Barber v. Somerset County Council

I have had the advantage of reading in draft the opinion of my noble and learned friend Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe. I am in full agreement with it, and for these reasons would allow the appeal and make the order which he proposes.

LORD STEYN

My Lords,

I have had the privilege of reading the opinion of my noble and learned friend Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe. I agree with it. I too would make the order which he proposes.

LORD SCOTT OF FOSCOTE

My Lords,

The issue in this case is whether the Somerset County Council, who employed Mr Barber as a teacher at their East Bridgwater Community School, are liable to him in damages for the mental breakdown he suffered brought about by the pressures and stresses of his workload. I have had the advantage of reading in advance the opinion of my noble and learned friend Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe and gratefully adopt his exposition of the relevant facts and the history of this litigation.

As Lord Walker has explained the Court of Appeal heard four conjoined appeals of which Mr Barber's case was one. In each case a defendant employer appealed against a finding of liability for an employee's psychiatric illness caused by stress at work. Two of the employees were teachers in public sector comprehensive schools — Mr Barber was one of them. Another of the employees was an administrative assistant at a local authority training centre. The fourth was a raw materials operative in a factory. The Court of Appeal heard the four cases together in order to try and provide guidance as to the principles that should be applied to cases where an employee's complaint about the system of work provided by his employer and under which he had had to work was not that the system had subjected him to some degree of unnecessary and unreasonable physical danger but that it had subjected him to a degree of mental stress carrying the risk of psychiatric illness.

The judgment of the Court of Appeal was given by Hale LJ. In my respectful opinion her judgment succeeded in succinctly and accurately expressing the principles that ought to be applied. Lord Walker has cited paragraph 29 of her judgment but has preferred, as a statement of general principle, the statement of Swanwick J in Stokes v Guest Keen and Nettlefold (Bolts and Nuts) Ltd [1968] 1 WLR 1776. My Lords, my own preference is the other way round. Swanwick J did not have in mind the problems of psychiatric illness caused by stress. In Stokes the employee had been exposed at work over a long period to mineral oil which, on a daily basis, had saturated his clothing and come into contact with his skin. As a result of this he developed cancer of the scrotum from which he eventually died. The question was whether there were steps or precautions that the employers ought to have taken to protect Mr Stokes from the risk of…

CaseChat Overview and Summary