Disciplinary Proceedings and the Duty of Care

In Coventry University v Mian [2014] EWCA Civ 1275, the Court of Appeal considered whether an employer had breached its duty of care by commencing disciplinary action against an employee on the basis of a preliminary, rather than in-depth, investigation.

Dr Mian was employed by Coventry University.  Following a preliminary investigation into allegations that she had falsified a reference for a former colleague, the University initiated disciplinary action against her for gross misconduct.  A disciplinary meeting was held following which the case against her was dropped.  Dr Mian resigned and brought a negligence claim against the University, alleging that it had breached its duty of care in commencing a disciplinary process against her without a prior in-depth investigation and this had caused her psychiatric injury.  The Court of Appeal held that the test to determine if the University had breached its duty of care was whether the decision to commence disciplinary action had been outside the range of reasonable decisions open to an employer in the circumstances.  This is an objective test which requires the assessment of both (i) the evidence available to the employer at the time, and (ii) subject to proof, such evidence as should or would have been available had a reasonable investigation been carried out.  The Court acknowledged that reasonable employers may come to different decisions on the same issue; it was therefore possible to be "wrong" without being negligent.  The Court found that at the time the disciplinary action was commenced, a reasonable employer could have concluded on the evidence that there was a case for Dr Mian to answer; as such, the University had not breached its duty of care and so was not negligent.