On 01 April and following years of proceedings, the UK’s highest court ruled that the Morrisons supermarket chain was not vicariously liable for a web-based data leak of personal information for 100,000 staff that was carried out by an employee seeking revenge. The ruling comes as a relief for employers worried over being held responsible in these types of cases that could prove financially costly.
For Supreme Court Judge Lord Reed, it is clear that the former Morrisons employee Andrew Skelton acted out of a ‘grudge’. ‘In the present case, it is abundantly clear that Skelton was not engaged in furthering his employer’s business when he committed the wrongdoing in question. On the contrary, he was pursuing a personal vendetta, seeking vengeance for the disciplinary proceedings some months earlier, he said. ‘In these circumstances, applying the established approach to cases of this kind, hi
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