The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council taking court action against Mr X. We cannot investigate the commencement of court proceedings and could not say any fault led to wrongful legal action against him.
The complaint
Mr X complained the Council took court action against him to prevent him holding an event, rather than engaging with him. He says this caused significant stress and disruption to his work. He also complains of harassment and defamation from the Council.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended) The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered the information provided by Mr X I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
In 2024 Mr X applied to the Council to hold events on council owned land.
Mr X says the Council did not respond to the application in good time.
The Council told Mr X that it tried to engage him about these events but he neither provided the information necessary to proceed with the application nor gave his assurances that he would not proceed with the event. It therefore acted against him at court to prevent the event from going ahead.
Mr X’s claimed injustice comes from the commencement of court action by the Council and we have no jurisdiction to investigate this point, as set out at Paragraph 3.
We can investigate complaints of fault earlier on in the process, but for which court action may have been avoided. But I cannot say any fault by the Council wrongly led to the commencement of court proceedings against Mr X. It is clear the Council engaged with Mr X about his proposed event, but it was not satisfied with the information he provided. When it made this clear to Mr X, and regardless of what had happened previously, it asked for Mr X’s confirmation that he would not proceed with the event. Had Mr X given this at the time the Council would have had no need to take the matter to court.
Defamation and harassment are legal issues, and it is reasonable to expect Mr X to seek damages through court action.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we cannot consider complaints about the commencement of court action, and the court is best placed to consider his other complaints.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman