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TORT - HARASSMENT – ACTS CONSTITUTING HARASSMENT – CORPORATE BODY INCAPABLE OF BEING HARASSED – INJUNCTIVE RELIEF – PROTECTION FROM HARASSMENT ACT 1997, S 3
Notes
This is an ongoing case by Japanese customers of Huntingdon Life Sciences against Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) and others. The companies alleged that SHAC had orchestrated and encouraged, amongst other things, attacks on company staff and property and "home demos" outside company director's houses. They applied for a civil injunction under the harassment act prohibiting SHAC from harassing the companies, named directors and all other (unnamed) company staff having the the same interests as the named directors.
This case upholds previous rulings in Dziurzynski , a criminal case, and Curtin that the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 was not to be used to protect companies. This was not the Parliamentary intention when passing the legislation, and companies can therefore be neither victims in criminal cases or claimants in civil proceedings. However, the judge ruled that the named claimants - company directors - who were also bringing an action against SHAC had the same interests as their fellow employees and could therefore also represent them. The judge ruled that it was acceptable for the one named employee in each case to bring the action on behalf of all his fellow employees. The injunctions were therefore granted prohibiting harassment by SHAC against all the employees of the different companies.
This does therefore give companies some degree of protection as all the employees are currently protected by the current injuction even though only one of them is named. Protestors are still allowed, however, to write to, phone and email the relevant companies and hold one protest outside the premises every week. So for the time being at least, legitimate protest has not been banned altogether by use of the act.
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