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VDA v Secretary of State for the Home Department
[2024] UKSC 34 · Supreme Court · 2024
Potential victims of trafficking who receive a positive reasonable grounds decision under the National Referral Mechanism are entitled to support and assistance, and removal during the reflection period would be unlawful.
R (Friends of the Earth) v Secretary of State for BEIS (Net Zero Strategy)
[2022] EWHC 1841 (Admin) · High Court · 2022
The Secretary of State's Net Zero Strategy failed to comply with section 13 of the Climate Change Act 2008 because it did not include quantified assessments showing how policies would enable carbon budgets to be met.
R (Entain Group) v Gambling Commission
[2022] EWHC 1012 (Admin) · High Court · 2022
The Gambling Commission has power to impose substantial penalties for regulatory breaches, and such penalties will be upheld if they are proportionate to the seriousness of the breaches and the operator's culpability.
McDonald v Crofts
[2022] EWHC 1042 (QB) · High Court · 2022
Social media statements by a candidate may constitute false statements about the personal character of another candidate under the Representation of the People Act 1983 if they are factual assertions rather than expressions of opinion.
Cornerstone Telecommunications Infrastructure Ltd v Compton Beauchamp Estates Ltd
[2022] UKSC 18 · Supreme Court · 2022
Under the Electronic Communications Code (Schedule 3A Communications Act 2003), the consideration (rent) for an agreement to install telecoms apparatus should be assessed on a 'no-network' basis — excluding the value attributable to the telecommunications use.
Uber BV v Aslam
[2021] UKSC 5 · Supreme Court · 2021
Uber drivers are 'workers' within the meaning of the Employment Rights Act 1996, the Working Time Regulations, and the National Minimum Wage Act. The written contractual terms stating drivers were self-employed contractors did not reflect the true nature of the relationship. Courts must look at the reality of the working arrangement, not just the written contract.
Begum v Secretary of State for the Home Department
[2021] UKSC 7 · Supreme Court · 2021
The courts should not substitute their own view for that of the Secretary of State on matters of national security. Where citizenship deprivation engages national security considerations, judicial review is limited to examining the Secretary of State's decision on conventional public law grounds, and the court cannot make its own assessment of the national security case.
Manchester Building Society v Grant Thornton UK LLP
[2021] UKSC 20 · Supreme Court · 2021
In professional negligence claims, the scope of the defendant's duty of care determines which losses are recoverable. The court must identify the purpose for which the advice was given and ask whether the loss that materialised is the kind of loss against which that purpose was to protect. The correct analytical tool is a counterfactual: would the claimant have suffered the same loss if the adviser's information or advice had been correct? If so, the loss falls outside the scope of duty. The Supreme Court reformulated Lord Hoffmann's SAAMCO distinction between 'advice cases' (full liability) and 'information cases' (scope limited to consequences of information being wrong), treating the distinction as a guide to the more fundamental enquiry rather than a rigid binary rule.
R (SC, CB and 8 children) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
[2021] UKSC 26 · Supreme Court · 2021
The two-child limit on the child element of Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit does not violate Article 14 ECHR or Article 3 UNCRC. The 'manifestly without reasonable foundation' test applies to welfare benefit measures of general application, and the government is entitled to a broad margin of appreciation.
Fee v Returning Officer for East Londonderry
[2021] NIQB 50 · High Court of Northern Ireland · 2021
An election petition must demonstrate errors sufficient to have affected the result. Minor procedural irregularities that could not have changed the outcome will not void an election.
R (easyJet) v Civil Aviation Authority
[2021] EWHC 1586 (Admin) · High Court · 2021
The award of airport slots is subject to public law principles of fairness and consistency, even where the formal procurement rules may not apply.
FCA v Arch Insurance (UK) Ltd
[2021] UKSC 1 · Supreme Court · 2021
Business interruption insurance policies that cover losses arising from notifiable diseases or government-mandated closures may cover losses caused by COVID-19, depending on the policy wording. The 'but for' test of causation is not appropriate for disease clause policies.
R (ClientEarth) v Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
[2021] EWCA Civ 43 · Court of Appeal · 2021
The Secretary of State's net zero strategy must contain policies that are sufficient to enable the legally binding carbon budgets to be met. The court can review whether the Government's climate policies are adequate to meet the statutory targets under the Climate Change Act 2008.
Lloyd v Google LLC
[2021] UKSC 50 · Supreme Court · 2021
Damages under the Data Protection Act 1998 require proof of material damage or distress suffered by each individual claimant. 'Loss of control' over personal data does not, without more, give rise to a claim for damages. Representative actions under CPR 19.6 require that each represented person has 'the same interest' — this is not satisfied where individual assessment of damage is needed.
R (on the application of Maughan) v HM Senior Coroner for Oxfordshire
[2020] UKSC 46 · Supreme Court · 2020
The standard of proof for all conclusions at an inquest, including short-form conclusions such as suicide and unlawful killing, is the civil standard (balance of probabilities), not the criminal standard (beyond reasonable doubt).
Williamson v Bishop of London
[2020] EWHC 3518 (Admin) · High Court (Administrative Court) · 2020
Clergy discipline decisions under the Clergy Discipline Measure 2003 are amenable to judicial review where procedural unfairness or error of law is alleged, though the court will give appropriate respect to the ecclesiastical tribunals' expertise.
R (Friends of the Earth) v Secretary of State for Transport (Heathrow Third Runway)
[2020] UKSC 52 · Supreme Court · 2020
When designating a National Policy Statement, the Secretary of State was not legally obliged to take into account the Paris Agreement targets on climate change where Parliament had not enacted those obligations into domestic law.
R (LVS) v Gambling Commission
[2020] EWHC 1097 (Admin) · High Court · 2020
The Gambling Commission has broad discretion in setting regulatory conditions, but must give adequate reasons when rejecting an operator's proposals for licence variations.
R (Betting Shop Services) v Responsible Gambling Strategy Board
[2020] EWHC 2631 (Admin) · High Court · 2020
Gambling policy decisions by public bodies must be based on evidence and must not be arbitrary. However, the public interest in preventing gambling harm justifies significant regulatory intervention.
Enka Insaat Ve Sanayi AS v OOO Insurance Company Chubb
[2020] UKSC 38 · Supreme Court · 2020
The law applicable to an arbitration agreement is determined by: (1) express choice; (2) implied choice; or (3) the system of law most closely connected. Where the main contract contains a choice of law clause, there is a rebuttable presumption that this governs the arbitration agreement too.
R (Miller) v The Prime Minister (Cherry/Miller No 2)
[2019] UKSC 41 · Supreme Court · 2019
The Prime Minister's advice to the Queen to prorogue Parliament for five weeks was justiciable and unlawful. Prorogation is unlawful if it has the effect of frustrating Parliament's ability to carry out its constitutional functions without reasonable justification.
R (DA and DS) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
[2019] UKSC 21 · Supreme Court · 2019
The benefit cap, which limits total household welfare payments, does not constitute unlawful discrimination against lone parents and their children under Article 14 ECHR, as the government is entitled to a wide margin of appreciation in matters of economic and social policy.
R (SSE Generation Ltd) v Gas and Electricity Markets Authority
[2019] EWCA Civ 1081 · Court of Appeal · 2019
Ofgem's decisions on the methodology for allocating transmission charges are subject to judicial review on conventional public law grounds, but the court will respect the regulator's specialist expertise in technical matters.
R (Campaign for Fairer Gambling) v Gambling Commission
[2019] EWHC 3256 (Admin) · High Court · 2019
The Gambling Commission has an ongoing duty to monitor the effectiveness of regulatory conditions, but the court will not substitute its judgment for the Commission's on how to regulate advertising.
Ocean Outdoor UK Ltd v Hammersmith and Fulham LBC
[2019] EWCA Civ 1642 · Court of Appeal · 2019
A services concession contract (where the operator takes the operating risk) is not a public services contract but may still be subject to lighter-touch procurement requirements. The key question is whether the operator takes the demand risk.
Lachaux v Independent Print Ltd
[2019] UKSC 27 · Supreme Court · 2019
The 'serious harm' requirement in s.1 Defamation Act 2013 is a factual threshold distinct from the common law presumption of damage. A claimant must prove as a fact that the statement has caused or is likely to cause serious harm to their reputation.
R (GB) v Hampshire County Council
[2019] EWHC 3572 (Admin) · High Court · 2019
Local authorities must assess and make provision for children with special educational needs within statutory timeframes; failure to do so is unlawful.
Robinson v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police
[2018] UKSC 4 · Supreme Court · 2018
The Caparo three-stage test is not a universal test to be applied afresh in every case of alleged negligence. Where a duty of care has already been recognised in an established category of situation, the court should apply that established principle directly rather than resort to Caparo. The Caparo test is for novel situations where no established precedent exists. A public authority, including the police, owes an ordinary duty of care not to cause foreseeable physical injury to persons through its own positive acts. The police are not in a specially privileged position: where their positive acts cause harm they are subject to the same liability in negligence as any private individual, even in the course of their operational activities.
R v Mackinlay
[2018] UKSC 42 · Supreme Court · 2018
Election expenses for party campaigning and candidate campaigning are distinct categories. Spending on campaigning that promotes or disparages a party nationally is not necessarily candidate spending, even if it incidentally benefits or harms a local candidate.
Owens v Owens
[2018] UKSC 41 · Supreme Court · 2018
The court must apply the statutory test for divorce (that the respondent has behaved in such a way that the petitioner cannot reasonably be expected to live with them) and cannot grant a divorce simply because the marriage has broken down, if the behaviour allegations are insufficient.
Competition and Markets Authority v GlaxoSmithKline plc (Paroxetine)
[2018] CAT 4 · Competition Appeal Tribunal · 2018
Pay-for-delay agreements in the pharmaceutical sector, where an originator company pays generic competitors to stay out of the market, may constitute both a restriction of competition by object and an abuse of dominant position.
R (Good Law Project) v Electoral Commission
[2018] EWHC 2414 (Admin) · High Court · 2018
The Electoral Commission's investigation and enforcement powers are subject to judicial review. Decisions to close investigations must be made lawfully and with adequate reasons.
Faraday Development Ltd v West Berkshire Council
[2018] EWCA Civ 2532 · Court of Appeal · 2018
A local authority that disposes of land to a developer in return for the developer constructing facilities may be entering into a public works contract subject to the procurement rules.
Lee v Ashers Baking Company
[2018] UKSC 49 · Supreme Court · 2018
Refusing to produce a cake bearing a message supporting same-sex marriage was not direct discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation. The objection was to the message, not the customer's sexual orientation.
R v K (Modern Slavery)
[2018] EWCA Crim 1432 · Court of Appeal · 2018
The statutory defence under s.45 Modern Slavery Act 2015 provides that a person is not guilty of an offence if they committed it because they were compelled to do so as a direct consequence of being a victim of slavery or exploitation.
Love v Government of the United States of America
[2018] EWHC 172 (Admin) · High Court · 2018
The forum bar under s.19B Extradition Act 2003 can prevent extradition where a substantial measure of the criminal activity occurred in the UK and extradition would not be in the interests of justice.
R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union
[2017] UKSC 5 · Supreme Court · 2017
The government could not use the royal prerogative to trigger Article 50 TEU and begin the UK's withdrawal from the European Union without an Act of Parliament. Since the European Communities Act 1972 had given EU law effect in domestic law, and withdrawal would remove rights conferred by Parliament, only Parliament could authorise the removal of those rights.
Ivey v Genting Casinos (UK) Ltd
[2017] UKSC 67 · Supreme Court · 2017
The test for dishonesty in criminal and civil law is objective: the court must first ascertain the actual state of the defendant's knowledge or belief as to the facts, then determine whether the conduct was dishonest by the standards of ordinary decent people. The subjective element of the Ghosh test (whether the defendant knew their conduct was dishonest) was held to be wrong.
R (UNISON) v Lord Chancellor
[2017] UKSC 51 · Supreme Court · 2017
The Employment Tribunals and the Employment Appeal Tribunal Fees Order 2013 was unlawful and of no effect. The fees imposed — up to £1,200 for a Type B claim (including unfair dismissal) — were unlawful at common law because they effectively prevented workers from exercising their statutory rights of access to employment tribunals. The constitutional right of access to the courts and tribunals is not merely a procedural formality but a substantive right going to the rule of law; Parliament must use express and unambiguous language to remove it. The fees order was also unlawful under EU law because it contravened the principle of effectiveness by rendering rights conferred by EU directives virtually impossible to exercise in practice.
Ilott v The Blue Cross
[2017] UKSC 17 · Supreme Court · 2017
The Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 does not override testamentary freedom but allows the court to make reasonable financial provision for eligible applicants. The court must balance the testator's wishes, the applicant's needs, and the claims of other beneficiaries. An adult child's claim is limited to maintenance.
Actavis UK Ltd v Eli Lilly & Co
[2017] UKSC 48 · Supreme Court · 2017
Patent infringement should be assessed in two stages: (1) does the variant infringe on a normal (purposive) interpretation of the claim? (2) if not, does the variant nonetheless infringe because it varies from the invention in a way that is immaterial? The reformulated Improver/Protocol questions apply to the second stage.
IBM United Kingdom Ltd v Dalgleish
[2017] EWCA Civ 1212 · Court of Appeal · 2017
An employer exercising discretionary powers in relation to a pension scheme owes an implied duty of good faith (the 'Imperial duty') which prevents the employer from exercising its powers in a way that would undermine the reasonable expectations of scheme members.
R v Sergeant Alexander Blackman (Marine A)
[2017] EWCA Crim 190 · Court Martial Appeal Court / Court of Appeal · 2017
The defence of diminished responsibility applies in military law as it does in civilian law. Evidence of combat stress and adjustment disorder may reduce murder to manslaughter where it substantially impairs responsibility.
Essop v Home Office
[2017] UKSC 27 · Supreme Court · 2017
In an indirect discrimination claim, the claimant does not need to prove why a provision, criterion, or practice (PCP) puts persons sharing a protected characteristic at a particular disadvantage — only that it does so.
Grenfell Tower Inquiry
Public Inquiry (2017–2024) · Public Inquiry · 2017
Systemic failures in fire safety regulation, building control, and the use of combustible cladding materials contributed to the Grenfell Tower disaster. Manufacturers, certifiers, and regulators all bore responsibility.
R (Poshteh) v Kensington and Chelsea RLBC
[2017] UKSC 36 · Supreme Court · 2017
Whether a person is vulnerable for the purposes of priority need under the homelessness legislation requires comparison with an ordinary person if made homeless, not with an ordinary person generally.
Chowdury v Greece
(2017) ECHR 300 · European Court of Human Rights · 2017
The state has positive obligations under Article 4 ECHR to investigate situations of potential human trafficking and forced labour, even where the victims did not initially raise formal complaints.
R (Agyarko) v Secretary of State for the Home Department
[2017] UKSC 11 · Supreme Court · 2017
The immigration rules and Article 8 ECHR require a proper assessment of proportionality when considering whether to grant leave to remain on the basis of a private or family life established in the UK.
R v Jogee; Ruddock v The Queen
[2016] UKSC 8; [2016] UKPC 7 · Supreme Court · 2016
The law on accessory liability in joint enterprise was wrongly extended by R v Chan Wing-Siu [1985] AC 168 (PC) and R v Powell; R v English [1999] AC 1 (HL). Those decisions incorrectly elevated mere foresight that the principal might commit an offence into a sufficient mental element for accessory liability, thereby creating what has been called 'parasitic accessory liability'. The correct principle, derived from first principles of accessory liability, is that the prosecution must prove that the accessory intended to assist or encourage the principal to commit the offence charged. Foresight that the principal might commit the offence is evidence from which the jury may infer such intent, but it is not equivalent to intent as a matter of law. Where D2 is present at a joint enterprise and the principal D1 goes on to commit an offence, D2 is guilty as accessory only if D2 intended to assist or encourage D1's act with the requisite mens rea for that offence.
