In Prospect v Evans, the High Court held that a trade union has the necessary legal standing to sue in defamation. This clarifies previous uncertainty arising from a 1980 ruling that the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications, and Plumbing Union (EETPU) was not entitled to bring an action for defamation against Times Newspapers because it did not have a separate legal personality.
Prospect brought claims of defamation and malicious falsehood against Mr Evans, a former member of the union. Mr Evans then applied for a declaration that the High Court had no jurisdiction to hear the defamation case because the union lacked legal standing to bring that claim.
The High Court held that Prospect did have the right to sue in defamation. It ruled that the EETPU decision, which was based on 1974 legislation, was wrong. Under the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, trade unions have the right to make contracts in their own name and sue in any cause of action (section 10). Unions can also be sued in their own name in any cause of action and be prosecuted under criminal law. Although trade unions are expressly stated not to be corporate bodies, they have a separate identity distinct from their members and therefore have sufficient personality to be entitled to bring an action in libel to protect their reputation.
It is useful to have a clear decision from the High Court clarifying the legal status of trade unions and confirming that the EETPU decision was wrong. This is consistent with the wider aims of trade union law as well as with pre-1974 legislation and case law, which allowed trade unions to sue in defamation.
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