Yaa Foriwaa Appiah & Anor v Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

Facts

The First Claimant, born in Ghana in 1965, came to the United Kingdom in 1999 with her husband, the Second Claimant, who had arrived as a doctoral student in 1998. In 2011 the Secretary of State for the Home Department decided that they could not remain; the Upper Tribunal later allowed their appeals on Article 8 ECHR grounds. In 2017 the First Claimant was convicted at the Leeds Magistrates' Court of assaulting a police officer, harassment and criminal damage, was imprisoned, and was then detained under the Immigration Act 1971 pending deportation. Prison psychiatrists raised concerns about psychosis, and she was transferred to the Newsam Centre under sections 48 and/or 49 of the Mental Health Act 1983 in December 2018. When that authority was about to end, Dr Jonathan King and Dr Andrew Cobb recommended detention for treatment, the Second Claimant was displaced as nearest relative, and she was detained under section 3 of the Mental Health Act 1983 from 26 April 2019 until the First-tier Tribunal directed her immediate discharge on 23 August 2019. The Claimants issued a claim in 2021 for false imprisonment and breaches of Articles 3, 5 and 8 ECHR, and for procedural breaches of the Act, seeking £1,500,000. Leave to sue Leeds City Council was refused; the claim against the Trust proceeded to a three-day trial.