This is a case arising out of a claim for personal injury sustained by the Claimant (C) (born 5 September 1999) on 19 August 2020 when he jumped from height onto railway tracks and sustained serious injuries. In the year or so before this incident, and especially in the days leading up to it, there had been concerns about C’s mental health, and he had been detained twice in 2019 under the Mental Health Act 1983 (MHA 1983). He had also been arrested by D2’s officers for assaulting members of his family. [1]
C has sued the Defendants, namely the Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (D1), and the Chief Constable of Kent Police (D2), for negligence. He says they failed to discharge the duties of care which they owed him, and that had those breaches not happened, the events of 19 August 2020 would not have occurred. [2]
D1 has filed an Amended Defence denying negligence. D2 has not yet done so. Both Defendants have applied to strike out C’s claim and/or for summary judgment [4]
The essential issue on these applications is whether the facts pleaded by C against D1 and D2 disclose a sufficiently strong cause of action in negligence, capable of giving rise to an award of damages. [6]
For these reasons, D1’s applications fail and are dismissed. There will be judgment for D2 [199]
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