Court of Appeal rules on whether vicarious liability for pre-transfer torts passes to an acquiring employer under the TUPE 2006 Regulations

On 8 September 2026, the Court of Appeal (Civil Division) handed down judgment in ABC v Huntercombe (no.12) Limited and Others ([2026] EWCA Civ 1161), addressing what the court described as a potentially important point about Regulation 4(2)(a) of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (known as TUPE 2006). The central question was whether an employer's vicarious liability to a third party for the alleged torts of an employee transfers to a new employer when the business changes hands under a TUPE transfer. The claimant, ABC, was placed at Huntercombe Hospital, a privately run psychiatric facility in Maidenhead, for a four-month period in 2018 to 2019. She alleged she was mentally and verbally abused by staff and restrained on over 200 occasions. In around March 2021, the hospital business transferred from the first defendant, Huntercombe (no.12) Limited, to the second defendant, Active Young People Limited (AYPL), for TUPE purposes. The consultant psychiatrists at the centre of the claim, the third and fourth defendants, were employees first of Huntercombe and then, following the transfer, of AYPL. All the relevant alleged events predated the transfer. ABC sought to hold AYPL vicariously liable on the basis that Huntercombe's liability had passed to it via the transfer. The first instance judge rejected that argument. ABC appealed, with the Court of Appeal panel comprising Lord Justice Bean (Vice President), Lord Justice Coulson, and Sir Launcelot Henderson. The court noted that over 50 similar claims by other claimants are pending against the same defendants, and produced the judgment with a case management conference in autumn 2026 in mind. acted for AYPL, with instructing for the third defendant and instructing for the fourth.