Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

UK Supreme Court clarifies public authority negligence: police owed no duty to prevent black-ice collisions absent assumption of control; liability requires worsening the danger, not mere failure to act

Published on: 24 October 2024

Published by a Law360 reporter

Legal News

Article summary

The UK Supreme Court unanimously dismissed an appeal brought by Valerie Tindall against Thames Valley Police, alleging a breach of their duty of care to her late husband, after officers purportedly failed to take adequate measures to avert additional road collisions when they attended the scene of a crash caused by a stretch of black ice near Wendover in Buckinghamshire, southern England. Handing down the judgment, Justices George Leggatt and Andrew Burrows held that the officers had neither created nor aggravated the danger so as to incur liability, and were not responsible in law because no duty of care was owed to prevent harm befalling the late Malcolm Tindall. The justices observed that a central criticism of the police was precisely their inaction in relation to the hazard: they did not cordon off or shut the road, there is no indication they even went to examine the ice, and a principal complaint is that they were negligent in failing to inspect the ice or adopt other necessary precautions, they said. That cannot be reframed as a duty of care arising from the officers having assumed control of the icy patch, or as a basis for imposing liability...

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