{"id":5246,"date":"2018-03-07T09:27:01","date_gmt":"2018-03-07T09:27:01","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2019-06-21T14:25:46","modified_gmt":"2019-06-21T14:25:46","slug":"wong-v-parkside-health-nhs-trust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lawteacher.net\/cases\/wong-v-parkside-health-nhs-trust.php","title":{"rendered":"Wong v Parkside Health NHS Trust"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wong v Parkside Health NHS Trust [2001] EWCA Civ 1721<\/strong><\/p>\n

Assault \u2013 Damage \u2013 Harassment \u2013 Intention \u2013 Psychiatric harm<\/p>\n

Facts<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Minna Wong (W) was employed as a wheelchair administrator by NHS Trust. In this employment, she suffered harassment from her colleagues which resulted in physical and psychiatric harm to W. In 1995 W was successful in prosecuting M, one of the employees, for assault. In 1998 W raised an action against the trust for negligence on the basis of its vicariously liability for the torts of its employees, and against M for intentionally causing harm to W due to M\u2019s harassment. The claim against M was unsuccessful, and W appealed.<\/p>\n

Issue<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

The issues in question were (1) the scope of the tort of intentionally causing harm under the principle in\u00a0Wilkinson v Downton [1897] 2 QB 57\u00a0that the behaviour was likely to result in harm that and could impute an intention of harm; and (2) whether there was a tort of harassment at common law before the\u00a0enactment of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 (1997 Act).<\/p>\n

Held<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Under the double jeopardy rule, M\u2019s assault against W was excluded from consideration under section 45 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861. <\/strong>As a result, all that could be considered were W's allegations that M had been rude and unfriendly, yet the tort of intentionally inflicting harm required proof of actual physical harm or psychiatric illness. Therefore, in line with Wilkinson v Downton, <\/em><\/strong>an intention to cause harm could not be imputed in the present case. Nor could W succeed on the second issue, as there was no tort of intentional harassment at common law before the\u00a01997 Act.<\/strong> The appeal was dismissed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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