''Torquay Hotel Co Ltd v Cousins'' 968EWCA Civ 2 (BAILII

is a

UK labour law United Kingdom labour law regulates the relations between workers, employers and trade unions. People at work in the UK have a minimum set of employment rights, from Acts of Parliament, Regulations, common law and equity (legal concept), equity. ...

case concerning the liability of a union when its members take

industrial action Industrial action (British English) or job action (American English) is a temporary show of dissatisfaction by employees—especially a strike or slowdown or working to rule—to protest against bad working conditions or low pay and to increas ...

. In it

Lord Denning MR Alfred Thompson Denning, Baron Denning, (23 January 1899 – 5 March 1999), was an English barrister and judge. He was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1923 and became a King's Counsel in 1938. Denning became a judge in 1944 when he w ...

invented a new economic tort for interference with a contract. This was not there before, because economic torts had only existed where the result of some action was unlawful, for instance the ''breach'' of a contract, intimidation (see ''Tarleton v McGawley'' (1793) 1 Peake 270) or conspiracy to injure. The

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

has subsequently rejected the existence of a separate tort for interference with a contract which can be constituted without unlawful actions or without a contractual breach.see also now, '' OBG Ltd v Allan'' UKHL 21
[2007">007
UKHL 21
[20072 WLR 920

Facts

Torquay Hotel Co Ltd had a contract for the supply of oil from Esso Petroleum Co Ltd. It contained a ''force majeure'' clause. The Transport and General Workers Union went on strike and blocked that supply. There was therefore no breach of contract by the Esso for failing to deliver. Torquary Hotel nevertheless sued the union, of which Mr

Frank Cousins Frank Cousins may refer to: * Frank Cousins (British politician) (1904–1986), British trade union leader and Labour politician * Frank Cousins (American politician) (born 1958), American politician who served as the Essex County, Massachusetts ...

was the general secretary. Lord Denning MR set out the facts in his judgment.

Judgment

Lord Denning MR held that for the purpose of the trade union's liability, they were unable to rely on that clause to absolve themselves from liability for the economic loss they caused. The interference with the supply contract was enough to visit liability, even though under the plain meaning of the contract, there was no breach. His decision ran as follows.

Notes

{{English law types English tort case law Court of Appeal (England and Wales) cases Lord Denning cases 1968 in United Kingdom case law United Kingdom trade union case law United Kingdom strike case law 1968 in labor relations

Facts

Judgment

See also

Notes