In ABC v Huntercombe (No 12) Ltd and others, the claimant sought damages for alleged mistreatment during a four-month placement at a privately run psychiatric hospital in 2018/2019. She alleged that she had been mentally and verbally abused by staff and restrained on over 200 occasions.
The hospital’s undertaking transferred from Huntercombe to Active Young People Ltd under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE). TUPE provides that "all the transferor's rights, powers, duties and liabilities under or in connection with" a contract of employment transfer to the transferee on a relevant transfer.
The claimant initially brought proceedings against Huntercombe. After discovering that it was in liquidation, and that the terms of its public liability were likely to limit any recovery, she joined the transferee to the proceedings. She argued that Huntercombe's vicarious liability for the acts of its employees had transferred to the transferee under TUPE.
The High Court held that vicarious liability did not transfer. The claimant appealed.
The Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed the appeal.
The proper starting point was the EU Acquired Rights Directive from which TUPE derives. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights of employees on a change of employer, so that employees can enforce against the transferee obligations which they could previously have enforced against the transferor.
Although the...
New Delhi: A digitally altered video circulating on social media falsely claims that China has taken control of Asaphila, Longju and Taksing Circle in Arunachal Pradesh and that the Indian Army ha...