Cases

Lord Ashcroft v Attorney-General & Department for International Development

Held

The only private law right to damages conferred by the 1984 Act arose under s.23 and the amendment would be allowed only to the extent that it sought damages under that section for the disclosure of documents. (2) An allegation that a leak inquiry had not been held, or had been conducted inadequately, could not found a claim for breach of any common law or equitable right of confidence, nor a claim for a breach of duty under either the 1984 or 1998 Acts. (3) The authentication of leaked documents could not be argued to constitute targeted malice for the purposes of the tort of misfeasance in public office because there was insufficient evidence to infer that the purpose of authentication was to injure Lord Ashcroft. However, and with some hesitation, the court did accept that the act of authenticating the documents might have been an illegal one carried out with reckless indifference to the probability of injury.

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