds of ill health on 31 August 2003.
The central question in these proceedings is whether the Council is liable to Mrs Sayers in respect of her psychiatric illness. The case, as pleaded on her behalf has gone through a number of amendments and, as finally formulated in closing relies on the following causes of action:
(1) A claim for a common law breach of duty.
(2) A claim for breach of contract; the contractual provision breached being the implied term of trust and confidence.
(3) A breach of a contractual term requiring compliance with the Working Time Regulations 1998 and UK Health and Safety Law.
(4) A breach of statutory duty for breach of Article 6 of the Working Time Regulations 1998.
(5) A breach of the Framework Directive by direct effect or breach of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 on the basis that Regulation 22 of the 2003 Regulations was retrospective.
The claim was also at one stage pursued under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. That claim is no longer pursued. The Health and Safety Information for Employee Regulations 1989 are also no longer relied upon.
Before turning in more detail to a legal analysis of those causes of action, it is convenient to review the evidence and consider the cause of Mrs Sayers' illness. I approach the matter in this way so as to focus such questions as foreseeability and breach of duty on the relevant matters.
The Evidence
In addition to hearing from Mrs Sayers, I also heard from 14 other factual witnesses called on her behalf. Theresa Smith worked for Mrs Sayers as a part-time administrative assistant from September 2000 and then as her full-time Personal Assistant from August 2001 until May 2002; Anna Goodall worked with Mrs Sayers initially as a Care Manager, with Mrs Sayers as her Team Leader, then as a member of the East Cambridgeshire Team and Addenbrooke's Team for which Mrs Sayers was Operations Manager. She was then seconded as Project Officer for the Contact Centre project where she worked alongside Mrs Sayers; Claire Saville who was Manager of Occupational Therapy Services from 2001 for which Mrs Sayers was Operations Manager; John Mullarkey who from 1999 acted first as assistant Team Manager and then from 2001 as Team Manager of the Addenbrooke's Team; Joanne Tompkins who worked in the Addenbrooke's Team from 1993 with Mrs Sayers who was initially her Team Manager and then Operations Manager for her Team; Louise Palmer who worked as Senior and then Principal Accountant responsible for Adult Services alongside Mrs Sayers; Diane Fossey who from 2000 was a Team Manager for South Cambridgeshire, with Mrs Sayers as her Operations Manager; Ann Tait who from 1998 to 2001 was in the Cambridge City Team with Mrs Sayers as her Operations Manager; Alison Reid who from 2000 to 2002 was Partnership Manager of Fenland Primary Care Trust when Mrs Sayers was the Council's representative on that Trust; Clare Welton who worked with Mrs Sayers from 1993 and who from 1999 was Team Manager for the East Cambridgeshire and then Huntingdon Team, with Mrs Sayers as her Operations Manager; Carol Holloway who was a Senior Training Manager and acted for a period as "mentor" for Mrs Sayers; William Newman who was an independent consultant employed by the Council from February 2002 to advise on the call centre project; Sharon Burkett (Sharon Graham) who was a Social Worker managed by Mrs Sayers and Pamela Powell who was initially a Team Leader for South Cambridgeshire with Mrs Sayers as her Operations Manager and then from 1999 became Mrs Sayers' part-time Staff Officer.
On behalf of the Council, I heard from Graham Wrycroft who was the Council's Assistant Director (Adults) in the Social Services Department from 1998 to 2004 and was the person to whom Mrs Sayers reported; Elizabeth Railton who was the Council's Director of Social Services from 1998 to 2003 and Harold Bodmer who was also an Operations Manager, being responsible for Cambridge City from May 2002.
I deal with the evidence in more detail below. I find that all the witnesses tried to recall events that happened over 3 years ago, some of which were of less importance at the time than they are now. Mrs Sayers was, understandably, still upset by the events of August 2002 and, in giving her evidence I find that certain matters became overemphasised and she focussed more attention on them than she did at the time. Whilst her perception of events is of importance, where she has expressed herself in a document at the time then, unless there is a reason to do so, I have relied on what is reflected in the terms of that document in the few occasions where her evidence was different. The witnesses who were called on her behalf, particularly those such as Ms Powell who worked closely with Mrs Sayers or were close friends, obviously sympathised with Mrs Sayers' position and again, as a matter of emphasis, viewed things from a perspective which was more favourable to her. I have therefore had to taken this into account in assessing their evidence, particularly on matters which were more subjective.
In terms of the Council's witnesses, their witness statements were brief and not very enlightening. As a result, their oral evidence was of greater importance. They had all moved on from the posts they previously held and had genuine difficulty in trying to recall the detail of events in 2000 to 2002. However, I consider that they did their best to recall matters as best they could.
Each party also called expert psychiatric evidence. Dr Michael Orr, a Consultant Psychiatrist at Isham House, Northampton was called by Mrs Sayers. Dr Jonathan Bird, a Consultant Neuropsychiatrist and Clinical Electroencephalographer from the Burden Centre for Neuropsychiatry at Frenchay Hospital, Bristol was called by the Council. There was little difference between the experts and they were able to reach agreement on many matters. I deal, below, with my approach to their evidence on those areas where their views differed.
The Factual Background
Workload
In April 1998, when Mrs Sayers commenced as Operations Manager she was responsible for managing six Team Managers and one Administration Manager. When in April 1999 she was appointed as Operations Manager for the whole county she acquired a further three Team Managers and two further Administration Managers. By November 2001 Mrs Sayers was responsible for a total of 14 Managers.
In that role, Mrs Sayers was responsible for the management and supervision of those Team Managers. This involved her chairing...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
John Yapp v Foreign and Commonwealth Office
...the knowledge of the confidential information disclosed by Mrs Hartman to its occupational health department: [35]; see also Sayers v Cambridgeshire County Council [2006] EWHC 2029; [2007] IRLR 29, [171]. Scott Baker LJ also made the point that the mere fact that the employer offers an occu......
-
Case Number: ADJ-00020984. Workplace Relations Commission
...of this doctrine in an employment context was confirmed by the High Court of England and Wales in Sayers v Cambridgeshire County Council [2006] EWHC 2029. The oral evidence from the Recruitment Manager confirmed that due to administrative errors it was realised very close to the candidate’s......
-
Case Number: ADJ-00026846. Workplace Relations Commission
...of this doctrine in an employment context was confirmed by the High Court of England and Wales in Sayers v Cambridgeshire County Council[2006] EWHC 2029.In this instant case, the Respondent was adamant that it had never been made aware of the nature of the Complainant’s illness and had neve......
-
Case Number: EDA1810. Labour Court
...of this doctrine in an employment context was confirmed by the High Court of England and Wales inSayers v Cambridgeshire County Council[2006] EWHC 2029.In considering this concept the Court must examine the reasonableness of both parties in this case, the Court is influenced by the followin......