24 October 2012
Court of Appeal rules on MoD safety duty to serving soldiers
The Ministry of Defence has a duty to provide serving soldiers with safe equipment, and failure to do so means it can be found liable if soldiers are injured or killed, the Court of Appeal has ruled. Smith & Ors v MoD [2012] EWCA Civ 1365, also known as “the Snatch Land Rover case”, was brought by the families of soldiers killed in Iraq.
The families argued the deaths could have been avoided if the tank and Land Rover in which the soldiers died had been better equipped. The Court rejected the MoD’s defence of “combat immunity”, that it does not owe service personnel a civil duty of care.
