2018

Cases Reported

Lopes de Sousa Fernandes v Portugal	1
Issue: Whether a death resulting from an arguable case of medical negligence was in breach of the substantive obligations of Art 2 ECHR; whether the domestic investigations into the death satisfied the procedural obligations under Art 2 ECHR.

R (Gray & Gray) v HM Coroner for Surrey	66
Issue: Whether a fresh inquest should be ordered under s.13 Coroners Act 1988 where a large volume of new evidence had become available since the inquest.

Jagiełło v Poland	67
Issue: Whether there had been a substantive breach of Art 2 ECHR when a prisoner hanged himself in his cell with belt that had been left in his possession.

Douglas v (1) Ministry of Justice (2) Care UK	71
Issue: Whether, and to what extent, the costs of an inquest were recoverable as part of the costs of a successful civil claim when a full admission of liability had been made before the inquest hearing.

R (Maguire and others) v Assistant Coroner for West Yorkshire (Cornick and others as Interested Parties)	83
Issue: Whether the Assistant Coroner had reasonably refused to call vulnerable child witnesses to give oral evidence where to do so risked causing them harm and the childrens’ interview accounts of relevant matters were available.

R (Hambleton and others) v Coroner for the Birmingham Inquests (1974) (Reilly and others as Interested Parties)	91
Issue: Whether the Coroner’s approach had been correct when he had determined that establishing the identity of the perpetrators of two bombings fell outside the scope of the inquests into the resultant deaths.

R ((1) Adath Yisrosl Burial Society (2) Cymerman) v HM Senior Coroner Inner North London (Chief Coroner of England and Wales as Interested Person)	100
Issue: Whether a policy for administering cases reported to a coroner area which specified that no death would be prioritised over another, even on religious grounds, unlawfully fettered discretion, was irrational, was in breach of Art 9 and 14 ECHR, or indirectly discriminatory under the Equality Act 2010 and/or breached the Public Service Equality Duty.

R ((1) Adath Yisrosl Burial Society (2) Cymerman) v HM Senior Coroner Inner North London (Costs)	118
Issue: Whether costs should be awarded against a Coroner whose policy for administering cases reported to her coroner area had been declared unlawful and quashed on Judicial Review; Whether the introduction of that policy had been an administrative or a judicial action.

R (Parkinson) v HM Senior Coroner for Kent ((1) Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust & (2) Sameer Hijazi, Interested Parties)	125
Issue: Whether the procedural obligations of Art 2 ECHR were engaged in a case where medical negligence was alleged; whether a possible medical cause of death should have been recorded.

Tekin and Arslan v Belgium	151
Issue: Whether the death during restraint of a prisoner with a psychiatric condition breached Art 2 ECHR.

Boukrourou and Others v France	161
Issue: Whether the death of a person with mental health problems who was restrained by police breached Art 2 and/or Art 3 ECHR.

Tsalikidis v Greece	173
Issue: Whether the domestic investigations into the death of a senior network engineer causally connected to the Greek wiretapping scandal satisfied the procedural obligations under Art 2 ECHR.

R (Hopkins & Ryan) v Assistant Coroner for Swansea and Neath Port Talbot	194
Issue: Whether an inquest should be quashed in the light of fresh medical evidence; whether the Coroner, who did not consent to the order, should pay costs.

Shaw v Leigh Day (A Firm	199
Issue: Whether the legal representation by solicitors at an inquest and in a subsequent clinical negligence claim had been negligent.

Powell v Chief Constable of West Midlands Police	215
Issue: Whether and to what extent the costs of a successful civil claim, including inquest costs, were recoverable when the claim was settled before trial and the costs far exceeded the agreed damages.

R (Maughan) v Senior Coroner for Oxfordshire and (1) K Shakespeare (2) Secretary of State for Justice (3) Care UK (4) South Staffordshire and Shropshire NHS Foundation Trust (interested parties)	225
Issue: Whether a jury’s narrative conclusion which did not include the word ‘suicide’ nevertheless amounted to a finding of suicide; whether the civil standard of proof should apply to a conclusion of suicide.

Allman v HM Senior Coroner for Liverpool and Wirral (Evans and James as Interested Parties)	238
Issue: Whether the Applicant had locus standi to challenge the Coroner’s decision not to open an investigation; whether it was even arguable that the Coroner’s decision was flawed.

Coroner for the Birmingham Inquests (1974) v Hambleton and others (Chief Constable of West Midlands Police as Interested Party)	239
Issue: Whether the Coroner’s approach had been correct when he had determined that establishing the identity of the perpetrators of two bombings fell outside the scope of the inquests into the resultant deaths.

In the matter of Theresa Jordan (leave to apply for Judicial Review)	251
Issue: Whether, in the course of an inquest into the fatal police shooting of an alleged IRA member, the Coroner was entitled not to reach a determination in respect of the central issue of the justification for the use of lethal force; whether the Coroner’s factual determinations were unlawful.

In the matter of Steponaviciene’s Application	275
Issue: Whether the civil standard of proof should apply to an inquest conclusion of suicide.

R (Paul Worthington) v Senior Coroner for Cumbria ((1) the mother of Poppi Worthington (2) the siblings of Poppi Worthington (3) Chief Constable of Cumbria (4) Cumbria County Council as Interested Persons)	290
Issue: Whether the Coroner’s finding that the deceased had been anally penetrated should be struck from the Record of Inquest where that act did not cause the deceased’s death but was nevertheless relevant to the circumstances of the death.

In the matter of the inquest into the death of Helen Bailey	300
Issue: Whether it was necessary or desirable to hold a fresh inquest where confessional evidence and fresh forensic pathology evidence had emerged since the initial inquest had concluded.