Rookes v. Barnard

Facts

• The case involved a claim connected to trade union activity and alleged intimidation. The question of whether exemplary (punitive) damages, beyond ordinary compensation, could be awarded arose. The House of Lords used the opportunity to comprehensively address the proper scope of this remedy.

Issue

1. In what circumstances should exemplary damages, beyond mere compensation, be available in a tort claim.

Held

• Exemplary damages should be confined to specific, limited categories. First, where the defendant's conduct was calculated to make a profit that might exceed the compensation otherwise payable. Second, where a statute expressly authorises such an award. Third, in cases involving oppressive, arbitrary, or unconstitutional conduct by servants of the government. Outside these categories, damages should remain purely compensatory.

Ratio Decidendi

Exemplary damages, given their tension with tort law's primarily compensatory purpose, are confined to a limited set of categories where compensatory damages alone would be inadequate to achieve genuine deterrence or to mark the seriousness of governmental abuse of power.