R (Lee) v HM Assistant Coroner for Sunderland [2019] EWHC 3227 (Admin)

Regular readers of our blog will recall this case dealing with the tricky issue of whether Art 2 obligations are engaged when a person dies whilst receiving psychiatric care in the community (see the earlier blog here).

In Lee v HM Assistant Coroner for Sunderland HHJ Raeside QC produced a complex extempore judgement that provided the very simple answer: you need look no further than Lord Dyson’s explanation at paragraph 34 of Rabone, when he analysed the potential engagement of the operational Art 2 duty by reference to the threefold factors of assumed responsibility, vulnerability and risk

However the judge deftly sidestepped answering the question on the particular facts of the case before him and instead remitted the case back to the coroner to decide. HM Assistant Coroner for Sunderland has now had a second bite at the cherry and produced an elegant set of reasons for her finding again that Art 2 was not engaged. Although, as a decision by a coroner, the reasoning has no precedential weight, those reasons attached here are well worth reading for their detailed exposition of the application of Art 2 to inquests and a clear example of how to apply the indicia in Rabone to the facts of a particular case.

Jordan v The Chief Constable of the PSNI [2019] NICA 61

The latest instalment of the long running Pearse Jordan inquest saga provides an important warning to all coroners and other public bodies involved in Article 2 investigations where there is delay in coming to inquest because of shortcomings on the part of a public body (including the court).

Mr Jordan’s family have now had their second award of damages upheld by the Northern Irish Court of Appeal. The appeal court found that a sum of £5,000 represented ‘just satisfaction’ for the exacerbation of the bereaved person’s ‘feelings of frustration, anxiety and distress’ arising from 14 months of culpable delay in bringing the case to inquest. This assessment of damages took into account that an award of £10,000 had already been made by the European Court of Human Rights in 2001 as compensation for earlier delays in investigating Mr Jordan’s death.

R (Lee) v HM Assistant Coroner for Sunderland [2019] EWHC 3227 (Admin)

It is now commonplace in advance of inquests for coroners to rule on their scope, including whether possible state responsibility requires the inquest to meet the UK’s Art 2 procedural obligations. That task is not easy when the extent of Art 2 involves a complex question of law to be applied in factual circumstances that are often still to be uncovered. Added to that, the jurisprudence of the Art 2 duty is still evolving as its boundaries are repeatedly explored by the courts as new circumstances are presented for consideration.

The case of Rabone v Pennine Care NHS Trust[1] was one such new circumstance and considered whether there was an operational duty owed under Article 2 to informal psychiatric in-patients who were not detained under the Mental Health Act. Although Melanie Rabone died when on leave outside of hospital the Supreme Court considered that the operational duties did extend to the circumstances of her case – taking account of her extreme vulnerability and the exceptional nature of the risks alongside the degree of responsibility and control assumed by the NHS Trust.

Following Rabone the question arises of whether Article 2 procedural obligations might be engaged after the death of a person who is a mental health patient receiving care in the community. In this blogger’s experience several coroners (and NHS Trusts facing civil claims) have since accepted that an Art 2 duty can be owed to a community patient, particularly where the alleged shortcomings include a failure to admit a vulnerable person who was at obvious and imminent risk of suicide. However until recently no challenge to a coronial decision on the application (or non-application) of Art 2 at a community patient’s inquest has been reported from the higher courts.

The applicant in R (Lee) v HM Assistant Coroner for Sunderland has now invited an important extension of the law beyond Rabone. However, if you are hoping for clear or simple answer to this vexed question be ready for disappointment. To paraphrase this very lengthy extempore judgment – delivered by HHJ Raeside QC after hearing two days of legal argument – it is all very complicated and will always depend on the facts.