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Wilkinson v Downton (1897)

Last modified: Thu Feb 23 16:37:38 2006

[1897] 2 QB 57 (QB). With a view to giving her a nasty fright, the defendant told the claimant that the claimant's husband had met with a serious accident. The claimant was very distressed, to the point that she suffered a nervous breakdown and was incapacitated for several weeks. In an action in tort, it was held that the claim should succeed, despite not falling within the boundaries of TrespassToThePerson (which required a direct infliction of harm) or an ActionOnTheCase (as it then was; now negligence). It would have been an injustice to allow a wrongful act of this sort to go uncompensated. Since 1897 the law of negligence has expanded considerably, and possibly an action in negligence would be available in a case like this.

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