2015

Cases Reported

Chambers v HM Coroner Preston and West Lancashire ((1) NOMS (2) Mrs Chambers as Interested Parties)	1
Issue: Whether the absence of notification to family members of the inquest date was a material irregularity; whether the State’s Art 2 investigatory obligation required expert evidence to be obtained.

Sheridan-Higgins v HM Coroner for Manchester	7
Issue: Whether the coroner had lawfully discontinued an investigation without requiring any further testing after a post-mortem examination had identified death as being from natural causes.

Re A (a child)	11
Issue: Whether a dispute regarding continued ventilation of a brain dead child should be resolved under coronial powers or by the High Court giving declaratory relief under the inherent jurisdiction.

R (Letts) v Lord Chancellor (Equality and Human Rights Commission intervening)	15
Issue: Whether the Lord Chancellor’s Exceptional Funding Guidance (Inquests) was wrong in law

Centre for Legal Resources on behalf of Valentin Câmpeanu v Romania	37
Issue: Whether the circumstances of the death of a man with learning disabilities and HIV breached Arts 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 and 14 ECHR; the standing of a non-governmental organisation to bring a claim on behalf of the deceased victim.

Michael and Ors v Chief Constable of South Wales and Chief Constable of Gwent	78
Issue: Whether claims which raised fundamental issues about the duties of care owed by the police pursuant to the common law of negligence and Art 2 ECHR should be allowed to proceed to trial.

R (Wiggins) v HM Assistant Coroner Nottinghamshire	105
Issue: Whether permission should be given for judicial review of an Art 2 inquest on grounds of: wrongful refusal to adjourn pending a public funding decision; failure of full investigation; adoption of an unlawfully narrow approach to causation. Whether the reviewing court should consider a claimant’s pleaded response to the grounds of resistance.

HM Coroner for the Isle of Wight v (1) HM Prison Service and (2) Family of Alvin Bay (decd)	110
Issue: Whether a fresh inquest should be ordered under s13 Coroners Act 1988 where new facts and evidence regarding the cause of death had emerged.

Re Finucane’s Application	111
Issue: Whether the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland’s decision to establish a independent review, rather than a public inquiry, into a killing in which agents of state had been implicated was lawful and in accordance with Art 2 ECHR.

Shafi v HM Senior Coroner for East London	154
Issue: Whether there had been insufficiency of inquiry or irregularity in the proceedings where the Coroner had not obtained relevant evidence or secured the attendance of witnesses outside the jurisdiction following a death in custody overseas; whether s7(2) Coroners and Justice Act 2009 required a jury in a case of a death in custody abroad.