R v Golds
[2016] UKSC 61 · Supreme Court · 2016
For the partial defence of diminished responsibility under s 52 Coroners and Justice Act 2009, 'substantial' impairment means an impairment that is more than merely trivial — it need not be total but it must be significant or appreciable.
Streetmap.eu Ltd v Google Inc
[2016] EWHC 253 (Ch) · High Court (Chancery Division) · 2016
A dominant undertaking displaying its own mapping product prominently in search results does not necessarily constitute an abuse of dominant position where there is an objective justification related to improving the quality of search results for users.
McDonald v McDonald
[2016] UKSC 28 · Supreme Court · 2016
Article 8 proportionality does not provide a defence to possession proceedings brought by a private sector landlord. The statutory scheme under the Housing Act 1988, which grants a mandatory right to possession on expiry of a section 21 notice, strikes a fair balance between the rights of landlords and tenants.
R (Carmichael and Rourke) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
[2016] UKSC 58 · Supreme Court · 2016
The 'bedroom tax' (removal of the spare room subsidy in housing benefit) is unlawful discrimination under Article 14 ECHR read with Article 8 where it fails to make allowance for a claimant's disability-related need for an additional bedroom.
Re St Mary the Virgin, Banbury
[2016] ECC Oxf 2 · Oxford Consistory Court · 2016
The consistory court may grant a faculty for the removal of church pews and their replacement with chairs where this serves the church's mission, even if objectors prefer to preserve the traditional appearance.
NATS v Heathrow Airport Ltd
[2016] UKSC 39 · Supreme Court · 2016
Contractual risk allocation provisions will be interpreted according to their natural meaning. A party may be entitled to recover charges even where the underlying cause of the expenditure lies elsewhere in the supply chain.
PJS v News Group Newspapers Ltd
[2016] UKSC 26 · Supreme Court · 2016
An injunction restraining publication of private information can be maintained even after the information has been published abroad and is widely available online, because publication in a national newspaper would cause additional harm through the 'hardcopy' factor and the intrusion into private life under Article 8 ECHR.
Patel v Mirza
[2016] UKSC 42 · Supreme Court · 2016
The defence of illegality does not automatically bar a claim for unjust enrichment where money was paid pursuant to an illegal agreement that was not performed. The court should consider the policies underlying the illegality defence.
Johnson v Secretary of State for the Home Department
[2016] UKSC 56 · Supreme Court · 2016
The historical bar on British citizenship by descent through unmarried fathers was discriminatory, and the common law should be developed to remove the discrimination where possible.
Versloot Dredging BV v HDI Gerling Industrie Versicherung AG (The DC Merwestone)
[2016] UKSC 45 · Supreme Court · 2016
The fraudulent claims rule does not extend to 'collateral lies' — lies told in support of a claim that is otherwise genuine. A policyholder who tells a lie that is not material to the claim does not forfeit the entire claim.
Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board
[2015] UKSC 11 · Supreme Court · 2015
A doctor is under a duty to take reasonable care to ensure that the patient is aware of any material risks involved in any recommended treatment, and of any reasonable alternative or variant treatments. A risk is 'material' if a reasonable person in the patient's position would be likely to attach significance to it, or the doctor is or should reasonably be aware that the particular patient would be likely to attach significance to it.
ParkingEye Ltd v Beavis
[2015] UKSC 67 · Supreme Court · 2015
A parking charge of £85 for overstaying a two-hour free parking limit was not an unenforceable penalty. The charge was not extravagant or unconscionable, served a legitimate interest in managing the car park, and was prominently displayed.
R (on the application of ClientEarth) v Secretary of State for the Environment
[2015] UKSC 28 · Supreme Court · 2015
The Supreme Court ordered the UK government to produce new air quality plans to comply with EU nitrogen dioxide limits. The government's failure to meet binding air quality limits was unlawful and the court could mandate the production of compliant plans.
Vidal-Hall v Google Inc
[2015] EWCA Civ 311 · Court of Appeal · 2015
Breach of the Data Protection Act 1998 can give rise to a claim for compensation for distress alone, without requiring pecuniary loss. The misuse of private information is a tort. Service of proceedings on Google outside the jurisdiction was permitted.
Mathieson v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
[2015] UKSC 47 · Supreme Court · 2015
Suspending disability living allowance for a severely disabled child during an extended NHS hospital stay constitutes unjustified discrimination under Article 14 ECHR read with Article 1 of Protocol 1, where the child's disability-related needs continue during hospitalisation.
Nzolameso v Westminster City Council
[2015] UKSC 22 · Supreme Court · 2015
When a local authority places a homeless household in accommodation outside its district, it must explain its decision-making process and the efforts made to secure accommodation within or as close to the district as possible.
Haile v London Borough of Waltham Forest
[2015] UKSC 34 · Supreme Court · 2015
A person who has been provided with accommodation under the homelessness provisions does not cease to be homeless if that accommodation is not suitable or reasonable to continue to occupy.
R (Pham) v Secretary of State for the Home Department
[2015] UKSC 19 · Supreme Court · 2015
Deprivation of citizenship must not render a person stateless, but the question of statelessness depends on the law of the other country of nationality, and the Secretary of State is entitled to make her own assessment of foreign law.
Henia Investments Inc v Beck Interiors Ltd
[2015] EWHC 2433 (TCC) · Technology and Construction Court · 2015
An adjudicator's decision is temporarily binding and enforceable, even if arguably wrong, unless the adjudicator lacked jurisdiction or there was a serious breach of natural justice.
Coventry v Lawrence
[2014] UKSC 13 · Supreme Court · 2014
Planning permission for an activity that generates noise does not, in itself, constitute a defence to a claim for private nuisance, nor does it change the law of nuisance so as to authorise interference with a neighbour's use and enjoyment of their land. However, planning permission may be relevant in two ways: first, as evidence of the character of the locality (which is a relevant factor in assessing whether an interference is unreasonable); second, where the planning permission has changed the nature of the neighbourhood, it may affect where the line is drawn between tolerable and intolerable interference. The court also substantially relaxed the rigid criteria for awarding damages in lieu of an injunction laid down in Shelfer v City of London Electric Lighting Co [1895] 1 Ch 287, holding that the award of damages rather than an injunction is a matter of discretion to be exercised in all the circumstances.
P v Cheshire West and Chester Council; P and Q v Surrey County Council
[2014] UKSC 19 · Supreme Court · 2014
A person is deprived of liberty for the purposes of Article 5 ECHR if they are under continuous supervision and control and are not free to leave, regardless of the purpose of the placement, the relative normality of the living arrangements, or whether the person is compliant or lacks capacity to object.
Shergill v Khaira
[2014] UKSC 33 · Supreme Court · 2014
The courts can adjudicate on religious disputes where they raise justiciable issues of property or civil rights. The court must identify the relevant religious doctrine and apply it neutrally, without making value judgments about the merits of the doctrine itself.
Rendlesham Estates plc v Barr Ltd
[2014] EWHC 3968 (TCC) · High Court (TCC) · 2014
A builder owes a duty under the Defective Premises Act 1972 to ensure dwellings are fit for habitation when completed, and this duty cannot be excluded by contract.
Plevin v Paragon Personal Finance Ltd
[2014] UKSC 61 · Supreme Court · 2014
The non-disclosure of a large commission on a PPI policy can make the relationship between lender and borrower unfair under s.140A Consumer Credit Act 1974, without the need to establish a common law or fiduciary duty to disclose.
Barclays Bank plc v UniCredit Bank AG
[2014] EWCA Civ 302 · Court of Appeal · 2014
A demand guarantee is an autonomous instrument, independent of the underlying transaction. The bank must pay on a compliant demand unless there is clear evidence of fraud.
R (Haney) v Secretary of State for Justice
[2014] UKSC 66 · Supreme Court · 2014
Prisoners serving indeterminate sentences for public protection (IPP) have a right to have access to rehabilitative courses that would enable the Parole Board to assess whether they can safely be released. Systemic failure to provide such courses may violate Article 5 ECHR.
Huzar v Jet2.com Ltd
[2014] EWCA Civ 791 · Court of Appeal · 2014
A technical fault with an aircraft is not an 'extraordinary circumstance' within the meaning of EU Regulation 261/2004 that would exempt the airline from paying compensation for flight delays.
Stott v Thomas Cook Tour Operators Ltd
[2014] UKSC 15 · Supreme Court · 2014
Article 12 of EU Regulation 261/2004 on air passenger rights does not prevent passengers from claiming supplementary damages beyond the standard compensation amounts.
Kennedy v Charity Commission
[2014] UKSC 20 · Supreme Court · 2014
The qualified exemption under s.32 FOIA for information held by courts and inquiries continues to apply after proceedings have ended. Common law rights of access to information may supplement FOIA.
Barnwell Manor Wind Energy Ltd v East Northamptonshire DC
[2014] EWCA Civ 137 · Court of Appeal · 2014
When deciding planning applications affecting the setting of a listed building, the decision-maker must give considerable importance and weight to the desirability of preserving the setting, as required by s.66 of the Listed Buildings Act 1990.
R v Shimizu (UK) Ltd
[2014] EWCA Crim 1896 · Court of Appeal · 2014
Carrying out unauthorised works to a listed building is a criminal offence of strict liability under s.9 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990.
Prest v Petrodel Resources Ltd
[2013] UKSC 34 · Supreme Court · 2013
The court distinguished between 'piercing the corporate veil' (treating the company and its controller as one — the concealment principle) and the 'evasion principle' (where a person interposes a company to evade or frustrate an existing legal obligation). The Supreme Court held that veil piercing is available only under the evasion principle — where a person deliberately uses a company structure to evade an existing legal obligation. In the present case, the properties were held by the companies on resulting trust for the husband, so veil piercing was unnecessary.
R v Gul
[2013] UKSC 64 · Supreme Court · 2013
The definition of terrorism in section 1 of the Terrorism Act 2000 is wide enough to cover military attacks by non-state armed groups against armed forces in a non-international armed conflict. The breadth of the definition is a matter for Parliament, not the courts, to address.
Re B (Children) (Care Order: Proportionality)
[2013] UKSC 33 · Supreme Court · 2013
Adoption without parental consent (a 'non-consensual adoption') requires the court to be satisfied that nothing else will do. It is a last resort and requires a proportionality analysis under Article 8 ECHR.
R v Saunders
[2013] EWCA Crim 1027 · Court of Appeal · 2013
Sentencing guidelines are not a straitjacket. The court retains discretion to depart from guidelines where the particular circumstances of the case require it, provided reasons are given.
Pitt v Holt; Futter v Futter
[2013] UKSC 26 · Supreme Court · 2013
A voluntary disposition can be set aside for mistake only if the mistake is sufficiently grave. It is not enough that the claimant would not have entered the transaction but for the mistake; the mistake must make it unconscionable for the donee to retain the property.
Superstrike Ltd v Rodrigues
[2013] EWCA Civ 669 · Court of Appeal · 2013
A tenancy deposit that is not protected in an authorised scheme as required by sections 213–215 of the Housing Act 2004 prevents the landlord from serving a valid section 21 notice to recover possession, and the tenant is entitled to compensation of between one and three times the deposit.
Smith v Ministry of Defence
[2013] UKSC 41 · Supreme Court · 2013
The UK's human rights obligations under Article 2 ECHR can apply to the deaths of soldiers in combat zones, though the operational context will be highly relevant to the assessment of what was required.
Re St Alkmund, Duffield
[2013] Fam 158 · Court of Arches · 2013
When considering a faculty application, the consistory court must weigh the effect of proposed works on the church's significance as a building of special architectural and historic interest against the necessity of the works for mission and worship.
Bull v Hall
[2013] UKSC 73 · Supreme Court · 2013
A hotel owner who refused a double room to a same-sex couple in a civil partnership committed direct discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation. The restriction was not a proportionate means of manifesting religious belief.
R v Connors
[2013] EWCA Crim 324 · Court of Appeal · 2013
Holding another person in servitude or requiring forced labour is a serious criminal offence. The vulnerability of victims and the coercive control exercised by perpetrators are central to establishing the offence.
Al-Jedda v Secretary of State for the Home Department
[2013] UKSC 62 · Supreme Court · 2013
The Secretary of State cannot deprive a person of British citizenship if the effect would be to render them stateless, unless they are able to acquire another nationality.
R (Osborn) v Parole Board
[2013] UKSC 61 · Supreme Court · 2013
Common law fairness requires the Parole Board to hold an oral hearing whenever fairness to the prisoner requires one. The Board must not adopt an unduly restrictive approach to directing oral hearings.
Zakrzewski v Regional Court in Lodz, Poland
[2013] UKSC 2 · Supreme Court · 2013
An extradition warrant can be challenged on the basis that it contains an error that is misleading, but only where the error is material — not every inaccuracy justifies discharge.
Rabone v Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust
[2012] UKSC 2 · Supreme Court · 2012
The operational duty under Article 2 ECHR (right to life) to take reasonable steps to protect a person from a real and immediate risk of suicide applies to voluntary psychiatric patients, not only to detained patients. The NHS Trust owed an Article 2 operational duty to a voluntary patient who was known to be at real and immediate risk of suicide.
Chambers v DPP
[2012] EWHC 2157 (Admin) · High Court (Divisional Court) · 2012
A joke tweet threatening to blow up an airport was not 'menacing' within the meaning of s.127(1)(a) Communications Act 2003. The test is whether a reasonable person would regard the message as a genuine threat. Context, including the medium of communication (Twitter), is relevant.
Barr v Biffa Waste Services Ltd
[2012] EWCA Civ 312 · Court of Appeal · 2012
The grant of an environmental permit does not provide a defence to a claim in private nuisance. Regulatory compliance does not authorise the commission of a common law tort.
BAA Ltd v Competition Commission
[2012] EWCA Civ 1077 · Court of Appeal · 2012
The Competition Commission's power to order divestiture of airports as a remedy for an adverse effect on competition is lawful and proportionate where the market investigation reveals structural competition concerns.
Tesco Stores Ltd v Office of Fair Trading
[2012] CAT 31 · Competition Appeal Tribunal · 2012
To establish a hub-and-spoke infringement, the OFT must prove that the retailer foresaw, or could be taken to have foreseen, that its confidential pricing information would be passed by the supplier to a competing retailer.
Homer v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police
[2012] UKSC 15 · Supreme Court · 2012
A requirement for a law degree for promotion to the highest grade could constitute indirect age discrimination where an older employee close to retirement could not realistically obtain the qualification. The employer must objectively justify the PCP.
Sugar v BBC
[2012] UKSC 4 · Supreme Court · 2012
Information held by the BBC for purposes of journalism, art, or literature is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The exemption is absolute and applies to all information held for those purposes.
Assange v Swedish Prosecution Authority
[2012] UKSC 22 · Supreme Court · 2012
A public prosecutor can constitute a 'judicial authority' for the purposes of issuing a European Arrest Warrant under Part 1 of the Extradition Act 2003.
Autoclenz Ltd v Belcher
[2011] UKSC 41 · Supreme Court · 2011
In determining employment status, the courts must identify the true agreement between the parties by examining the reality of the working relationship rather than mechanically applying the written contractual terms. Where written contract terms do not reflect the true situation because of the inequality of bargaining power between the parties, those terms will be disregarded. The normal approach to construing commercial contracts — looking for the subjective intentions of the parties at the time of contracting — does not fully apply in employment cases because employees typically lack the power to negotiate terms. The test of whether an individual is a worker under the Employment Rights Act 1996 and related legislation must be applied to the actual arrangements that subsist between the parties.
Jones v Kernott
[2011] UKSC 53 · Supreme Court · 2011
Where a property is held in joint names by parties in a domestic relationship, there is a presumption of equal beneficial ownership but it can be displaced by evidence of a different common intention. When assessing beneficial shares, the court must first attempt to infer the parties' actual common intention from the whole course of their dealing in relation to the property. Where the evidence permits neither inference nor establishment of a common intention, the court may impute to the parties an intention to hold in whatever shares are fair, having regard to the whole course of dealing. Crucially, the common intention may change over time — what began as an equal sharing may evolve into an unequal one as circumstances develop.
