SCOTLAND
Scottish Legal News
A QC who sued the Scottish Government after resigning as chair of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry has had a £500,000 claim for damages dismissed.
A judge in the Court of Session dismissed a claim by Susan O’Brien QC that a decision by the Scottish Ministers to instigate the process for terminating her appointment amounted to a “material breach of contract” and “infringed” her human rights.
Lord Pentland heard that the pursuer wrote to John Swinney MSP, the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, on 4 July 2016 advising that she had decided to resign as chair of inquiry with immediate effect.
She then raised an action seeking an order from the court declaring that the actions of the defenders in invoking the procedure under section 12 of the Inquiries Act 2005 and seeking unilaterally to terminate her appointment constituted a material breach of contract, and separately that the defenders’ actions were incompatible with her rights under Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights.
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