House of Lords rule on work-related suicides

The House of Lords has made a landmark ruling regarding employers liability in suicide cases by ruling that the widow of a man who killed himself six years after an industrial accident should be compensated by his former employers IBC Vehicles. By a unanimous decision on 27th February the House of Lords dismissed IBC’s appeal and upheld a Court of Appeal judgment of March 2006 that the company was responsible for the death of Thomas Corr. In 1996 prior Mr Corr was disfigured by an accident when he was hit on the head by a metal panel as a result of defective machinery almost decapitating him. He later suffered from unsteadiness, severe headaches and had trouble sleeping. He became bad tempered and severely depressed, felt his life was not worth living and that he was a burden on his family. Mr Corr committed suicide by jumping from a multi-storey car park in May 2002. His widow, Eileen, through Unite solicitors Rowley Ashworth, went to the High Court in April 2005 to sue for damages for pain and suffering and consequential loss caused by the industrial accident and subsequent suicide. IBC Vehicles, which produces vans for Vauxhall Motors, admitted liability for the workplace accident but denied that it was responsible for the suicide. A deputy judge in the High Court awarded the widow £82,520 after finding IBC could not be held responsible for Mr Corr taking his own life.

Ms Corr, from Luton, Bedfordshire, appealed that decision and the Court of Appeal found IBC Vehicles was responsible Mr Corr's suicide. IBC subsequently appealed to the House of Lords which confirmed that the company was liable.

Lord Bingham said: “In the present case Mr Corr’s suicide was not a voluntary, informed decision taken by him as an adult of sound mind, making and giving effect to a personal decision about his future. It was the response of a man suffering from a severe depressive illness which impaired his capacity to make reasoned and informed judgments about his future, such illness being, as is accepted, a consequence of the employer’s [actions].

“It is in no way unfair to hold the employer responsible for this dire consequence of its breach of duty, although it could well be thought unfair to the victim not to do so," he said. In their judgment, the law lords mention, that until relatively recently, suicide was illegal. They also highlight the fact that medical knowledge is such now that it is understood that suicide can be an involuntary act if the person involved is depressed, as Mr Corr was, and so it is possible to derive a direct link from an accident that caused depression to the suicide itself.

Unite solicitors Rowley Ashworth and John Foy QC acted for Ms Corr.