Andrea Brown v Comissioner of Police of the Metropolis & Others [2019] EWCA Civ 1724: The Court of Appeal addressed the application of QOCS in 'mixed' claims - Ian Meikle, Civitas Law
07/04/20. AB had brought actions relating to allegedly wrongful use of personal data, claiming damages for personal injury, for breach of the Data Protection Act 1998 (“DPA”) and the Human Rights Act 1998 (“HRA”) and for breach of contract, misfeasance in public office and the misuse of private information. Her claim was therefore “mixed” (i.e. included claims for personal and injury and otherwise) for the purposes of CPR 44.13-44.16.
The court ruled that claims not for personal injury damages, even when brought alongside and arising out of the same facts as a personal injury claim, were not protected by QOCS. However, the QOCS position should be the starting point even when 44.16(2)(b) applied and the judge had a wide discretion as to the extent of any costs awarded.
Discussion:
In this case it suffices to elaborate only the nature of the claims brought by AB, namely that some were for personal injury, some were for general damages for breaches of other rights, some were for exemplary damages and some were for directions to destroy information.
The DPA and HRA claims were admitted by the police and the breach of contract claim was abandoned. The claims for aggravated damages, exemplary damages and directions to destroy information were rejected. The claim for personal injury was also rejected...
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