R v Gnango
[2011] UKSC 59 · Supreme Court · 2011
Where two parties voluntarily engage in a gunfight and an innocent bystander is killed by one party's shot, both can be convicted of murder. The surviving shooter is guilty as a secondary party.
R (Adams) v Secretary of State for Justice
[2011] UKSC 18 · Supreme Court · 2011
The right to compensation for miscarriages of justice under s 133 Criminal Justice Act 1988 requires the applicant to show that a newly discovered fact shows beyond reasonable doubt that there has been a miscarriage of justice, meaning the applicant is clearly innocent.
Independent Schools Council v Charity Commission
[2011] UKUT 421 (TCC) · Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery) · 2011
For a trust to be charitable, it must be for the public benefit. Fee-charging charities (such as independent schools) must provide more than minimal or token benefit to those who cannot afford the fees, though the extent of the benefit is a matter for the trustees' judgment.
Al-Skeini v United Kingdom
(2011) 53 EHRR 18 · European Court of Human Rights · 2011
When a Contracting State exercises physical power and control over individuals during military operations abroad, it brings those individuals within its jurisdiction for the purposes of Article 1 ECHR, triggering Convention obligations.
R v Lyons
[2011] EWCA Crim 2808 · Court of Appeal (Courts-Martial Appeal) · 2011
Courts martial must follow the same sentencing principles as civilian courts, adapted to the military context. The maintenance of discipline and operational effectiveness are legitimate factors but do not justify substantially harsher sentences than would be imposed by a civilian court for the same offence.
R v Blackshaw (Riots Cases)
[2011] EWCA Crim 2312 · Court of Appeal · 2011
Context is important in sentencing. Offences committed during widespread public disorder can properly attract sentences above the normal range. The courts may take into account the context of serious public disorder as a seriously aggravating feature.
Spread Trustee Company Ltd v Hutcheson
[2011] UKPC 13 · Privy Council · 2011
A trustee exemption clause that excludes liability for gross negligence is not contrary to public policy and is enforceable, though the court should construe such clauses strictly.
R (Hope and Glory Public House Ltd) v City of Westminster Magistrates' Court
[2011] EWCA Civ 31 · Court of Appeal · 2011
On appeal from a licensing committee's decision, the magistrates should give appropriate weight to the decision of the committee as the specialist body, while conducting a rehearing.
Brent LBC v Risk Management Partners Ltd
[2011] UKSC 7 · Supreme Court · 2011
Local authorities had no power to enter into mutual insurance arrangements before the Localism Act 2011 general power of competence. The incidental powers under s.111 Local Government Act 1972 did not extend to establishing a mutual insurance company.
R v SK
[2011] EWCA Crim 1691 · Court of Appeal · 2011
Where a defendant in criminal proceedings is or may be a victim of trafficking, the court must consider the extent to which their criminal conduct was compelled by their traffickers. The CPS should not prosecute victims of trafficking for offences committed as a direct consequence of their trafficking.
Radmacher v Granatino
[2010] UKSC 42 · Supreme Court · 2010
A pre-nuptial agreement that is freely entered into by each party with a full appreciation of its implications should be given decisive weight unless in the circumstances prevailing it would not be fair to hold the parties to their agreement.
HJ (Iran) v Secretary of State for the Home Department
[2010] UKSC 31 · Supreme Court · 2010
A gay asylum seeker cannot be refused asylum on the basis that they could avoid persecution by concealing their sexuality. The right to live freely and openly as a gay person is protected. The 'discretion test' (expecting a person to be discreet about their sexuality) was rejected.
Manchester City Council v Pinnock
[2010] UKSC 45 · Supreme Court · 2010
Article 8 of the ECHR requires that any person at risk of being dispossessed of their home by a public authority must be able to have the proportionality of the measure determined by an independent tribunal, regardless of the type of tenancy held.
R (on the application of Smith) v Secretary of State for Defence
[2010] UKSC 29 · Supreme Court · 2010
Soldiers serving abroad on military operations remain within the jurisdiction of the UK for the purposes of Article 1 ECHR when on a UK military base, but the position is less clear for soldiers on patrol.
R (Woolas) v Parliamentary Election Court
[2010] EWHC 3169 (Admin) · High Court (Administrative Court) · 2010
An election may be voided under the Representation of the People Act 1983 if a candidate publishes statements about the personal character or conduct of another candidate that are false and made knowingly or recklessly.
Alstom Transport v Eurostar International Ltd
[2010] EWHC 2747 (Ch) · High Court (Chancery Division) · 2010
A claim for a declaration of ineffectiveness must be brought promptly. The court will consider the importance of the contract to the contracting authority and third parties when deciding whether to grant such relief.
R v Dougall
[2010] EWCA Crim 1048 · Court of Appeal · 2010
Under s.4 of the Fraud Act 2006, fraud by abuse of position requires that the defendant occupies a position in which they are expected to safeguard the financial interests of another, and they dishonestly abuse that position with intent to make a gain or cause a loss.
R v Raza
[2010] 1 Cr App R (S) 56 · Court of Appeal · 2010
The totality principle requires that when consecutive sentences are imposed, the overall sentence must be just and proportionate. The court should step back and consider whether the aggregate term is appropriate for the overall offending behaviour.
Norris v Government of the United States of America
[2010] UKSC 9 · Supreme Court · 2010
Extradition will not be unjust or oppressive by reason of the passage of time unless the delay has caused serious prejudice to the requested person that makes a fair trial impossible or extradition oppressive.
Watkins v Woolas
[2010] EWHC 2702 (QB) · Election Court · 2010
Making false statements of fact about the personal character or conduct of a candidate in an election is an illegal practice under section 106 of the Representation of the People Act 1983. If proved, the election may be declared void.
RSPCA v Johnson
[2009] EWHC 2702 (Admin) · High Court (Admin) · 2009
The Animal Welfare Act 2006 creates a duty of care that is objective — it is judged by whether the animal's needs are being met, not by the owner's intentions or personal circumstances. The section 9 duty applies to any person responsible for an animal, whether or not they are the owner.
Sturgeon v Condor Flugdienst GmbH
Joined Cases C-402/07 and C-432/07 [2009] · Court of Justice of the European Union · 2009
Passengers whose flights are subject to long delays (3 hours or more on arrival at their final destination) are entitled to compensation under EU Regulation 261/2004 on the same basis as passengers whose flights are cancelled, provided the delay was not caused by extraordinary circumstances.
Thorner v Major
[2009] UKHL 18 · House of Lords · 2009
Proprietary estoppel can arise from indirect assurances. It is sufficient that the claimant reasonably understood the assurances to mean they would inherit property, even if the assurances were oblique rather than express.
Re Sigma Finance Corporation
[2009] UKSC 2 · Supreme Court · 2009
Complex financial instruments must be interpreted using the same principles as other contracts — by reference to what a reasonable person with the relevant background knowledge would understand the language to mean, read in the context of the instrument as a whole.
R v Horncastle
[2009] UKSC 14 · Supreme Court · 2009
The admission of hearsay evidence under the Criminal Justice Act 2003 does not necessarily violate Article 6 ECHR, even where the evidence is the sole or decisive evidence against the accused, provided there are sufficient counterbalancing measures to ensure fairness.
Independent Trustee Services Ltd v Hope
[2009] EWHC 2810 (Ch) · High Court (Chancery Division) · 2009
Pension scheme trustees owe fiduciary duties analogous to but not identical with those of ordinary trustees. A pension scheme employer's power to amend the scheme is implicitly limited and cannot be exercised in a way that is incompatible with the purpose of the scheme.
Savage v South Essex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
[2009] 1 AC 681 · House of Lords · 2009
An NHS trust owes an operational duty under Article 2 ECHR to take reasonable steps to prevent the suicide of a detained psychiatric patient where staff know or ought to know of a real and immediate risk to life.
R v Povey
[2009] 1 Cr App R (S) 42 · Court of Appeal · 2009
Sentencing guidelines issued by the Sentencing Guidelines Council are not a straitjacket. Judges must follow the guidelines unless it would be contrary to the interests of justice to do so, and must give reasons for departing from them.
R (James) v Secretary of State for Justice
[2009] UKHL 22 · House of Lords · 2009
The detention of a prisoner beyond their tariff period is only justified under Article 5(1)(a) ECHR if there remains a causal connection between the original conviction and the continued detention. The state must provide reasonable opportunities for rehabilitation.
Secretary of State for the Home Department v AF (No 3)
[2009] UKHL 28 · House of Lords · 2009
In control order (now TPIM) proceedings, the controlled person must be given sufficient information about the allegations against them to enable them to give effective instructions to their special advocate.
DPP v Wright
[2009] EWHC 105 (Admin) · High Court · 2009
The Hunting Act 2004 does not require proof that the hunt intended to chase the quarry. It is sufficient that hunting took place — the offence focuses on the activity of hunting, not the subjective intention.
R (Weaver) v London & Quadrant Housing Trust
[2009] EWCA Civ 587 · Court of Appeal · 2009
A registered social landlord exercising public functions (allocation and management of social housing) can be a public authority under s.6 Human Rights Act 1998 for those functions.
Office of Fair Trading v Abbey National plc
[2009] UKSC 6 · Supreme Court · 2009
Bank overdraft charges are part of the price or remuneration for banking services and therefore fall within the exclusion from the unfairness assessment under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 (now Consumer Rights Act 2015).
Re B (Children)
[2008] UKHL 35 · House of Lords · 2008
The standard of proof applicable to findings of fact in care proceedings under the Children Act 1989 is the ordinary civil standard of the balance of probabilities. There is no special or higher standard for serious allegations such as sexual abuse. An allegation is either proved on the balance of probabilities or it is not proved: there is no intermediate finding of 'real possibility'. The approach in In re H (Minors) (Sexual Abuse: Standard of Proof) [1996] AC 563, which suggested that the more serious the allegation the more cogent the evidence required, was disapproved as having given rise to confusion about an enhanced standard of proof for grave allegations.
R v Chargot Ltd (t/a Contract Services)
[2008] UKHL 73 · House of Lords · 2008
Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, once the prosecution proves that an employee was injured at work and that the employer failed to ensure their safety so far as was reasonably practicable, the burden shifts to the employer to show that it was not reasonably practicable to do more.
R v G
[2008] UKHL 37 · House of Lords · 2008
The offence of rape of a child under 13 (s.5 Sexual Offences Act 2003) is one of strict liability as to age. The prosecution need not prove that the defendant knew or was reckless as to the child's age. A genuine belief that the child was 13 or over is not a defence.
Transfield Shipping Inc v Mercator Shipping Inc (The Achilleas)
[2008] UKHL 48 · House of Lords · 2008
Remoteness of damage in contract may depend not just on foreseeability but also on whether the type of loss fell within the scope of the defendant's assumed responsibility. A charterer who redelivered a vessel late was not liable for the difference between the original charter rate and a lower market rate on the next fixture, because such market exposure was not within the scope of the charterer's responsibility.
Cobbe v Yeoman's Row Management Ltd
[2008] UKHL 55 · House of Lords · 2008
Proprietary estoppel cannot arise from an agreement that is expressly 'subject to contract'. In commercial contexts, sophisticated parties who knowingly proceed without binding agreement cannot claim they relied on an assurance to their detriment.
Knowsley Housing Trust v White
[2008] UKHL 70 · House of Lords · 2008
Anti-social behaviour by a tenant or a person residing with or visiting the tenant can constitute a ground for possession even if the tenant did not personally engage in the behaviour.
R (Corner House Research) v Director of the Serious Fraud Office
[2008] UKHL 60 · House of Lords · 2008
The Director of the SFO's decision to discontinue a criminal investigation on grounds of national security was lawful and within his statutory discretion under the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985.
Mosley v News Group Newspapers Ltd
[2008] EWHC 1777 (QB) · High Court · 2008
A person's sexual activities in private are protected by Article 8 and cannot be published without justification. There is no general public interest in knowing how celebrities conduct their private lives.
R (Daniel Thwaites plc) v Wirral Magistrates' Court
[2008] EWHC 838 (Admin) · High Court · 2008
Licensing decisions must be based on evidence relating to the licensing objectives. Personal prejudice against alcohol or a general desire to reduce the number of premises is not a legitimate basis for refusal.
Stack v Dowden
[2007] UKHL 17 · House of Lords · 2007
Where a family home is conveyed into the joint names of cohabitants without an express declaration of trust, equity follows the law and the presumption is that the beneficial interest is held jointly in equal shares. This presumption can be displaced, but only by showing that the parties' common intention at the time of acquisition (or subsequently) was to hold in different shares, and the burden of displacing the presumption is heavy.
R (Hurst) v London Northern District Coroner
[2007] UKHL 13 · House of Lords · 2007
Article 2 ECHR imposes a procedural obligation on the state to carry out an effective investigation into deaths where agents of the state are or may be responsible. This obligation requires an investigation that is capable of establishing the facts, identifying those responsible, and determining whether the state's substantive obligations under Article 2 were complied with.
R v Kennedy (No 2)
[2007] UKHL 38 · House of Lords · 2007
Where the victim freely and voluntarily self-injects a drug supplied by the defendant, the defendant is not guilty of manslaughter. The victim's autonomous act breaks the chain of causation.
Huang v Secretary of State for the Home Department
[2007] UKHL 11 · House of Lords · 2007
When deciding immigration appeals engaging Article 8 ECHR, the appellate body must decide for itself whether the refusal of leave to enter or remain is proportionate, applying the structured proportionality test rather than simply reviewing the decision-maker's reasoning.
Sempra Metals Ltd v Inland Revenue Commissioners
[2007] UKHL 34 · House of Lords · 2007
Compound interest may be awarded as a restitutionary remedy where the defendant has been unjustly enriched by the use of money over time. The previous restriction to simple interest only was overruled.
R (on the application of Laporte) v Chief Constable of Gloucestershire
[2007] 2 AC 105 · House of Lords · 2007
Police may only take preventive action (such as stopping and turning back coaches of protesters) where a breach of the peace is imminent. The action must be proportionate and necessary. Pre-emptive action taken too far in advance of any anticipated breach is unlawful.
R (Begum) v Headteacher and Governors of Denbigh High School
[2006] UKHL 15 · House of Lords · 2006
The right to manifest religion under Article 9 ECHR can be lawfully restricted where the restriction is prescribed by law, pursues a legitimate aim, and is proportionate. The focus should be on whether the interference was justified, not on the decision-making process.
Miller v Miller; McFarlane v McFarlane
[2006] UKHL 24 · House of Lords · 2006
The three principles governing ancillary relief on divorce are: needs, compensation (for relationship-generated disadvantage), and sharing (of the fruits of the matrimonial partnership). Non-matrimonial property may be treated differently from matrimonial property.
Argos Ltd & Littlewoods Ltd v Office of Fair Trading
[2006] EWCA Civ 1318 · Court of Appeal · 2006
Price-fixing agreements between retailers facilitated by a supplier constitute horizontal concerted practices caught by the Chapter I prohibition, even when the communication passes through a vertical hub-and-spoke arrangement.
Jones v Ministry of the Interior of Saudi Arabia
[2006] UKHL 26 · House of Lords · 2006
State immunity under the State Immunity Act 1978 applies even where allegations of torture are made. International law does not currently recognise an exception to state immunity for civil claims based on torture.
Ali v Headteacher and Governors of Lord Grey School
[2006] UKHL 14 · House of Lords · 2006
Unlawful exclusion from school does not necessarily amount to a denial of the right to education under Article 2 of Protocol 1 ECHR, provided alternative educational provision is made available.
Barlow Clowes International Ltd v Eurotrust International Ltd
[2005] UKPC 37 · Privy Council · 2005
For dishonest assistance, the defendant must have knowledge of the facts making the transaction dishonest. It is not necessary that the defendant appreciated that what they were doing was dishonest by ordinary standards — it is sufficient that they were aware of the relevant facts.
