Reeves v Metropolitan Police Commissioner

Reeves v Metropolitan Police Commissioner [2000] 1 AC 360 is an English tort law case, concerning breach of duty.^[1]

A prisoner killed himself. He was on suicide watch.

The House of Lords held that the police have a duty to prevent the death of prisoners under their care, including deaths by suicide. Lord Hoffmann said: ‘Once it is admitted that this is the rare case in which such a duty is owed, it seems to me self-contradictory to say that the breach could not have been a cause of the harm because the victim caused it to himself.’

Lord Hobhouse dissented saying the voluntary act of suicide is an excepton. He pointed to a political prisoner who does it to make a statement.

• English tort law