2019

Cases Reported

McGrillen v One of the Coroners for Northern Ireland [2019] NIQB 14	1
Issue: Whether the Art 2 procedural obligation required the Coroner to hold an inquest, where an investigation had already been conducted by the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland into police actions surrounding the death.

McCord’s Application [2019] NICA 4	4
Issue: Whether the Judge’s discretionary decision to stay a judicial review of a long-delayed legacy inquest should be reversed.

Ketcher and Mitchell’s Application [2019] NIQB 4	8
Issue: Whether the Coroner was right to order Interested Persons to disclose a report prepared by their instructed expert, which they asserted was privileged.

(1) BBC and (2) The Press Association v (1) Secretary of State for Transport and (2) British Airline Pilots Association [2019] EWHC 135 (QB)	26
Issue: Whether the media should be permitted to have copies of ‘GoPro’ cockpit footage from an airplane involved in a fatal crash where that material was held by the AAIB and was protected by the Civil Aviation (Investigation of Air Accidents and Incidents) Regulations 2018, but was to be shown in public in the course of criminal trial.

Fernandes De Oliveira v Portugal ECtHR Grand Chamber, Appn 78103/14	33
Issue: Whether the suicide of a patient in a psychiatric hospital revealed a breach of the substantive aspect of Art 2 ECHR; whether the length of domestic proceedings relating to the death revealed a breach of the procedural aspect of Art 2.

Re Geraldine Finucane’s Application for Judicial Review [2019] UKSC 7	71
Issue: Whether there was a legitimate expectation of a public inquiry examining alleged collusion between the deceased’s killers and members of the security forces; whether the Human Rights Act 1998 applied to a death occurring before it was in force; whether compliance with Art 2 ECHR required the identity of the perpetrators of a murder to be examined and/or established.

R (Chidlow) v HM Senior Coroner for Blackpool and Fylde [2019] EWHC 581 (Admin)	93
Issue: Whether the Coroner’s decision not to leave the issue of survivability to the jury when the medical cause of death was unascertainable had been correct.

Wilcock v HM Coroner for North Manchester [2019] EWHC 1325 (Admin)	103
Issue: Whether a fresh inquest should be heard where a cause of death that had been ‘unascertained’ had now been provided; whether the correct procedure had been adopted for making an application under s13 Coroners Act 1988.

R (AB) v HM Senior Coroner for Inner South London [2019] EWHC 1334 (Admin)	105
Issue: Whether a fresh inquest should be directed pursuant to s13 Coroners Act 1988 where new evidence had come to light since an inquest suggesting that extreme air pollution had contributed to the death.

Frost v HM Senior Coroner for West Yorkshire (Eastern District) [2019] EWHC 1100 (Admin)	106
Issue: Whether a fresh inquest should be directed pursuant to s13 Coroners Act 1988 where an inquest jury in 1966 had named the perpetrator of a homicide but fresh evidence now suggested that a different person had been responsible.

Re AB (Application for Reporting Restrictions: Inquest) [2019] EWHC 1668 (QB)	111
Issue: Whether the High Court had jurisdiction to make reporting restrictions under s39 Children and Young Persons Act 1933 in respect of a forthcoming inquest; whether correct procedure had been followed and correct notification given to the media and other interested parties.

The Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care and (1) Nursing and Midwifery Council (2) Anne Ndlovu [2019] EWHC 1181 (Admin)	116
Issue: Whether the Nursing and Midwifery Council had been too lenient in imposing a three-year caution upon a nurse who had been found to have acted dishonestly, both in her interview for a Trust’s Serious Incident Investigation, and in her evidence to the Coroner.

R (Carwyn Jones) v HM Senior Coroner for North Wales (East and Central) & Ors (Permission hearing) [2019] EWHC 1082 (Admin)	121
Issue: Whether it was arguable that the Coroner had erred in his decision to exclude evidence from an inquest.

R (Carwyn Jones) v HM Senior Coroner for North Wales (East and Central) & Ors [2019] EWHC 1494 (Admin)	123
Issue: Whether the Coroner conducting a Jamieson inquest was correct to refuse an application for further evidence.

R (Maughan) v HM Coroner for Oxfordshire (Chief Coroner and INQUEST as Interveners) [2019] EWCA Civ 809	128
Issue: Whether the civil standard of proof was to be applied to inquest conclusions where issues of suicide arose; whether the same approach applied in cases concerning issues of unlawful killing.

R (Maguire) v HM Senior Coroner for Blackpool and Fylde [2019] EWHC 1232 (Admin)	143
Issue: Whether, where a vulnerable person subject to a DOLS died from natural causes in a hospital setting, the procedural obligations pursuant to Art 2 ECHR were engaged; whether “neglect” should have been left to the jury.

G4S Care and Justice Services Limited v Luke [2019] EWHC 1648 (QB)	150
Issue: Whether a claim for damages for breach of the Art 2 ECHR operational duty concerning a death from drug use in prison should be summarily determined or struck out.

Loughlin & Loughlin v Coroner for Counties of Sligo and Leitrim [2019] IEHC 273	161
Issue: Whether the Coroner’s refusal to obtain psychiatric records of a person who had been charged with the deceased’s murder was lawful.

Fullick & Others v Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis [2019] EWHC 1941 (QB)	165
Issue: Whether the costs of a civil claim properly included costs of the inquest and pre-inquest hearings.

In the matter of Hither Green Cemetery [2018] ECC Swk 3	175
Issue: Whether a child’s remains could be exhumed from consecrated ground, in circumstances where his parents had not known the ground was consecrated and wanted to cremate his remains and keep them at home.

R (Lee) v HM Assistant Coroner for the City of Sunderland [2019] EWHC 3227 (Admin)	180
Issue: Whether Art 2 ECHR procedural obligations were engaged in respect of the death of a person under the care of mental health services in the community

R (Dyer) v HM Assistant Coroner for West Yorkshire (Western) Area [2019] EWHC 2897 (Admin)	193
Issue: Whether the Coroner’s decision to screen witnesses, pursuant to r18 Coroners (Inquests) Rules 2013, was appropriate.

Jordan v The Chief Constable of the PSNI (HRA damages) [2019] NICA 61	205
Issue: Whether an award of damages under the Human Rights Act 1998, subsequent to the finding that the PSNI delayed the progress of an inquest in breach of Article 2 ECHR, was just and appropriate.