MR JUSTICE NICKLIN Approved Judgment
MBR Acres Ltd -v- Curtin
(2) For the purposes of this section …, the person whose course of conduct is in question ought to know that it amounts to or involves harassment of another if a reasonable person in possession of the same information would think the course of conduct amounted to harassment of the other. (3) Subsection (1) or (1A) does not apply to a course of conduct if the person who pursued it shows - (a) that it was pursued for the purpose of preventing or detecting crime, (b) that it was pursued under any enactment or rule of law or to comply with any condition or requirement imposed by any person under any enactment, or (c) that in the particular circumstances the pursuit of the course of conduct was reasonable.” 100. A breach of ss.1(1) and/or (1A) is a criminal offence: s.2. Sections 3 and 3A PfHA provide that any actual or apprehended breach of ss.1(1) and (1A) may be the subject of a civil claim by anyone who is or may be the victim of the course of conduct. 101. A corporate entity is not a “person” capable of being harassed under s.1(1): s.7(5) and Daiichi UK Ltd -v- Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty [2004] 1 WLR 1503 . However, a company may sue in a representative capacity on behalf of employees of the company if that is the most convenient and expeditious way of enabling the court to protect their interests: Emerson Developments Ltd -v- Avery [2004] EWHC 194 (QB) [2]. Alternatively, claims for an injunction under s.3A may be brought by a company in its own right: Harlan Laboratories UK Ltd -v- Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty [2012] EWHC 3408 (QB) [5]-[9]; Astrellas Pharma -v- Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty [2011] EWCA Civ 752 [7]. 102. Section 7 provides, so far as material: “(2) References to harassing a person include alarming the person or causing the person distress. (3) A ‘course of conduct’ must involve— (a) in the case of conduct in relation to a single person (see section 1(1)), conduct on at least two occasions in relation to that person, or (b) in the case of conduct in relation to two or more persons (see section 1(1A)), conduct on at least one occasion in relation to each of those persons. (3A) A person’s conduct on any occasion shall be taken, if aided, abetted, counselled or procured by another— (a) to be conduct on that occasion of the other (as well as conduct of the person whose conduct it is); and (b) to be conduct in relation to which the other’s knowledge and purpose, and what he ought to have known, are the same as they were in relation
97
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator