Reeves v Metropolitan Police Commissioner

Reeves v Metropolitan Police Commissioner
CourtHouse of Lords
Citation[2000] 1 AC 360

Reeves v Metropolitan Police Commissioner [2000] 1 AC 360 is an English tort law case, concerning breach of duty.[1]

Facts

A prisoner killed himself while on suicide watch.

Judgment

The House of Lords held that the police have a duty to prevent the death of prisoners under their care, including deaths by suicide.[2] Lord Hoffmann said: ‘Once it is admitted that this is the rare case in which such a duty is owed, it seems to me self-contradictory to say that the breach could not have been a cause of the harm because the victim caused it to himself.’

Lord Hobhouse dissented saying the voluntary act of suicide is an excepton. He pointed to the example of a political prisoner who does it to make a statement.

See also

References

  1. ↑ D Nolan and K Oliphant, Lunney & Oliphant's Tort Law: Text and Materials (7th edn 2023) ch 6, 326
  2. ↑ Witting, Christian A. (2021). Street on torts (Sixteenth ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 185. ISBN 978-0-19-886550-6.
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