Rabone & Anor v Pennine Care NHS Foundation

Summary

Hilary Term
[2012] UKSC 2
On appeal from: [2010] EWCA Civ 698

JUDGMENT

Rabone and another (Appellants) v Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust (Respondent)

before

Lord Walker
Lady Hale
Lord Brown
Lord Mance
Lord Dyson

JUDGMENT GIVEN ON

8 February 2012

Heard on 7 to 9 November 2011

Appellants Jenni Richards QC Nigel Poole (Instructed by Pannone LLP)		Respondent Monica Carss-Frisk QC Jane Mulcahy (Instructed by Hempsons)

Interveners (INQUEST, JUSTICE, Liberty and Mind) Paul Bowen and Alison Pickup (Instructed by Bindmans LLP)

LORD DYSON

Some time after 17.00 hrs on 20 April 2005, Melanie Rabone hanged herself from a tree in Lyme Park, Cheshire. She was 24 years of age and was the loved daughter of Mr and Mrs Rabone. At the time, she was on two days' home leave from Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport where she was undergoing treatment for a depressive disorder as an informal patient (ie one who was not detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 ("the MHA")). She had been admitted to the hospital as an emergency following a suicide attempt. She was assessed by the hospital as a high risk of a further suicide attempt. Mr and Mrs Rabone have always maintained that the hospital authorities should not have allowed her home leave and that they were responsible for their daughter's tragic death. They started proceedings against the Pennine Care NHS Trust ("the trust") alleging negligence and breach of the right to life protected by article 2 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms ("the Convention"). The trust eventually admitted negligence, but they have never admitted liability for breach of article 2. A number of issues were raised in the proceedings all of which are live in this appeal. The claim failed because the judge (Simon J) held that the operational duty implicit in article 2 did not apply in this case: there was no duty on the hospital authorities under article 2 to take reasonable steps to guard Melanie against the risk of suicide: [2010] EWHC 1827. He also held that, if there was such a duty, there had been no breach of it by the trust on the facts of this case. The Court of Appeal (Rix, Stanley Burnton and Jackson LJJ) dismissed Mr and Mrs Rabone's appeal. The only substantive judgment was given by Jackson LJ (now reported at [2011] QB 1019). They agreed that there was no operational duty, but held that if there had been such a duty, the trust would have been in breach of it. This appeal raises a number of issues, but before I come to them, I need to set out the relevant facts.

The facts

Melanie Rabone was born in 1981. During 2000, she was diagnosed as suffering from depression and received medical treatment. There was some improvement in the next few years, although she had intermittent episodes of anxiety. On 4 March 2005, she tried to commit suicide by tying a pillow case round…

Rabone and another (Appellants) v Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust (Respondent)

8 February 2012

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