Re Spectrum Plus Ltd (in liquidation)
[2005] UKHL 41 · House of Lords · 2005
A charge over book debts that allows the chargor to collect and use the proceeds of the debts in the ordinary course of business, without requiring them to be paid into a blocked account, is a floating charge, not a fixed charge, regardless of how the parties have labelled it. The essential characteristic of a fixed charge is that the chargor cannot deal with the charged assets without the chargee's consent.
R v Hasan
[2005] UKHL 22 · House of Lords · 2005
Duress is not available if the defendant voluntarily associated with criminals in circumstances where he ought reasonably to have foreseen compulsion by threats of violence.
Gregg v Scott
[2005] UKHL 2 · House of Lords · 2005
English law does not recognise a claim for loss of a chance of a better medical outcome. Where the claimant's pre-existing chance of a good outcome was less than 50%, the reduction of that chance by negligence does not give rise to a claim in negligence.
Bradley v Jockey Club
[2005] EWCA Civ 1056 · Court of Appeal · 2005
A sports regulatory body exercising quasi-public disciplinary functions must comply with the rules of natural justice. The relationship is contractual, and the court will imply a term that the body will act fairly.
Jameel v Dow Jones & Co Inc
[2005] QB 946 · Court of Appeal · 2005
A defamation action can be struck out as an abuse of process where the publication is so limited that no real or substantial tort has been committed (the 'Jameel abuse' principle). The game must be worth the candle.
Siliadin v France
(2005) 43 EHRR 16 · European Court of Human Rights · 2005
Article 4 ECHR (prohibition of slavery and forced labour) imposes positive obligations on states to penalise and prosecute effectively any act aimed at maintaining a person in a situation of slavery, servitude, or forced labour.
R v Goldstein; R v Rimmington
[2005] UKHL 63 · House of Lords · 2005
The common law offence of public nuisance requires that the nuisance materially affects the reasonable comfort and convenience of a class of the public. It is relevant to gambling law where unlicensed gambling activities create public nuisance.
A v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Belmarsh)
[2004] UKHL 56 · House of Lords · 2004
The indefinite detention without charge or trial of foreign nationals suspected of involvement in international terrorism, purportedly justified by a derogation from Article 5 ECHR, was incompatible with Articles 5 and 14 of the Convention. The derogation was not strictly required by the exigencies of the situation (Article 15 ECHR) because the power applied only to foreign nationals — British nationals suspected of the same activity were not detained — demonstrating that the measure was disproportionate. It also discriminated unlawfully on the ground of nationality. The courts have a constitutional function in scrutinising whether executive emergency powers are proportionate, even in matters of national security, though they afford the executive an appropriate margin of appreciation.
Ghaidan v Godin-Mendoza
[2004] UKHL 30 · House of Lords · 2004
Under s.3 of the Human Rights Act 1998, the court has a broad interpretive power to read and give effect to legislation in a way that is compatible with Convention rights, even if this departs from the ordinary meaning of the words. This power goes beyond mere ambiguity resolution.
Campbell v MGN Ltd
[2004] UKHL 22 · House of Lords · 2004
The tort of misuse of private information protects information in respect of which a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy. The court must balance the claimant's right to privacy (ECHR Article 8) against the defendant's right to freedom of expression (Article 10), applying a proportionality test.
R v Dica
[2004] EWCA Crim 1103 · Court of Appeal · 2004
A person who recklessly transmits a serious sexually transmitted disease (HIV) to a sexual partner, knowing they are infected and without disclosing their condition, can be convicted of inflicting grievous bodily harm under s.20 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861. Consent to sexual intercourse is not consent to the risk of infection where the complainant was unaware of the defendant's condition.
Kirin-Amgen Inc v Hoechst Marion Roussel Ltd
[2004] UKHL 46 · House of Lords · 2004
Patent claims should be interpreted purposively — ascertaining what a person skilled in the art would have understood the patentee to have used the language of the claim to mean. The Protocol on Interpretation of Article 69 EPC requires a position between strict literal and broad purposive construction.
Jindal Iron & Steel Co Ltd v Islamic Solidarity Shipping Co Jordan Inc (The Jordan II)
[2004] UKHL 49 · House of Lords · 2004
Under the Hague Rules, the carrier's obligation to properly and carefully load, handle, stow and discharge the goods cannot be delegated so as to relieve the carrier of responsibility.
R v Barnes
[2004] EWCA Crim 3246 · Court of Appeal · 2004
Consent to physical contact in sport extends to contacts that are within the rules and playing culture of the game, even if technically foul. Criminal liability arises only for conduct sufficiently grave to be characterised as criminal, outside the reasonable expectations of the sport.
R (Middleton) v West Somerset Coroner
[2004] UKHL 10 · House of Lords · 2004
Where Article 2 ECHR is engaged (deaths in state custody or involving state responsibility), an inquest must examine not just how (by what means) the deceased died, but in what circumstances, including the broader question of systemic failings.
Halsey v Milton Keynes General NHS Trust
[2004] EWCA Civ 576 · Court of Appeal · 2004
The court cannot compel parties to mediate, as that would be contrary to Article 6 ECHR. However, unreasonable refusal to mediate may be penalised in costs.
HL v United Kingdom (Bournewood)
(2004) 40 EHRR 32 · European Court of Human Rights · 2004
The informal admission of a compliant but incapacitated patient to a psychiatric hospital amounted to a deprivation of liberty under Article 5 ECHR, and the lack of procedural safeguards violated Article 5(4).
Arsenal Football Club plc v Reed
[2003] EWCA Civ 696 · Court of Appeal · 2003
Use of a registered trade mark on goods, even if perceived by the public as a badge of allegiance rather than an indication of trade origin, constitutes trade mark infringement if it affects the essential function of the trade mark — guaranteeing the identity of the origin of the goods.
R v G and Another
[2003] UKHL 50 · House of Lords · 2003
The test for recklessness in criminal damage under s.1 Criminal Damage Act 1971 is subjective, not objective. The defendant must have been subjectively aware of the risk of the relevant consequence (damage to property or endangerment of life) and it must have been unreasonable for them to take that risk given their circumstances. The objective Caldwell test of recklessness — which held that a defendant was reckless if an obvious risk existed and they either did not advert to it or recognised it and took it — was overruled as it was capable of producing unjust convictions and was inconsistent with the general principle that criminal responsibility requires proof of subjective fault. The Caldwell test had also excluded the 'lacuna' where a defendant truly gave no thought to the risk; under the correct subjective approach, if the defendant did not perceive the risk, they cannot be convicted of reckless criminal damage.
Tomlinson v Congleton Borough Council
[2003] UKHL 47 · House of Lords · 2003
Occupiers do not owe a duty to protect people from obvious risks that they willingly accept. The social value of keeping land accessible to the public is a relevant factor. The occupier's duty under the Occupiers' Liability Act 1984 does not extend to preventing competent adults from choosing to take obvious risks.
Shogun Finance Ltd v Hudson
[2003] UKHL 62 · House of Lords · 2003
In a written contract, the identity of the contracting parties is determined by the written document. A rogue who fraudulently assumes another's identity to obtain goods on hire purchase does not obtain title, and the innocent third-party purchaser from the rogue gets no title either.
Transco plc v Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
[2003] UKHL 61 · House of Lords · 2003
The rule in Rylands v Fletcher is a sub-species of nuisance, not a freestanding cause of action. It requires a non-natural use of land and an escape causing foreseeable damage. The rule should not be extended to cover damage to infrastructure on neighbouring land.
Aston Cantlow PCC v Wallbank
[2003] UKHL 37 · House of Lords · 2003
A parochial church council is not a 'public authority' within the meaning of section 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998 when enforcing chancel repair liability, because it is not exercising functions of a public nature in doing so.
Vento v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police
[2003] ICR 318 · Court of Appeal · 2003
Compensation for injury to feelings in discrimination cases should be awarded in three bands: a lower band for less serious cases, a middle band for serious cases that do not merit the highest award, and an upper band for the most serious cases.
Abbey Developments Ltd v PP Brickwork Ltd
[2003] EWHC 1987 (TCC) · High Court (TCC) · 2003
The adjudication enforcement regime under the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 requires compliance with an adjudicator's decision pending any final determination, even where there are arguable grounds for challenge.
Marcic v Thames Water Utilities Ltd
[2003] UKHL 66 · House of Lords · 2003
A sewerage undertaker's failure to prevent flooding is not actionable in nuisance or under the HRA where the statutory scheme (Water Industry Act 1991) provides its own enforcement mechanism through Ofwat.
Fairchild v Glenhaven Funeral Services Ltd
[2002] UKHL 22 · House of Lords · 2002
Where a claimant cannot prove which of several negligent defendants caused their injury (because each materially increased the risk), the 'but for' test of causation is modified. Each defendant who materially contributed to the risk is liable.
Grobbelaar v News Group Newspapers Ltd
[2002] UKHL 40 · House of Lords · 2002
A claimant who proves defamation but whose own conduct means he has suffered no real damage may be awarded only nominal damages. The House of Lords reduced the jury award from £85,000 to £1 for a footballer who won a libel claim but was found to have been involved in match-fixing corruption.
Pennington v Waine
[2002] EWCA Civ 227 · Court of Appeal · 2002
A gift of shares may be treated as complete in equity where it would be unconscionable for the donor to recall the gift, even if the donor has not done everything in their power to transfer legal title.
Beckmann v Dynamco Whicheloe Macfarlane Ltd
[2002] IRLR 578 (CJEU Case C-164/00) · Court of Justice of the European Communities · 2002
Early retirement and redundancy benefits payable under an occupational pension scheme are not excluded from the Transfer of Undertakings Regulations (TUPE) merely because they are paid from a pension scheme. Only old age, invalidity, and survivors' benefits are excluded.
R v Zezev
[2002] Crim LR 648 · Court of Appeal · 2002
Denial-of-service attacks against electronic communications systems constitute criminal offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and can be prosecuted even where the attack originates from abroad.
Lister v Hesley Hall Ltd
[2001] UKHL 22 · House of Lords · 2001
An employer is vicariously liable for the torts of an employee if there is a sufficiently close connection between the nature of the employment and the wrongful act. The 'close connection' test replaced the older Salmond test of whether the act was an unauthorised mode of performing an authorised act.
Re A (Children) (Conjoined Twins: Surgical Separation)
[2001] Fam 147 · Court of Appeal · 2001
The separation of conjoined twins, which would inevitably kill the weaker twin, was lawful. The operation was justified on the basis of necessity (the defence of others), as without it both twins would die. The doctors performing the operation would not be guilty of murder.
Attorney General v Blake
[2001] 1 AC 268 · House of Lords · 2001
In exceptional circumstances, the court may award an account of profits for breach of contract — ordering the contract-breaker to pay over the profits made from the breach — even though the innocent party has suffered no financial loss. This remedy is available where the claimant has a legitimate interest in preventing the defendant from profiting from the breach that cannot be adequately protected by damages, specific performance, or injunction.
Reynolds v Times Newspapers Ltd
[2001] 2 AC 127 · House of Lords · 2001
A new form of qualified privilege (later called 'Reynolds privilege') was available to the media where responsible journalism on a matter of public interest was practised. The court set out a non-exhaustive list of factors to assess whether publication was responsible.
Z v United Kingdom
(2001) 34 EHRR 97 · European Court of Human Rights · 2001
The failure of a local authority to protect children from severe neglect and abuse constituted a violation of Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment). The state has a positive obligation to protect individuals from treatment contrary to Article 3.
R v Lambert
[2001] UKHL 37 · House of Lords · 2001
Statutory reverse burdens of proof in criminal cases should be read down under s.3 HRA 1998 to impose only an evidential burden (duty to raise the issue) rather than a legal burden (duty to prove on the balance of probabilities), where imposing a legal burden would be disproportionate to the legislative aim.
R v Martin (Anthony)
[2001] EWCA Crim 2245 · Court of Appeal · 2001
Self-defence must be judged by the circumstances as the defendant honestly believed them to be. Psychiatric conditions affecting perception may be relevant to diminished responsibility.
Foskett v McKeown
[2001] 1 AC 102 · House of Lords · 2001
Tracing is a process of identifying trust property as it moves through different forms. Beneficiaries whose money has been used to pay premiums on a life insurance policy are entitled to a proportionate share of the policy proceeds.
R v Offen
[2001] 1 WLR 253 · Court of Appeal · 2001
The automatic life sentence provisions under s 2 Crime (Sentences) Act 1997 should be read compatibly with Article 5 ECHR. A life sentence is not required where the offender does not pose a significant risk to the public, even where the statutory criteria are met.
Modahl v British Athletic Federation Ltd
[2001] EWCA Civ 1447 · Court of Appeal · 2001
A sports governing body may be liable in negligence or breach of contract if its disciplinary procedures are fundamentally flawed, but demonstrating such a breach and causation of loss is difficult.
Watson v British Boxing Board of Control
[2001] QB 1134 · Court of Appeal · 2001
A sports governing body that assumes responsibility for the medical safety of participants owes them a duty of care. If the body's rules require medical provision, it must ensure that provision is adequate.
R v Hinks
[2001] 2 AC 241 · House of Lords · 2001
Appropriation for the purposes of theft can occur even where the owner consents to the transfer and the recipient obtains indefeasible title. The concept of appropriation is neutral — it is dishonesty that makes the conduct criminal.
R (Daly) v Secretary of State for the Home Department
[2001] UKHL 26 · House of Lords · 2001
A blanket policy requiring prisoners to be absent from their cells during searches of legally privileged correspondence is unlawful. Proportionality requires a more nuanced approach than Wednesbury unreasonableness.
Al-Adsani v United Kingdom
(2001) 34 EHRR 11 · European Court of Human Rights · 2001
The grant of state immunity in civil proceedings for acts of torture does not violate Article 6 ECHR (right to a fair trial). State immunity serves a legitimate aim and is proportionate.
Horvath v Secretary of State for the Home Department
[2001] 1 AC 489 · House of Lords · 2001
The test for sufficiency of protection in asylum cases is whether the state provides a reasonable level of protection — not a guarantee of safety. A functioning system of criminal law and a willingness to enforce it is sufficient.
White v White
[2001] 1 AC 596 · House of Lords · 2000
In determining financial provision on divorce, there should be no discrimination between a breadwinner and a homemaker. The court should check any tentative award against the 'yardstick of equality' to ensure there is no discrimination. Departure from equality requires good reason.
Bruton v London & Quadrant Housing Trust
[2000] 1 AC 406 · House of Lords · 2000
A tenancy can be granted by a person who does not themselves hold an estate in the land. The grant of exclusive possession for a term at a rent creates a tenancy as between the parties, even if the grantor is only a licensee of the freeholder.
Jolley v Sutton London Borough Council
[2000] 1 WLR 1082 · House of Lords · 2000
For the purposes of both negligence and the Occupiers' Liability Act 1957, foreseeability of harm is assessed at the level of the type or kind of harm, not the precise mechanism by which it occurs. Where it is foreseeable that children will be attracted to a hazardous object and will meddle with it and sustain injury, the occupier's duty is not discharged merely because the accident occurred in a way that was not precisely anticipated. The breadth of the foreseeable risk determines liability, and an unusual or unexpected manner of injury does not negative causation if the general kind of risk was present and the injury was of a type that could reasonably be foreseen.
Re Barings plc (No 5)
[2000] 1 BCLC 523 · Court of Appeal · 2000
A director who fails to acquire and maintain a sufficient knowledge and understanding of the company's business to enable proper discharge of duties may be found unfit to be a director. Directors have a duty to inform themselves about the affairs of the company.
Designers Guild Ltd v Russell Williams (Textiles) Ltd
[2000] 1 WLR 2416 · House of Lords · 2000
Copyright infringement requires proof that the defendant copied a substantial part of the claimant's work. Substantiality is assessed qualitatively, not merely quantitatively. The question is whether the copied features constitute an original intellectual creation.
Lancashire County Council v B
[2000] 2 AC 147 · House of Lords · 2000
For the threshold criteria under s.31 Children Act 1989, where the court cannot identify which carer caused the harm, it is sufficient that the harm was caused by one of the carers. The 'uncertain perpetrator' principle allows care proceedings to continue without identifying the specific abuser.
