Rabone v Pennine Care NHS Trust

Melanie Rabone suffered from depression and was admitted to hospital as an informal patient. She was assessed as a high risk patient but allowed to go on home leave. During that leave she committed suicide. Miss Rabone’s parents brought proceedings under the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1934 (“the negligence claim”) and for breach of Article 2 (the right to life) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The former claim was settled. The Supreme Court considered, among other things, whether to extend the ambit of Article 2 to non-detained patients suffering psychiatric illness. It decided to do so in the circumstances of Miss Rabone’s case, on the basis that the Strasbourg jurisprudence indicated that a duty existed to protect someone from a real and immediate risk of suicide when they were under the control of the state. Further Miss Rabone’s parents had not renounced their claim under Article 2 by settling the negligence claim.

Monica Carss-Frisk QC and Jane Mulcahy acted for the Trust.