THE HONOURABLE MR JUSTICE NICKLIN Approved Judgment
MBR Acres Ltd -v- Free the MBR Beagles
(3) Should the interim injunction be modified to add sub-paragraph (5) against “Persons Unknown”? 70. In my judgment it should not. 71. First, I am not satisfied that the Claimants have established the Court’s jurisdiction over the Thirty-First Defendants “Persons Unknown”, by obtaining an alternative service order that can reasonably be expected to bring the proceedings to the attention of all of those of the category of the “Persons Unknown” who are engaged in the alleged harassment of the First Claimant’s staff and/or Impex staff. Once the link is broken between the Wyton Site and the activities sought to be restrained, the method of alternative service – by posting a copy of the injunction order outside the Wyton Site – is insufficient. As I made clear in LB Barking & Dagenham [47] , the greater the width of the category of Persons Unknown, the more difficult it will be to satisfy the requirements for an alternative service order. 72. I accept that there may be some people who have been protesting at the Impex Site who have previously protested at the Wyton Site, but it does not follow that all of those who are protesting at Impex have previously protested at the Wyton Site. The injunction order would catch those who had no previous connection with the Wyton Site. If the injunction is going to include protest activities at the Impex site, then, at the very least, the method for alternative service must provide a means of bringing the proceedings to the attention of people who are protesting at the Impex site. The current alternative service order does not do so. It is focused only on activities at the Wyton Site. 73. Second, the evidence relied upon by the Claimants does not disclose acts of a level of seriousness that would have justified the grant of an injunction against “Persons Unknown”. Apart from two incidents of trespass at the Impex site, the evidence largely consists of non-specific (and apparently lawful) protest activities at the Impex site. At its highest, the evidence discloses that there have been efforts to target protest activities towards the Managing Director of Impex. It is very difficult, from the Claimants’ evidence, to decide which of the alleged incidents might have crossed the line between legitimate protest and harassment. It is clear that the police have been involved, and that they have made arrests. The Claimants have not, apparently, sought information from the police to identify those who have been arrested and what they are alleged to have done. That seems to me to be a basic step that ought to be adopted to ensure that any injunction granted by a civil court is properly targeted at people against whom there is credible evidence of past wrongdoing and/or the threat of future wrongdoing. ( 5) Discretion 74. Finally, I would in any event have refused to grant the variation to the interim injunction sought by the Claimants, whether against the named Defendants or “Persons Unknown” as an exercise of discretion. 75. First, in respect of the variation of the injunction against “Persons Unknown”, moving the focus of the injunction to restrict activities directed towards Impex raises difficult issues. As I have set out already, I am not satisfied that the Claimants have established jurisdiction over those in the category of the Thirty First Defendant “Persons Unknown” in respect of activities against Impex. I am not satisfied that the Claimants
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