Below the belt?

Can someone secure damages by provoking an assault by obnoxious and possibly unlawful behaviour? Surely such an action is not possible outside the pages of the Daily Mail? Well, no, that newspaper may have justification for its standard level of outrage, after the Court of Appeal’s decision of Pritchard v Co-operative Group [2011] EWCA Civ 329, [2011] All ER (D) 312 (Mar).

Facts

As ever in cases such as these, the facts found by the trial judge were interesting as well as important. The claimant, P, had been employed by the defendant at its supermarket with a good work record for some six years until 2003 when she had a period of sick leave. She was still feeling below par, but on telephoning the store manager, W, he refused consent for her to take a day’s leave. Consequently, P attended the store with her sister and confronted W who again refused his consent in a way that went beyond forthright