An Unlucky Escape

Carlo Vellino, who had numerous convictions for burglary, theft and other offences, received frequent visits in his second-floor flat from the police. To their knowledge, he often sought to evade arrest by leaving through a window, normally lowering himself to the ground from a balcony. In September 1994 three police officers arrested him in the flat for failure to appear in court. In circumstances of which there was conflicting evidence, the two officers who were holding Vellino let go of him, and he leaped out of the window, fracturing his skull when he hit the ground. He claimed damages for the resulting brain damage and tetraplegia, alleging that the Chief Constable was vicariously liable for the officers' negligence. The Court of Appeal (Schiemann L.J. and Sir Murray Stuart-Smith, Sedley L.J. dissenting) upheld Elias J.'s decision to dismiss the claim, on the grounds that: (i) the police owed an arrested person no duty to take care that he was not injured in a foreseeable attempt to escape from lawful custody; (ii) the claimant was the author of his own misfortune; and (iii) as a matter of policy he should not be allowed to base a claim on his own criminal act of escaping from lawful custody ('ex turpi causa non oritur actio'): 'Vellino v. Chief Constable of the Greater Manchester Police' [2001] EWCA Civ 1249, [2002] 1 W.L.R. 218.