''Rookes v Barnard'' UKHL 1
is a 964
UKHL 1
is a UK labour law and English tort law">UK labour law">964
UKHL 1
is a UK labour law and English tort law case and the leading case in English law on punitive damages and was a turning point in judicial activism against trade unions. The case was almost immediately reversed by the Trade Disputes Act 1965 insofar as it decided on economic torts, although the law on punitive damages remains authoritative.

Facts

Douglas Rookes was a draughtsman, employed by

British Overseas Airways Corporation British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) was the United Kingdom, British state-owned national airline created in 1939 by the merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. It continued operating overseas services throughout World War II ...

(BOAC). He resigned from his union, the Association of Engineering and Shipbuilding Draughtsman (AESD), after a disagreement. BOAC and AESD had a closed shop agreement, and AESD threatened a strike unless Rookes resigned also from his job or was fired. BOAC suspended Rookes and, after some months, dismissed him with one week's salary in lieu of proper notice. Rookes sued the union officials, including Mr Barnard, the branch chairman (also the divisional organiser Mr Silverthorne and the shop steward Mr Fistal). Rookes said that he was the victim of a tortious intimidation that had used unlawful means to induce BOAC to terminate his contract. The strike was alleged to be the unlawful means.

Judgment

At first instance, before Sachs J, the action succeeded. This was overturned in the Court of Appeal. The House of Lords reversed the court of appeal, finding in favour of Rookes and against the union. Citing a case from the 18th century entitled ''Tarelton v M'Gawley'' (1793) Peake 270 where a ship fired a cannonball across the bow of another, Lord Reid said the union was guilty of the tort of intimidation. It was unlawful intimidation "to use a threat to break their contracts with their employer as a weapon to make him do something which he was legally entitled to do but which they knew would cause loss to the plaintiff". A corollary to the main issue in the case, but of greater lasting importance, was Lord Devlin's pronouncements on when punitive damages are applied. The only three situations in which damages are allowed to be punitive, i.e. with the purpose of punishing the wrongdoer rather than aiming simply to compensate the claimant, are in cases of (1) oppressive, arbitrary or unconstitutional actions by the servants of government; (2) where the defendant's conduct was "calculated" to make a profit for himself; (3) where a statute expressly authorises the same.

Significance

The case's result on restricting freedom of association was met with immediate outrage for creating, or reviving, economic torts as a weapon to undermine the right to strike, and was reversed by Parliament in the Trade Disputes Act 1965. However, the reasoning on exemplary damages in ''Rookes v Barnard'' has remained in England, although not been followed in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

.See ''Australian Consolidated Press Ltd v Uren'' (1967) 117 CLR 221, where the Privy Council upheld the Australian rejection of ''Rookes v Barnard'' In '' Broome v Cassell & Co Ltd'', Lord Denning in the Court of Appeal called Lord Devlin's approach to exemplary damages "unworkable" and suggested it was decided '' per incuriam''. He was strongly criticised in the House of Lords, which upheld ''Rookes v Barnard''.

Notes

References

* LH Hoffmann, 'Rookes v Barnard' (1965) 81 LQR 116, regarding punitive damages * *E. McGaughey, ''A Casebook on Labour Law'' (Hart 2019) ch 12, 567 {{Law English tort case law 1964 in England House of Lords cases 1964 in case law 1964 in British law United Kingdom trade union case law

Facts

Judgment

Significance

See also

Notes

References