R v Woollin
[1999] 1 AC 82 · House of Lords · 1999
Where a defendant did not directly intend a result but the result was a virtually certain consequence of the defendant's actions, and the defendant appreciated that this was so, the jury is entitled to find (but is not required to find) that the defendant had the necessary intention. The word 'find' should be used rather than 'infer', correcting the direction in R v Nedrick [1986].
White v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police
[1999] 2 AC 455 · House of Lords · 1999
Police officers who attended the Hillsborough disaster as employees were not entitled to recover for psychiatric injury as rescuers unless they were in physical danger themselves. There is no special duty owed to rescuers for psychiatric harm where they are not exposed to personal danger.
Banque Financière de la Cité v Parc (Battersea) Ltd
[1999] 1 AC 221 · House of Lords · 1999
A lender who discharges a secured debt of the borrower may be subrogated to the rights of the original secured creditor, even where there is no contractual or consensual basis for subrogation. Subrogation is a restitutionary remedy to prevent unjust enrichment.
Kleinwort Benson Ltd v Lincoln City Council
[1999] 2 AC 349 · House of Lords · 1999
Money paid under a mistake of law is recoverable in a claim for restitution, just as money paid under a mistake of fact. The old rule barring recovery for mistakes of law was abolished.
Harmon CFEM Facades (UK) Ltd v Corporate Officer of the House of Commons
[1999] 67 Con LR 1 · Technology and Construction Court · 1999
A contracting authority that breaches the EU procurement rules by treating a tenderer unequally is liable in damages for the tenderer's wasted costs and loss of profit.
R v Bournewood Community and Mental Health NHS Trust, ex parte L
[1999] 1 AC 458 · House of Lords · 1999
An informal (compliant but incapacitated) patient could be detained under the common law doctrine of necessity without recourse to the Mental Health Act 1983, creating a gap in safeguards later addressed by the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards.
Osman v DPP
[1999] 163 JP 725 · Queen's Bench Divisional Court · 1999
A lawful stop and search under s.1 PACE 1984 requires the officer to have reasonable grounds for suspicion based on objective factors relating to the individual, not merely the area or time of day. A search conducted without proper grounds renders any evidence inadmissible.
R v Aspinall
[1999] 2 Cr App R 115 · Court of Appeal · 1999
Evidence obtained from a mentally disordered or mentally vulnerable suspect interviewed without an appropriate adult present, as required by PACE Code C, is likely to be excluded under s.76 or s.78 PACE 1984 as unreliable or unfair.
Empress Car Company (Abertillery) Ltd v National Rivers Authority
[1999] 2 AC 22 · House of Lords · 1999
The offence of causing polluting matter to enter controlled waters under the Water Resources Act 1991 is one of strict liability. A person 'causes' pollution if they maintain something which, combined with a foreseeable act of a third party or natural event, results in pollution.
Buchanan v Milton
[1999] 2 FLR 844 · High Court · 1999
There is no property in a dead body. The person with the highest claim to administer the estate has the right and duty to arrange for the disposal of the body.
Osman v United Kingdom
(1998) 29 EHRR 245 · European Court of Human Rights · 1998
The state has a positive obligation under Article 2 (right to life) to take preventive operational measures to protect an individual whose life is at risk from the criminal acts of another, where the authorities knew or ought to have known of a real and immediate risk to life and failed to take reasonable measures.
Mullin v Richards
[1998] 1 WLR 1304 · Court of Appeal · 1998
The standard of care expected of a child defendant is that of a reasonably careful child of the same age, not that of a reasonable adult. The question is whether an ordinarily prudent and reasonable child of that age would have foreseen the risk.
Investors Compensation Scheme Ltd v West Bromwich Building Society
[1998] 1 WLR 896 · House of Lords · 1998
Contractual interpretation is an objective exercise ascertaining the meaning a reasonable person with all the background knowledge available to the parties would give to the language used. The background includes anything that would have affected the way the language would have been understood by a reasonable man, but excludes prior negotiations and declarations of subjective intent.
Malik v Bank of Credit and Commerce International SA
[1998] AC 20 · House of Lords · 1998
There is an implied term of mutual trust and confidence in every employment contract. The employer must not, without reasonable and proper cause, conduct itself in a manner calculated or likely to destroy or seriously damage the relationship of trust and confidence between employer and employee.
Bolitho v City and Hackney Health Authority
[1998] AC 232 · House of Lords · 1998
The Bolam test requires the body of medical opinion relied upon to have a logical basis. The court is not bound to accept expert evidence that is not capable of withstanding logical analysis, even if held by a responsible body of practitioners.
R v Brewster
[1998] 1 Cr App R 220 · Court of Appeal · 1998
When suspending a sentence of imprisonment, the court must consider whether the case meets the custody threshold and then whether there are factors that justify suspension. A suspended sentence is still a sentence of imprisonment and should not be imposed lightly.
Re BCCI (No 8)
[1998] AC 214 · House of Lords · 1998
A bank has a valid charge over a customer's deposits with the bank itself as security for the customer's liabilities. This is not inconsistent with the principle that a person cannot owe a debt to themselves.
Hunter v Canary Wharf Ltd
[1997] AC 655 · House of Lords · 1997
Private nuisance is a tort that protects interests in land. Only a person with a proprietary interest in the affected land — such as an owner, tenant, or holder of an exclusive licence — has standing to sue in private nuisance. A mere licensee, spouse of an owner, or person with a purely personal right of occupation has no cause of action. Furthermore, interference with television reception caused by the erection of a substantial building is not actionable in nuisance, by analogy with blocking of a view, because neither an unobstructed view nor an unobstructed television signal is a legal right attaching to land.
R (Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants) v Secretary of State for the Home Department
[1997] 1 WLR 275 · Court of Appeal · 1997
Regulations that deny welfare benefits to asylum seekers who fail to claim asylum on arrival render the right to claim asylum under the Refugee Convention nugatory and are therefore ultra vires.
Ruxley Electronics and Construction Ltd v Forsyth
[1996] AC 344 · House of Lords · 1996
Where a contract for building works specifies a particular standard or dimension, but the works are carried out defectively, the appropriate measure of damages depends on what would be reasonable in all the circumstances. The cost of reinstatement — rebuilding to the contractual specification — is the prima facie measure but will not be awarded if it is out of all proportion to the benefit which the reinstatement would produce. Where reinstatement is disproportionate, the court may award instead damages for diminution in value (often zero where the defect does not affect market value) or damages for loss of amenity, which reflects the personal value the innocent party places on the contractual performance beyond its market value — the 'consumer surplus'. This last head of damage is a recognition that a consumer who bargains for a particular performance has a genuine non-market interest in receiving exactly what was promised.
Page v Smith
[1996] AC 155 · House of Lords · 1996
A primary victim (someone within the range of foreseeable physical injury) can recover for psychiatric illness even if physical injury was foreseeable but psychiatric injury was not. There is no need to show that psychiatric injury itself was foreseeable for a primary victim.
R v Preddy
[1996] AC 815 · House of Lords · 1996
A mortgage advance obtained by deception did not constitute 'obtaining property belonging to another' under s.15 Theft Act 1968 because the bank transfer created a new chose in action rather than transferring existing property. This lacuna led directly to the Theft Act 1978 amendment and ultimately the Fraud Act 2006.
Re H (Minors) (Sexual Abuse: Standard of Proof)
[1996] AC 563 · House of Lords · 1996
In care proceedings, the threshold conditions must be established on the balance of probabilities. Suspicion alone, however strong, is not enough — there must be facts proved to the requisite standard that give rise to a real possibility of future harm.
R v Adomako
[1994] UKHL 6; [1995] 1 AC 171 · House of Lords · 1995
Gross negligence manslaughter is committed where: (1) the defendant owed the deceased a duty of care under the ordinary common-law principles of negligence; (2) the defendant breached that duty; (3) the breach caused the death of the victim; and (4) the breach was so gross — that is, so far below the standard reasonably expected — that it ought, in the jury's judgment, to be characterised as a crime rather than a mere civil wrong. The question whether the negligence was 'gross' is one for the jury, applying the ordinary objective standard of a reasonably competent person carrying out the defendant's role; recklessness in the Caldwell sense is not required, nor is any subjective awareness of risk. The Adomako test replaced the recklessness-based formulation in R v Seymour [1983] 2 AC 493 for non-motor manslaughter.
Royal Brunei Airlines v Tan
[1995] 2 AC 378 · Privy Council · 1995
A defendant who dishonestly assists a trustee to commit a breach of trust is personally liable to the beneficiaries as an accessory, even if the trustee was not dishonest. The critical requirement for accessory liability is the dishonesty of the assisting third party, not the dishonesty of the trustee. Dishonesty is assessed objectively: the question is whether the defendant's conduct was dishonest by the standards of ordinary honest people, judged against the defendant's actual knowledge of the circumstances. A person who deliberately closes their eyes to obvious facts or who assists with reckless indifference is dishonest.
Henderson v Merrett Syndicates Ltd
[1995] 2 AC 145 · House of Lords · 1995
A duty of care in tort may exist concurrently with contractual obligations. Where a person assumes responsibility for providing professional services and another relies on that assumption of responsibility, a tortious duty of care arises regardless of any contractual framework.
White v Jones
[1995] 2 AC 207 · House of Lords · 1995
A solicitor retained by a testator to prepare a will owes a duty of care to the intended beneficiaries. If the solicitor's negligence results in the beneficiaries receiving less than intended, they may recover damages in tort.
R v Kingston
[1995] 2 AC 355 · House of Lords · 1995
Involuntary intoxication is not a defence to a criminal charge if the defendant still formed the necessary mens rea. A drugged intent is still an intent. The fact that the defendant would not have committed the offence but for being surreptitiously drugged does not negative the mens rea.
R v Secretary of State for the Home Department, ex parte Fire Brigades Union
[1995] 2 AC 513 · House of Lords · 1995
A minister cannot use prerogative powers to frustrate the will of Parliament by introducing a scheme that effectively prevents a statutory scheme from being brought into force.
R v Somerset County Council, ex parte Fewings
[1995] 1 All ER 513 · Court of Appeal · 1995
Public bodies can only do what they are lawfully authorised to do. Unlike private individuals, they have no general freedom of action — they must point to a specific power authorising their actions.
R v Makanjuola
[1995] 1 WLR 1348 · Court of Appeal · 1995
Following the abolition of mandatory corroboration warnings by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, it remains open to a judge to give a warning about the reliability of a witness where appropriate, but such warnings are discretionary, not mandatory.
Spring v Guardian Assurance plc
[1995] 2 AC 296 · House of Lords · 1995
An employer owes a duty of care to an employee or former employee when providing a reference. A negligently prepared reference causing economic loss to the subject is actionable in negligence.
Re Selectmove Ltd
[1995] 1 WLR 474 · Court of Appeal · 1995
A promise to pay an existing debt by instalments is not supported by consideration, following the rule in Foakes v Beer. The practical benefit approach from Williams v Roffey Bros does not extend to promises to pay existing debts.
Union Royale Belge des Sociétés de Football Association ASBL v Bosman
Case C-415/93 [1995] ECR I-4921 · Court of Justice of the European Communities · 1995
Rules requiring transfer fees for out-of-contract players, and rules limiting the number of EU nationals a club may field, constitute restrictions on the free movement of workers contrary to what is now Article 45 TFEU.
R v Coroner for North Humberside, ex parte Jamieson
[1995] QB 1 · Court of Appeal · 1995
An inquest is an inquisitorial fact-finding process and not a means of determining criminal or civil liability. The verdict must not appear to determine any such liability.
Tesco Stores Ltd v Secretary of State for the Environment
[1995] 1 WLR 759 · House of Lords · 1995
Planning obligations (s.106 agreements) are material considerations in determining planning applications. However, the weight to be given to such obligations is a matter for the decision-maker, and they must be fairly and reasonably related to the development.
Cambridge Water Co v Eastern Counties Leather plc
[1994] 2 AC 264 · House of Lords · 1994
Foreseeability of damage of the relevant type is a prerequisite for liability under the rule in Rylands v Fletcher and in nuisance. The rule in Rylands v Fletcher is a sub-species of nuisance and should be developed in that context. Strict liability does not mean liability for unforeseeable consequences.
R v Brown
[1994] 1 AC 212 · House of Lords · 1994
Consent is not a defence to the infliction of actual bodily harm or more serious injury for the purpose of sadomasochistic activities. The House of Lords held (by a 3–2 majority) that public policy required that consent should not be available as a defence to what would otherwise be assaults occasioning actual bodily harm under s.47 OAPA 1861, where the purpose of the activity was the satisfaction of sadomasochistic desires.
City of London Corporation v Fell
[1994] 1 AC 458 · House of Lords · 1994
An original tenant's liability in contract on the covenants of a lease is co-extensive with the contractual term the parties agreed. Where a lease is assigned and the assignee then holds over under the statutory continuation in Part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, the original tenant is not liable for rent accruing during that statutory continuation, because a covenant to pay rent 'during the term' refers only to the contractual term and not to the statutory extension.
Airedale NHS Trust v Bland
[1993] AC 789 · House of Lords · 1993
It is lawful to withdraw life-sustaining treatment (including artificial nutrition and hydration) from a patient in a persistent vegetative state where it is in the patient's best interests, provided the court's prior approval is obtained. The withdrawal is properly characterised as an omission, not a positive act.
Pepper (Inspector of Taxes) v Hart
[1992] UKHL 3; [1993] AC 593 · House of Lords · 1993
The strict exclusionary rule against reference to Parliamentary materials in statutory interpretation (established in Davis v Johnson [1979] AC 264 and earlier authority) is relaxed. Where primary legislation is (a) ambiguous or obscure, or its literal meaning would lead to absurdity, AND (b) the material relied upon consists of one or more clear statements by a minister or other promoter of the Bill (together where necessary with such other Parliamentary material as is required to understand those statements and their effect), AND (c) the statements relied upon are themselves clear, then the court may have regard to those statements as an aid to ascertaining the intention of Parliament. Article 9 of the Bill of Rights 1689 does not prohibit such use of Hansard, because it is not for the purpose of impeaching or questioning proceedings in Parliament but merely as an extrinsic aid to construing the legislation Parliament passed.
Re Atlantic Computer Systems plc
[1992] Ch 505 · Court of Appeal · 1992
The court established guidelines for the exercise of discretion to grant leave to proceed against a company in administration. The administrator's proposals should normally be given a chance to succeed, but the rights of a lessor or owner of property in the possession of the company should be respected unless the administrator can show a compelling reason to override them.
R v Gotts
[1992] 2 AC 412 · House of Lords · 1992
Duress is not available as a defence to a charge of attempted murder. The reasoning in R v Howe [1987] AC 417 — that the taking of an innocent life cannot be justified by duress because society's interest in the protection of life outweighs the individual's interest in self-preservation — applies equally where the victim does not die. It would be illogical and incoherent to permit duress as a defence to the lesser charge of attempted murder while excluding it from the complete offence of murder. The defence of necessity was also held unavailable on similar grounds.
Alcock v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police
[1992] 1 AC 310 · House of Lords · 1992
A secondary victim claiming for psychiatric injury caused by witnessing an accident must satisfy proximity requirements: (1) a close tie of love and affection with the primary victim; (2) proximity in time and space to the accident or its immediate aftermath; (3) perception of the accident with their own unaided senses.
Owens Bank Ltd v Bracco
[1992] 2 AC 443 · House of Lords · 1992
A foreign judgment obtained by fraud cannot be enforced in England. The fraud exception to recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments is not limited to fraud discovered after the original proceedings.
City Index Ltd v Leslie
[1992] QB 98 · Court of Appeal · 1992
Spread betting contracts are not void as wagering contracts under the Gaming Act 1845 because they are contracts for differences, not wagers on the outcome of events.
