High Court confirms trade unions can sue in defamation
In a recent decision, the High Court has confirmed a point of law that was previously unclear, confirming that trade unions have the necessary standing to sue for defamation.
Background
Trade unions are unincorporated associations, meaning they are effectively a group of individuals working under a collective name. Unincorporated associations do not generally have distinct legal identities and cannot usually sue or be sued in their own name. However, given that trade unions have been legalised and protected in law, they in reality do have at least a limited legal personality.
In the case of Prospect v Evans, the High Court was asked to determine whether a trade union would be entitled to sue for defamation in its own name, given that it was not a body corporate.
Facts
In this case, the claimant was a trade union which brought claims for malicious falsehood and defamation against a former trade union member. The defendant applied for a declaration that the court had no jurisdiction to hear the claim on the basis that the trade union lacked the necessary standing. The defendant sighted previous case law, which said that a claimant trade union would not be entitled to sue for defamation in its own name, because in order to bring a defamation claim it is necessary to have a legal personality.
In this case, the High Court found that the trade union did in fact have the necessary standing. Section 10 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 deals with the quasi-corporate status of trade unions. That section says that a trade union is not a body corporate but is capable of making contracts, and that it can sue and be sued in its own name in contract, tort, or any other cause of action.
The judge found that the conclusion that a trade union was entitled to bring a claim for libel fitted with the aims of trade union law, and reflected the fact that trade unions have their own distinct reputations, separate to those of their members.
The judge also found that the previous case law position was incorrect and that in fact the law had always provided for trade unions to have the right to sue in libel.
Comment
This decision offers useful clarity in an area of law that had previously been criticised as being vulnerable to challenge. The decision corrects the previous imbalance that existed where employers' associations were able to sue in libel whilst trade unions were not, and also that a trade union could be sued in libel whilst having no right to bring action of its own.