Employers' liability: Hatton guidance must be applied carefully

In Hartman v South Essex Mental Health and Community Care NHS Trust and other appeals, the Court of Appeal holds:

• For a stress at work case to succeed, it must be shown that the injury was not too remote. The test is whether the psychiatric injury to the particular employee was reasonably foreseeable in light of what the employer knew or ought to have known. If it was not reasonably foreseeable, on the facts of the case, the employer cannot be found liable for a breach of the duty of care.