Williams v Roffey Bros & Nicholls (Contractors) Ltd
[1991] 1 QB 1 · Court of Appeal · 1991
Where a party to an existing contract promises additional payment in return for the other party's promise to perform existing contractual obligations, and the promisor thereby obtains a practical benefit or avoids a disbenefit, this practical benefit is capable of constituting good consideration, provided there is no economic duress.
Murphy v Brentwood District Council
[1991] 1 AC 398 · House of Lords · 1991
A local authority owes no duty of care in negligence to a purchaser of a house for the cost of repairing defects in the building arising from inadequate foundations approved by the authority under its building control powers. The damage sustained is pure economic loss — a defect in quality — which is not recoverable in tort. The House of Lords expressly overruled Anns v Merton London Borough Council [1978] AC 728. A defective building that has not yet caused physical injury to person or property is not damaged property in the tortious sense; it is simply a building worth less than was paid for it. The loss is purely economic and falls outside the scope of the Donoghue v Stevenson duty of care.
R v Cheshire
[1991] 1 WLR 844 · Court of Appeal · 1991
The defendant's act need not be the sole or even the main cause of death; it is sufficient that it contributed significantly to the result. Only if the original wound has healed and the medical treatment is so independent of the defendant's acts and so potent in causing death that the contribution of the defendant's acts is insignificant will the chain of causation be broken.
R v Secretary of State for Transport, ex parte Factortame Ltd (No 2)
[1991] 1 AC 603 · House of Lords · 1991
By the European Communities Act 1972, Parliament supremely and deliberately chose to give precedence to directly enforceable Community law over inconsistent domestic legislation. English courts must therefore, where they find a rule of national law to conflict with directly enforceable Community law, disapply that domestic rule — even if it is contained in an Act of Parliament. Courts also have jurisdiction to grant interim relief by way of injunction against the Crown to protect putative Community rights pending full determination, notwithstanding the Crown Proceedings Act 1947. This was a constitutional watershed: for the first time a domestic court suspended the operation of a primary Act of Parliament.
Lloyds Bank plc v Rosset
[1991] 1 AC 107 · House of Lords · 1991
A beneficial interest in property held in another's sole name can be established through a constructive trust in two ways only. First, where there is evidence of an express common intention to share beneficial ownership, accompanied by detrimental reliance on that common intention by the claimant. Second, where in the absence of any express discussion, a common intention can be inferred solely from direct contributions to the purchase price — by payment of the deposit or mortgage instalments — from which an intention to share beneficially can be inferred. Indirect contributions (such as household expenses, renovations, or domestic labour) that allow the other party to pay the mortgage are insufficient to raise an inference of shared common intention in sole-name cases.
R v Registrar of Companies, ex parte Attorney General
[1991] BCLC 476 · Queen's Bench Division · 1991
A company registered for an unlawful purpose (in this case, prostitution) may be struck off the register. The Registrar has a duty to refuse or cancel registration where the company's objects are wholly unlawful.
Lipkin Gorman v Karpnale Ltd
[1991] 2 AC 548 · House of Lords · 1991
English law recognises a cause of action in unjust enrichment (restitution) at common law. The defence of change of position is available where the defendant has changed their position in good faith in reliance on the receipt.
Imperial Group Pension Trust Ltd v Imperial Tobacco Ltd
[1991] 1 WLR 589 · High Court (Chancery Division) · 1991
An employer exercising powers under a pension scheme is subject to an implied duty of good faith — it must not exercise its powers for an improper purpose or perversely.
Caparo Industries plc v Dickman
[1990] UKHL 2; [1990] 2 AC 605 · House of Lords · 1990
A duty of care in the tort of negligence arises only where three conditions are simultaneously satisfied: (1) the harm caused was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the defendant's conduct; (2) there was a sufficient relationship of 'proximity' or 'neighbourhood' between the claimant and the defendant; and (3) the court considers it fair, just and reasonable to impose a duty of a given scope in the circumstances. The three-stage test rejected the broader two-stage Anns v Merton London Borough Council [1978] AC 728 approach, and emphasised that novel duties should be developed incrementally and by analogy with established categories. In the specific context of careless statements causing pure economic loss, a duty arises only where the maker of the statement knew or ought to have known that the particular claimant would rely on the statement for a particular purpose, and did so rely.
Adams v Cape Industries plc
[1990] Ch 433 · Court of Appeal · 1990
The corporate veil will only be lifted in limited circumstances: where the company is a mere façade concealing the true facts, where a company is an agent of its parent, or where statute authorises it. The fact that a subsidiary is wholly owned and controlled by a parent does not, without more, justify piercing the corporate veil.
Smith v Eric S Bush
[1990] 1 AC 831 · House of Lords · 1990
A valuer instructed by a building society to value a modest residential property owes a duty of care to the purchaser, even though the valuer's contract is with the building society, because the valuer knows that the purchaser will rely on the valuation. A disclaimer purporting to exclude liability for negligent valuation fails the reasonableness test under the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977.
Barber v Guardian Royal Exchange Assurance Group
[1990] ICR 616 (CJEU Case C-262/88) · Court of Justice of the European Communities · 1990
Occupational pension benefits constitute 'pay' within the meaning of Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome (now Article 157 TFEU). Unequal pensionable ages for men and women in occupational pension schemes therefore breach the principle of equal pay.
Interfoto Picture Library Ltd v Stiletto Visual Programmes Ltd
[1989] QB 433 · Court of Appeal · 1989
If a condition in a contract is particularly onerous or unusual, the party seeking to enforce it must show that it was fairly and reasonably brought to the other party's attention. Failure to give adequate notice means the clause is not incorporated.
Polkey v AE Dayton Services Ltd
[1988] AC 344 · House of Lords · 1988
An employer dismissing an employee for redundancy or misconduct cannot escape a finding of unfair dismissal by arguing that following a fair procedure would have made no difference to the outcome. Whether the procedure followed was fair is to be assessed by what the employer did, not by what the result would have been had the employer done otherwise. The 'no difference' rule — that procedural failures are irrelevant if the outcome would have been the same — was overruled. However, if on the evidence the tribunal concludes that the employee would or might have been dismissed even if a fair procedure had been followed, it may reduce compensation to reflect that chance, and may even reduce it to nil.
Wilsher v Essex Area Health Authority
[1988] AC 1074 · House of Lords · 1988
Where there are multiple possible causes of the claimant's injury, the claimant must prove on the balance of probabilities that the defendant's negligence was a cause. It is not sufficient to show that the defendant's negligence was one of several possible causes.
R v Gold; R v Schifreen
[1988] AC 1063 · House of Lords · 1988
Unauthorised access to a computer system by using stolen credentials did not constitute an offence under the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981 because a password is not a 'false instrument'. This case exposed a gap in the law and directly led to the enactment of the Computer Misuse Act 1990.
West Mercia Safetywear Ltd v Dodd
[1988] BCLC 250 · Court of Appeal · 1988
When a company is insolvent or of doubtful solvency, directors owe a duty to have regard to the interests of creditors. A director who causes the company to act to the detriment of creditors may be required to make good the loss.
R v Samuel
[1988] QB 615 · Court of Appeal · 1988
The right of access to legal advice under s.58 PACE 1984 is a fundamental right. Delay can only be authorised under s.58(8) where the officer has reasonable grounds to believe access to a solicitor will lead to specific harms (alerting accomplices, hindering recovery of evidence). The grounds must relate to the specific solicitor, not solicitors in general.
Spiliada Maritime Corp v Cansulex Ltd
[1987] AC 460 · House of Lords · 1987
A stay of English proceedings on grounds of forum non conveniens will be granted where the defendant shows that there is another available forum which is clearly more appropriate for the trial of the action. The court considers connecting factors (location of evidence, applicable law, residence of parties) and whether justice requires the case to be tried in England.
R v Howe
[1987] AC 417 · House of Lords · 1987
Duress is not available as a defence to murder, whether as a principal or as an aider and abettor. A person who takes an innocent life cannot invoke threats to their own life as a defence.
Re St Stephen Walbrook
[1987] Fam 146 · Court of Ecclesiastical Causes Reserved · 1987
A faculty could be granted to install a Henry Moore altar (a large circular stone sculpture) in a Wren church, notwithstanding that it departed from traditional altar design, provided the change served the needs of worship and was consistent with the character of the building.
Smith v Littlewoods Organisation Ltd
[1987] AC 241 · House of Lords · 1987
As a general rule, the common law does not impose a duty of care to prevent a third party from causing damage to another. Omissions that permit a third party to harm do not usually ground liability. However, exceptions arise where (a) the defendant has assumed control over the third party; (b) the defendant created or adopted the source of danger on their property which the third party then ignited or set in motion; or (c) the defendant had actual knowledge of a specific risk of fire or other harm and failed to act. Without one of these factors, mere ownership or occupation of property does not give rise to a duty to guard against the independent criminal acts of strangers.
R v Andrews
[1987] AC 281 · House of Lords · 1987
A statement made by a person so shortly after an event and in circumstances so closely associated with it that the mind was still dominated by the event is admissible as a res gestae statement, provided there was no possibility of concoction or distortion.
Gillick v West Norfolk and Wisbech Area Health Authority
[1986] AC 112 · House of Lords · 1986
A child under 16 can consent to medical treatment (including contraceptive advice and treatment) without parental knowledge or consent, provided the child has sufficient understanding and intelligence to fully understand what is proposed. This is known as 'Gillick competence'. Parental rights diminish as the child matures and are justified only insofar as they are needed for the child's protection.
R v Nedrick
[1986] 1 WLR 1025 · Court of Appeal · 1986
For the purposes of murder, where the defendant's purpose was not to kill or cause grievous bodily harm, the jury may find the requisite specific intent only if they are satisfied that: (a) death or serious bodily harm was a virtual certainty as a result of the defendant's act; and (b) the defendant appreciated that this was the case. This 'virtual certainty' test restricts oblique intent to a narrow category. Even where both elements are satisfied, the jury is not compelled to find intent — they may, but are not required to, infer it. The inference is a permissive one that the jury draws from facts as found, not a mandatory legal conclusion.
Street v Mountford
[1985] AC 809 · House of Lords · 1985
The grant of exclusive possession of residential premises for a term at a rent creates a tenancy regardless of how the parties label their agreement. The substance of the arrangement, not its form, determines whether a tenancy exists.
Council of Civil Service Unions v Minister for the Civil Service
[1985] AC 374 · House of Lords · 1985
The exercise of powers derived from the royal prerogative is, in principle, subject to judicial review in the same way as powers derived from statute, provided the subject matter is justiciable. The grounds for judicial review are threefold: (1) illegality — the decision-maker must correctly understand and apply the law; (2) irrationality — a decision so unreasonable that no reasonable decision-maker could have reached it (Wednesbury unreasonableness); and (3) procedural impropriety — failure to observe procedural requirements or the rules of natural justice. However, where the executive invokes national security as a ground for withholding or modifying the ordinary procedural requirements (such as consultation), the courts will not lightly interfere, as the executive is better placed to assess the security implications.
Antaios Compania Naviera SA v Salen Rederierna AB (The Antaios)
[1985] AC 191 · House of Lords · 1985
Where, in the process of construing a commercial contract, there are two competing interpretations and one produces a commercially absurd result while the other produces a result consistent with business common sense, the court should prefer the latter. A detailed semantic and syntactical analysis of the words of a contract which leads to a commercially absurd conclusion must give way to business common sense. The case also confirmed the scope of arbitration appeals on questions of law under the Arbitration Act 1979: the House of Lords has jurisdiction to hear such appeals from arbitrators only on questions of law, not questions of fact.
R v Lloyd
[1985] QB 829 · Court of Appeal · 1985
A temporary borrowing of property does not amount to an intention permanently to deprive the owner within s.6 of the Theft Act 1968 unless the intention is to return the thing only after all its 'goodness, virtue, or practical value' has been taken out of it. Merely making use of property and returning it substantially intact is not theft, even if done dishonestly and without consent.
Rhesa Shipping Co SA v Edmunds (The Popi M)
[1985] 1 WLR 948 · House of Lords · 1985
In a case where the cause of a vessel's loss is unknown, the court is not required to choose between two improbable explanations. The burden of proof remains on the claimant, and if neither explanation is established on the balance of probabilities, the claim fails.
Cowan v Scargill
[1985] Ch 270 · High Court (Chancery Division) · 1985
Pension fund trustees must exercise their investment powers in the best financial interests of the beneficiaries. They must not allow their personal views (including political or moral beliefs) to influence investment decisions to the detriment of the fund.
Burns v Burns
[1984] Ch 317 · Court of Appeal · 1984
An unmarried cohabitant who makes no financial contribution to the purchase price or mortgage of a property has no beneficial interest under a resulting or constructive trust, even after 17 years of cohabitation and significant domestic contributions.
Amin Rasheed Shipping Corp v Kuwait Insurance Co
[1984] AC 50 · House of Lords · 1984
The proper law of a contract is the system of law with which the transaction has its closest and most real connection, determined objectively where the parties have not made an express choice.
Mandla v Dowell Lee
[1983] 2 AC 548 · House of Lords · 1983
Sikhs constitute an ethnic group within the meaning of the Race Relations Act 1976. To qualify as an ethnic group, a community must regard itself, and be regarded by others, as a distinct community by virtue of certain characteristics, of which a long shared history and a cultural tradition of its own are essential.
R v Pagett
(1983) 76 Cr App R 279 · Court of Appeal · 1983
The reasonable act of a third party acting in self-defence or in the execution of duty does not break the chain of causation. The defendant who creates the dangerous situation remains the legal cause of the victim's death.
Iceland Frozen Foods Ltd v Jones
[1983] ICR 17 · Employment Appeal Tribunal · 1983
The function of the tribunal in unfair dismissal cases is to determine whether the dismissal fell within the range of reasonable responses open to a reasonable employer, not to substitute its own view of the right course to adopt.
Aktieselskabet de Danske Sukkerfabrikker v Bajamar Compania Naviera SA (The Torenia)
[1983] 2 Lloyd's Rep 210 · Queen's Bench Division (Commercial Court) · 1983
A time charterer is liable for the consequences of nominating an unsafe port, even if the unsafety could not have been anticipated at the time of nomination, unless the master could have avoided the danger by reasonable action.
Raymond v Honey
[1983] 1 AC 1 · House of Lords · 1983
A convicted prisoner retains all civil rights which are not taken away expressly or by necessary implication. A prison governor has no authority to impede a prisoner's right of access to the courts.
R v Ghosh
[1982] QB 1053 · Court of Appeal · 1982
Under the Theft Act 1968, dishonesty is a component of the offence of theft and related offences. The Ghosh test for dishonesty was: (1) was what the defendant did dishonest according to the ordinary standards of reasonable and honest people? (2) if yes, did the defendant himself realise that what he was doing was by those standards dishonest? Both limbs had to be satisfied for a finding of dishonesty. However, the second (subjective) limb of the Ghosh test was subsequently held to be wrong by the Supreme Court in Ivey v Genting Casinos (UK) Ltd [2017] UKSC 67, which held that dishonesty in both civil and criminal law is assessed by a single objective test: what the defendant knew about the circumstances, judged by the standards of ordinary decent people. The Ghosh test therefore no longer represents the law, though it was applied for 35 years.
Jobling v Associated Dairies Ltd
[1982] AC 794 · House of Lords · 1982
Where a non-tortious supervening event (such as a naturally occurring illness) overtakes the original injury and would have produced the same disability regardless, the first tortfeasor's liability is limited to the period before the supervening event.
R v Graham
[1982] 1 WLR 294 · Court of Appeal · 1982
The defence of duress requires: (1) genuine fear of death or serious injury; (2) a sober person of reasonable firmness sharing the defendant's characteristics would have responded the same way.
R v Caldwell
[1982] AC 341 · House of Lords · 1982
Recklessness for criminal damage included objective situations where the defendant either recognised a risk and unreasonably took it, or failed to give any thought to an obvious risk ('Caldwell recklessness').
W T Ramsay Ltd v IRC
[1982] AC 300 · House of Lords · 1982
Where a transaction is carried out as a series of pre-ordained steps with no commercial purpose other than tax avoidance, the court should look at the composite transaction as a whole rather than each step in isolation.
Williams & Glyn's Bank v Boland
[1981] AC 487 · House of Lords · 1981
A person in actual occupation of registered land has an overriding interest that binds a purchaser, even if the purchaser did not know of the occupation. A spouse who has contributed to the purchase price and is in actual occupation has a beneficial interest that constitutes an overriding interest.
Bunge Corporation v Tradax Export SA
[1981] 1 WLR 711 · House of Lords · 1981
In mercantile contracts, time stipulations are generally conditions, breach of which entitles the innocent party to terminate regardless of the seriousness of the consequences. Certainty is of paramount importance in commercial transactions.
Attorney General v BBC
[1981] AC 303 · House of Lords · 1981
The Contempt of Court Act 1981 strict liability rule applies only to publications creating a substantial risk of serious prejudice to active proceedings. A mere incidental risk is insufficient.
Photo Production Ltd v Securicor Transport Ltd
[1980] AC 827 · House of Lords · 1980
An exclusion clause in a commercial contract between parties of equal bargaining strength can be effective to exclude liability even for a fundamental breach or a deliberate wrongful act by the defendant's employee, provided on a true construction of the contract the clause covers the breach. There is no rule of law that a fundamental breach automatically displaces an exclusion clause; the matter is always one of contractual construction. The House of Lords overruled the Court of Appeal's 'rule of law' approach to fundamental breach adopted in Harbutt's Plasticine v Wayne Tank [1970].
Belmont Finance Corporation v Williams Furniture Ltd (No 2)
[1980] 1 All ER 393 · Court of Appeal · 1980
A person who knowingly receives trust property transferred in breach of trust is liable as a constructive trustee, even if they are a company. Knowledge in this context includes actual knowledge, wilful blindness, and knowledge of circumstances that would put an honest person on inquiry.
Malone v Metropolitan Police Commissioner
[1979] Ch 344 · Chancery Division · 1979
Telephone tapping by the police, though not specifically authorised by statute, was not illegal because there was no right to privacy recognised at common law. However, the case highlighted the inadequacy of English law in protecting privacy, leading to the Interception of Communications Act 1985.
Winterwerp v Netherlands
(1979) 2 EHRR 387 · European Court of Human Rights · 1979
Detention on the ground of unsoundness of mind is only lawful under Article 5(1)(e) ECHR if the individual is reliably shown by objective medical expertise to be of unsound mind, the disorder is of a kind or degree warranting compulsory confinement, and the detention continues only so long as the disorder persists.
Western Excavating (ECC) Ltd v Sharp
[1978] QB 761 · Court of Appeal · 1978
Constructive dismissal requires a fundamental breach of contract by the employer. The test is contractual, not based on the employer's unreasonable conduct. The employee must show the employer breached a fundamental term of the contract, they resigned in response to that breach, and they did not delay too long (thereby affirming the contract).
British Home Stores Ltd v Burchell
[1980] ICR 303 · Employment Appeal Tribunal · 1978
In cases of dismissal for misconduct, the employer must show: (1) a genuine belief in the employee's guilt, (2) reasonable grounds for that belief, and (3) a reasonable investigation. The tribunal must not substitute its own view of the evidence — it is not for the tribunal to decide whether the employee actually committed the misconduct.
Anns v Merton London Borough Council
[1978] AC 728 · House of Lords · 1978
Lord Wilberforce's two-stage test for the existence of a duty of care: first, ask whether between the defendant and the claimant there is sufficient proximity such that carelessness might cause damage to the claimant — if so, a prima facie duty of care arises; second, are there any policy considerations which ought to negative or limit the scope of the duty, the class of persons who can rely on it, or the damages which can flow from a breach? The test was subsequently overruled as having been too broadly stated: Anns itself was overruled in Murphy v Brentwood [1991] on the ground that the cost of repairing defective property is pure economic loss that should not be recoverable in tort from a local authority. The Anns two-stage test was replaced by the Caparo three-stage test.
Batty v Metropolitan Property Realisations Ltd
[1978] QB 554 · Court of Appeal · 1978
A developer owes a duty of care to purchasers in respect of the fitness of the site for building, even where the actual construction work is carried out by independent contractors.
DPP v Majewski
[1977] AC 443 · House of Lords · 1977
Voluntary intoxication (by alcohol or drugs) is no defence to a charge of a 'basic intent' offence (one that can be committed recklessly). However, voluntary intoxication may be a defence to a 'specific intent' offence (one requiring intention) if the defendant was so intoxicated that they could not form the required intent.
Woodward v Hutchins
[1977] 1 WLR 760 · Court of Appeal · 1977
A person who has courted publicity and deliberately projected an enhanced public image to the world cannot invoke the equitable duty of confidence to suppress truthful information that corrects that false image. The public interest in truth prevails over the confidentiality obligation when the confidence is sought not to protect genuine private matters but to sustain a misleading presentation of oneself to the public. Equity will not use an injunction to protect a fraud on the public by giving a person a false image that they themselves have promoted.
Paul v Constance
[1977] 1 WLR 527 · Court of Appeal · 1977
An express declaration of trust over personalty (such as a bank account) requires no particular formalities and need not use technical language. It is sufficient that, looking at all the circumstances and the words used, a court can conclude that the owner manifested a clear present intention to hold the property on trust for the beneficiary. Informal words — even colloquial phrases repeated over time — may constitute a valid declaration of trust, provided they unambiguously reveal an intention to share the beneficial interest in identified property. A trust over personalty (as opposed to land) does not require written formalities under s.53(1)(b) LPA 1925.
R v Turnbull
[1977] QB 224 · Court of Appeal · 1977
Where the prosecution case depends wholly or substantially on identification evidence, the judge must warn the jury of the special need for caution and direct them to examine the circumstances of the identification using the Turnbull guidelines.
Barton v Armstrong
[1976] AC 104 · Privy Council · 1976
Where a party enters into a contract partly because of physical duress (threats of violence or death) and partly for independent commercial reasons, the contract is voidable if the duress was a cause — not necessarily the sole or predominant cause — of their entering into it. Duress to the person operates analogously to fraudulent misrepresentation: the burden shifts to the party who exerted the duress to demonstrate that it played no part whatsoever in the victim's decision. This distinguishes duress to the person from economic duress, where a but-for causation test applies and the claimant must show that the pressure was a significant cause leaving them with no practical choice.
R v Mohan
[1976] QB 1 · Court of Appeal · 1976
Direct intent for a criminal attempt requires a decision by the defendant to bring about, insofar as it lies within their power, the proscribed consequence — namely, the commission of the full offence. It is not sufficient for the prosecution to prove that the defendant foresaw the consequence as probable or even as a virtual certainty; they must show the defendant chose and decided to bring it about. Recklessness as to the consequences of a criminal act cannot constitute the mens rea of attempt. The intent must be purpose-based: the defendant must have the specific consequence as their aim, even if it is not their primary desire.
DHN Food Distributors Ltd v Tower Hamlets London Borough Council
[1976] 1 WLR 852 · Court of Appeal · 1976
The corporate veil may be lifted to treat a group of companies as a single economic entity where the subsidiaries are wholly owned and controlled by the parent, and justice requires it.
Eves v Eves
[1975] 1 WLR 1338 · Court of Appeal · 1975
Where a common intention to share beneficial ownership is established (even if the expressed reason for not putting the property in joint names is false), and the claimant acts to their detriment in reliance on that intention, a constructive trust will arise.
R v Blaue
[1975] 1 WLR 1411 · Court of Appeal · 1975
The thin skull rule applies in criminal law. A defendant must take their victim as they find them, including religious beliefs. A victim's refusal of treatment on religious grounds does not break the chain of causation.
Re Kayford Ltd
[1975] 1 WLR 279 · Chancery Division · 1975
Where a company in financial difficulty segregates customer deposits into a separate trust account, those funds are held on trust for the customers and do not form part of the company's assets available to general creditors in a liquidation.
British Eagle International Airlines Ltd v Compagnie Nationale Air France
[1975] 1 WLR 758 · House of Lords · 1975
Contractual arrangements that have the effect of contracting out of the statutory scheme for pari passu distribution in insolvency are contrary to public policy and void.
Wilson v Racher
[1974] ICR 428 · Court of Appeal · 1974
A single act of insubordination does not necessarily justify summary dismissal. The context, provocation, and all circumstances must be considered. The old master-servant approach to employment is outdated.
Smedleys Ltd v Breed
[1974] AC 839 · House of Lords · 1974
Food safety offences are strict liability. The presence of extraneous matter (a caterpillar in a tin of peas) constitutes an offence regardless of the manufacturer's care, subject to the statutory defences.
Dingle v Turner
[1972] AC 601 · House of Lords · 1972
A trust for the relief of poverty among employees of a particular company can be charitable, because trusts for the relief of poverty have always been treated more favourably regarding public benefit than trusts for other purposes.
Tesco Supermarkets Ltd v Nattrass
[1972] AC 153 · House of Lords · 1972
A company can rely on the due diligence defence where the offence was committed by a store manager (another person) and the company had set up a proper system of training and supervision. The manager is not the alter ego of the company.
Nettleship v Weston
[1971] 2 QB 691 · Court of Appeal · 1971
The standard of care expected of a learner driver is the same as that of a reasonably competent experienced driver. The standard of care in negligence is objective — it does not take account of the particular defendant's inexperience or lack of skill.
R v Roberts
(1971) 56 Cr App R 95 · Court of Appeal · 1971
Where a victim takes evasive action to escape the defendant's unlawful conduct, the defendant is liable for the resulting injuries provided the victim's reaction was within the range of reasonably foreseeable responses.
McPhail v Doulton (Re Baden's Deed Trusts No 1)
[1971] AC 424 · House of Lords · 1971
The test for certainty of objects in a discretionary trust is the 'is or is not' test: the trust is valid if it can be said with certainty that any given individual is or is not a member of the class.
Boys v Chaplin
[1971] AC 356 · House of Lords · 1971
In tort claims with a foreign element, the English court may apply the law of the place where the tort occurred (lex loci delicti), but flexibility exists to apply English law where justice requires.
R v Marriott
[1971] 1 WLR 187 · Court of Appeal · 1971
Possession of a controlled drug requires proof that the defendant had a substance in their possession and knew it was a controlled drug, or was wilfully blind to that fact.
Baker v Willoughby
[1970] AC 467 · House of Lords · 1970
Where the claimant suffers a subsequent injury from a different tortfeasor or event, the first tortfeasor remains liable for the original loss. The subsequent event does not reduce the first tortfeasor's liability.
R v Caird
(1970) 54 Cr App R 499 · Court of Appeal · 1970
Participation in group violence or public disorder justifies a heavier sentence than the individual acts might warrant if committed alone. The sentence must reflect the overall gravity of the disorder and the offender's role in it.
R v Caird
[1970] 54 Cr App R 499 · Court of Appeal · 1970
Those who take part in mob violence must expect severe sentences. The courts must impose deterrent sentences where group disorder threatens public order.
Fagan v Metropolitan Police Commissioner
[1969] 1 QB 439 · Queen's Bench Divisional Court · 1969
Where an act constituting the actus reus is a continuing act, the mens rea need not be present at the inception of the act but may be superimposed upon it while it is still continuing. The actus reus and mens rea must coincide at some point, but the actus reus need not be a single instantaneous event.
Barnett v Chelsea & Kensington Hospital Management Committee
[1969] 1 QB 428 · Queen's Bench Division · 1969
Even where a defendant owes a duty of care and is in breach of that duty, the claimant must still prove factual causation — that 'but for' the breach, the damage would not have occurred. If the claimant would have suffered the same harm regardless of the breach, the claim fails on causation.
Anisminic Ltd v Foreign Compensation Commission
[1969] 2 AC 147 · House of Lords · 1969
Any error of law by a public body or tribunal renders its decision a nullity. There is no meaningful distinction between 'jurisdictional' and 'non-jurisdictional' errors of law for the purpose of judicial review. An ouster clause that purports to insulate the body's 'determination' from challenge does not protect a purported determination that is in fact a nullity — because there is no determination to protect. The decision is the foundation of modern judicial review and the basis on which English courts subject almost every error of law to corrective review notwithstanding statutory attempts to exclude.
Re Resch's Will Trusts
[1969] 1 AC 514 · Privy Council · 1969
A trust for the establishment of a private hospital charging fees is charitable if it relieves the burden on public healthcare services and does not exclude the poor from any benefit it might provide to the community.
Beswick v Beswick
[1968] AC 58 · House of Lords · 1968
A third party cannot enforce a contract to which they are not a party (privity of contract). However, a party to the contract can obtain specific performance for the benefit of a third party where damages would be inadequate.
Padfield v Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
[1968] AC 997 · House of Lords · 1968
A statutory discretion is never unfettered. It must be exercised to promote the policy and objects of the Act conferring it. A minister who refuses to exercise a discretion for reasons that frustrate the Act's purpose acts unlawfully — and the court can compel the minister to reconsider on lawful grounds. The case establishes that even an apparently unreviewable ministerial discretion is subject to the rule that 'unfettered' means 'undefined as to objects', not 'free from constraint as to purpose'.
Partridge v Crittenden
[1968] 1 WLR 1204 · Queen's Bench Division · 1968
An advertisement in a periodical stating a price for goods is an invitation to treat, not an offer for sale, unless the language clearly indicates otherwise.
Boardman v Phipps
[1967] 2 AC 46 · House of Lords · 1967
A fiduciary who obtains a profit by virtue of their fiduciary position must account for that profit to the beneficiaries, even if they acted in good faith and even if the trust could not have obtained the profit itself.
Overseas Tankship (UK) Ltd v The Miller Steamship Co (The Wagon Mound No 2)
[1967] 1 AC 617 · Privy Council · 1967
Damage is reasonably foreseeable (and therefore not too remote) if there is a real risk of its occurrence, even if the probability is small. A reasonable person would not ignore a risk which was real and not far-fetched or fanciful.
Chadwick v British Railways Board
[1967] 1 WLR 912 · Queen's Bench Division · 1967
A rescuer who suffers psychiatric injury from the horrifying scenes encountered during rescue operations may recover damages from the party whose negligence caused the original accident, provided the rescuer was exposed to personal danger.
R v Lamb
[1967] 2 QB 981 · Court of Appeal · 1967
For unlawful act manslaughter, the unlawful act must be intentional. Pointing a revolver as a joke where both parties believed it would not fire does not constitute assault.
R v Church
[1966] 1 QB 59 · Court of Criminal Appeal · 1966
Constructive (unlawful act) manslaughter requires proof of: (a) an unlawful act; (b) which is dangerous in the objective sense that all sober and reasonable people would inevitably recognise it as subjecting the victim to the risk of some physical harm — though not necessarily serious harm; and (c) which causes death. The defendant's personal appreciation of the risk is irrelevant to the 'dangerousness' requirement — it is assessed by the standard of the sober reasonable person with knowledge of the factual circumstances. An accused need not foresee harm to the victim; the objective risk of some harm is sufficient.
Wheat v E Lacon & Co Ltd
[1966] AC 552 · House of Lords · 1966
There may be more than one occupier of premises for the purposes of the Occupiers' Liability Act 1957. An occupier is a person who has a sufficient degree of control over the premises to be under a duty of care to visitors.
Rice v Connolly
[1966] 2 QB 414 · Queen's Bench Divisional Court · 1966
A citizen has no general legal duty to assist the police or answer their questions. Refusing to answer questions or to accompany police voluntarily does not constitute obstruction of a police officer in the execution of their duty.
Letang v Cooper
[1965] 1 QB 232 · Court of Appeal · 1965
Where personal injury is caused unintentionally, the appropriate cause of action is negligence, not trespass to the person. Trespass to the person should be confined to intentional acts.
Hedley Byrne & Co Ltd v Heller & Partners Ltd
[1964] AC 465 · House of Lords · 1964
A duty of care can arise in respect of negligent misstatements causing pure economic loss where there is a 'special relationship' between the parties — that is, the defendant assumed responsibility for the accuracy of the statement and the claimant reasonably relied on it.
Ridge v Baldwin
[1964] AC 40 · House of Lords · 1964
The rules of natural justice — particularly the right to be heard (audi alteram partem) — apply to every body of persons having authority to make decisions involving civil consequences for an individual. The doctrine is not confined to courts or to bodies acting in a 'judicial' or 'quasi-judicial' capacity. A dismissal made without giving the person concerned an opportunity to make representations is void. The case marks the revival of natural justice in administrative law after a long period of formalist retreat following Local Government Board v Arlidge [1915] AC 120.
Eastham v Newcastle United FC
[1964] Ch 413 · High Court (Chancery Division) · 1964
The football retain-and-transfer system constituted an unreasonable restraint of trade. A player could not be indefinitely retained by a club after his contract expired, preventing him from joining another club.
Hong Kong Fir Shipping Co Ltd v Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd
[1962] 2 QB 26 · Court of Appeal · 1962
Not all contractual terms can be classified as conditions or warranties. Some terms are 'innominate' (intermediate) — whether breach entitles the innocent party to terminate depends on the nature and consequences of the breach, not the label given to the term.
Smith v Leech Brain & Co Ltd
[1962] 2 QB 405 · Queen's Bench Division · 1962
The 'thin skull' rule (egg-shell skull rule) survived The Wagon Mound (No 1). A tortfeasor must take the victim as they find them. It is sufficient that the type of damage (physical injury) was foreseeable; the tortfeasor is liable for the full extent of injury even if it is more severe than expected due to a pre-existing vulnerability.
DPP v Smith
[1961] AC 290 · House of Lords · 1961
An objective test for intention in murder was established: a person is presumed to intend the natural and probable consequences of their actions. This decision was later reversed by statute (s.8 Criminal Justice Act 1967) which required courts to have regard to all the evidence and draw inferences from it, restoring a subjective approach.
Lee v Lee's Air Farming Ltd
[1961] AC 12 · Privy Council · 1961
A person can be both the controlling shareholder and managing director of a company and simultaneously be employed by that company as a worker. The company is a separate legal entity from its shareholders and directors, following Salomon v Salomon. A controlling shareholder can therefore enter into a valid contract of employment with the company they control.
Fisher v Bell
[1961] 1 QB 394 · Queen's Bench Division · 1961
The display of goods in a shop window with a price tag is an invitation to treat, not an offer. A shopkeeper who displays a flick knife in his window is not 'offering it for sale' within the meaning of the Restriction of Offensive Weapons Act 1959.
Overseas Tankship (UK) Ltd v Morts Dock & Engineering Co Ltd (The Wagon Mound No 1)
[1961] AC 388 · Privy Council · 1961
The test for remoteness of damage in negligence is reasonable foreseeability: a defendant is liable only for damage of a kind that a reasonable person in their position would have foreseen as a real risk at the time of the negligent act. This overruled the direct consequence test in Re Polemis [1921] 3 KB 560, under which liability extended to all direct consequences of negligence however unforeseeable. The change aligns the remoteness test with the duty-of-care and breach tests, producing a coherent scheme of negligence liability based on what ought reasonably to have been foreseen.
Chappell & Co Ltd v Nestlé Co Ltd
[1960] AC 87 · House of Lords · 1960
Consideration need not be adequate but must be sufficient. Even trivial items (such as chocolate bar wrappers) can constitute good consideration if they are part of the bargain, even if they have no intrinsic economic value.
R v Smith (Thomas Joseph)
[1959] 2 QB 35 · Courts-Martial Appeal Court · 1959
For the purposes of criminal responsibility for homicide, the defendant's original act need not be the sole or even the main cause of death. Provided the original wound is still an operating and substantial cause of death at the time the victim dies, the causal link is established. A subsequent medical intervention — even one that is negligent or mistaken — does not break the chain of causation unless it is so overwhelming as to make the original wound merely part of the history and no longer a cause of death at all. Ordinary negligence by medical staff does not sever the chain.
Fowler v Lanning
[1959] 1 QB 426 · Queen's Bench Division · 1959
In a modern action for trespass to the person, the burden of proving that the defendant acted intentionally or negligently rests on the claimant. The claimant must plead whether the act was intentional or negligent.
R v Cunningham
[1957] 2 QB 396 · Court of Criminal Appeal · 1957
The word 'maliciously' in a criminal statute requires proof that the defendant either intended the particular kind of harm that in fact occurred, or was reckless as to whether such harm should occur — i.e., the defendant foresaw the risk of that harm and went on to take it anyway. This is subjective recklessness (Cunningham recklessness).
Bolam v Friern Hospital Management Committee
[1957] 1 WLR 582 · High Court (QBD) · 1957
A doctor is not negligent if they act in accordance with a practice accepted as proper by a responsible body of medical opinion, even if other doctors would have acted differently. This is the 'Bolam test' for professional negligence.
Re Ellenborough Park
[1956] Ch 131 · Court of Appeal · 1956
For a right to qualify as an easement, four characteristics must be satisfied: (1) there must be a dominant and a servient tenement; (2) the easement must accommodate (benefit) the dominant tenement; (3) the dominant and servient owners must be different persons; and (4) the right claimed must be capable of forming the subject matter of a grant — it must be sufficiently definite and must not amount to exclusive possession of the servient land.
J Spurling Ltd v Bradshaw
[1956] 1 WLR 461 · Court of Appeal · 1956
A particularly onerous or unusual clause must be fairly and reasonably brought to the other party's attention. The more unusual or onerous the clause, the greater the degree of notice required (the 'red hand' rule).
Bonnington Castings Ltd v Wardlaw
[1956] AC 613 · House of Lords · 1956
Where a disease is caused by cumulative exposure, it is sufficient for the claimant to show that the defendant's breach made a material contribution to the injury. The claimant need not show that the breach was the sole or dominant cause.
R v Jordan
(1956) 40 Cr App R 152 · Court of Criminal Appeal · 1956
In exceptional circumstances, grossly negligent medical treatment can break the chain of causation where the original wound has substantially healed and the treatment is 'palpably wrong'.
Re Ellenborough Park
[1956] Ch 131 · Court of Appeal · 1956
An easement must possess four characteristics: (1) there must be a dominant and a servient tenement; (2) the easement must accommodate the dominant tenement — benefiting the land itself, not merely conferring a personal advantage on the owner; (3) the dominant and servient tenements must be owned or occupied by different persons; and (4) the right must be capable of forming the subject-matter of a grant (sufficiently definite and of a recognised kind). A right to use a communal garden or park can satisfy these requirements and exist as an easement.
Entores Ltd v Miles Far East Corporation
[1955] 2 QB 327 · Court of Appeal · 1955
Where communication is instantaneous (such as telephone, telex, or other direct communication), a contract is formed at the place and time when the acceptance is received by the offeror, not where and when it is sent. The postal acceptance rule does not apply to instantaneous methods of communication.
Watt v Hertfordshire County Council
[1954] 1 WLR 835 · Court of Appeal · 1954
The social utility of the defendant's activity is a relevant factor in assessing breach of duty. Where the activity has high social value (such as emergency rescue), a greater degree of risk may be acceptable.
Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain v Boots Cash Chemists
[1953] 1 QB 401 · Court of Appeal · 1953
The display of goods on a self-service shop shelf is an invitation to treat, not an offer. The customer makes the offer when presenting goods at the cash desk, and the shopkeeper accepts (or may decline) at that point. The contract is formed at the till, not when the customer picks up the item.
Latimer v AEC Ltd
[1953] AC 643 · House of Lords · 1953
The standard of care required of an employer does not demand that all risk of injury be eliminated regardless of cost or disruption. The court must weigh the magnitude of the risk created against the burden of the precautions necessary to eliminate or reduce it. Where reasonable precautions have been taken and the residual risk is modest, an employer is not negligent merely because further measures were possible. Crucially, where the only remaining option is to close a working factory — a step grossly disproportionate to the risk — the law does not require it.
Re Rose
[1952] Ch 499 · Court of Appeal · 1952
Where a donor has done everything in their power to transfer legal title, equity will treat the gift as complete even before the legal formalities are finalised by a third party.
R v Tronoh Mines Ltd
[1952] 1 All ER 697 · King's Bench Division · 1952
For an advertisement to be an election expense, it must be specifically directed to affecting the result in a particular constituency rather than a general political advertisement.
Bolton v Stone
[1951] AC 850 · House of Lords · 1951
A defendant is not negligent merely because injury is a foreseeable possibility. The risk must be sufficiently probable that a reasonable person would take precautions against it. A very small risk may be disregarded if a reasonable person would consider it insignificant.
Paris v Stepney Borough Council
[1951] AC 367 · House of Lords · 1951
In assessing whether a defendant has taken reasonable care in breach of duty, the court must weigh the magnitude of the risk against the precautions available. The magnitude of the risk comprises both the probability that harm will occur and the seriousness of the harm if it does. Where a particular claimant faces an exceptionally grave consequence from a given accident — such as total blindness for a one-eyed person — the employer must take greater precautions than would be required for an employee who would suffer a lesser injury. The greater the potential harm, the lower the level of probability of occurrence that will justify precautionary measures.
Combe v Combe
[1951] 2 KB 215 · Court of Appeal · 1951
Promissory estoppel can only be used as a defence (a shield), not as a cause of action (a sword). It does not create new rights but prevents a party from going back on a promise in certain circumstances.
Oppenheim v Tobacco Securities Trust Co Ltd
[1951] AC 297 · House of Lords · 1951
A trust for the advancement of education must benefit a sufficient section of the public to be charitable. A trust limited to the children of employees of a particular company is not charitable because the beneficiaries are defined by a personal relationship (employment) rather than a public characteristic.
Olley v Marlborough Court Hotel Ltd
[1949] 1 KB 532 · Court of Appeal · 1949
Terms displayed after the contract is formed are not incorporated into it. The contract is formed at the point of agreement (e.g., at the reception desk), not when the parties later encounter the terms.
Victoria Laundry (Windsor) Ltd v Newman Industries Ltd
[1949] 2 KB 528 · Court of Appeal · 1949
Damages for breach of contract are limited to losses within the reasonable contemplation of the parties at the time of contract. Losses arising naturally from the breach (first limb of Hadley v Baxendale) are recoverable; unusual losses known to the defendant (second limb) are also recoverable.
Associated Provincial Picture Houses Ltd v Wednesbury Corporation
[1948] 1 KB 223 · Court of Appeal · 1948
A decision of a public authority can be challenged on the ground that it is so unreasonable that no reasonable authority could ever have come to it (Wednesbury unreasonableness). The court will intervene if the authority has taken into account irrelevant factors, failed to take into account relevant factors, or reached a decision so unreasonable that no reasonable body could have reached it.
Re Diplock
[1948] Ch 465 · Court of Appeal · 1948
Where executors distribute estate funds to persons not entitled under the will, the rightful beneficiaries have both a personal claim against the wrongly paid recipients and a proprietary claim to trace the money in equity.
National Anti-Vivisection Society v IRC
[1948] AC 31 · House of Lords · 1948
A trust whose main purpose is to change the law cannot be charitable because the court cannot determine whether the proposed change would be for the public benefit. Additionally, a purpose may not be charitable if its detriment (to medical research) outweighs its benefit.
Central London Property Trust Ltd v High Trees House Ltd
[1947] KB 130 · King's Bench Division · 1947
Where a party makes a promise intended to be binding, intended to be acted upon, and in fact acted upon, that party will not be permitted to revert to the original legal position as if the promise had not been made. This is the doctrine of promissory estoppel.
Scammell v Ouston
[1941] AC 251 · House of Lords · 1941
An agreement is void for uncertainty if its terms are so vague that they cannot be given a definite meaning. The court cannot make a contract for the parties where the essential terms are insufficiently certain.
Chapelton v Barry Urban District Council
[1940] 1 KB 532 · Court of Appeal · 1940
An exclusion clause on a receipt or ticket may not be incorporated into the contract if the ticket is not reasonably regarded as a contractual document but merely as a receipt or voucher.
Woolmington v DPP
[1935] AC 462 · House of Lords · 1935
Throughout the web of the English criminal law one golden thread is always to be seen — that it is the duty of the prosecution to prove the prisoner's guilt. The burden of proof lies on the prosecution from start to finish, subject only to the defence of insanity and any statutory exceptions.
Gilford Motor Co Ltd v Horne
[1933] Ch 935 · Court of Appeal · 1933
The corporate veil will be pierced where a company is used as a device or stratagem to evade an existing legal obligation, such as a restrictive covenant.
Donoghue v Stevenson
[1932] AC 562 · House of Lords · 1932
A manufacturer of products owes a duty of care to the ultimate consumer where the products reach the consumer in the form in which they left the manufacturer, with no reasonable possibility of intermediate examination. More broadly, you must take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which you can reasonably foresee would be likely to injure your neighbour — that is, persons so closely and directly affected by your act that you ought reasonably to have them in contemplation.
Macaura v Northern Assurance Co Ltd
[1925] AC 619 · House of Lords · 1925
A shareholder, even a sole shareholder, has no insurable interest in the property owned by the company because the company is a separate legal person distinct from its members. The shareholder owns shares, which represent a financial interest in the company as a going concern, but does not own any legal or equitable interest in any specific asset belonging to the company. Accordingly, a shareholder cannot validly insure company assets in their own name, and any purported insurance policy taken out in the shareholder's name in respect of company property is void for want of insurable interest. This is a direct consequence and illustration of the principle of separate corporate personality established in Salomon v A Salomon & Co Ltd [1897] AC 22.
Elder Dempster & Co Ltd v Paterson Zochonis & Co Ltd
[1924] AC 522 · House of Lords · 1924
Stevedores employed by a carrier may be entitled to rely on the exceptions and limitations in the bill of lading contract, even though they are not parties to it, where there is an implied bailment on terms.
Re Polemis & Furness, Withy & Co Ltd
[1921] 3 KB 560 · Court of Appeal · 1921
Once some damage was foreseeable from the defendant's negligent act, the defendant was liable for all direct consequences, however unforeseeable. This is the 'directness' test of remoteness.
Balfour v Balfour
[1919] 2 KB 571 · Court of Appeal · 1919
Agreements between spouses relating to their domestic arrangements are not contracts because the parties do not intend to create legal relations. There is a presumption against contractual intention in domestic and social agreements.
Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v New Garage & Motor Co Ltd
[1915] AC 79 · House of Lords · 1915
A contractual clause requiring the payment of a stipulated sum on breach of contract is enforceable as liquidated damages if it represents a genuine pre-estimate of the loss which the innocent party will suffer from that breach. If, however, the stipulated sum is extravagant and unconscionable in amount in comparison with the greatest loss that could conceivably be proved to have followed from the breach, it is a penalty and will not be enforced. Lord Dunedin set out a series of tests (in the form of presumptions) for distinguishing liquidated damages from penalties: (i) the sum is likely to be a penalty if it is extravagant compared with the greatest conceivable loss; (ii) if the obligation is to pay a sum of money and the clause requires payment of a greater sum, it is a penalty; (iii) a single sum payable for a variety of breaches of very different gravity raises a presumption of penalty; (iv) but it is no obstacle to calling a clause one of liquidated damages that the consequences of a breach are such as to make precise pre-estimation almost impossible.
Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v Selfridge & Co Ltd
[1915] AC 847 · House of Lords · 1915
The doctrine of privity of contract means that only a party to a contract — someone who gave consideration and was a party to the agreement — may sue to enforce it. A third party who was the intended beneficiary of a promise cannot sue on that promise, however clear the intention to confer a benefit on them. The rule is reinforced by the requirement that consideration must move from the promisee: a person who has provided no consideration has no enforceable right even if the contract was plainly intended for their benefit. The case, decided on the same day as Dunlop v New Garage, confirmed two separate doctrines operating in tandem: privity and the rule that consideration must move from the promisee.
British Westinghouse Electric v Underground Electric Railways
[1912] AC 673 · House of Lords · 1912
The innocent party has a duty to mitigate their loss following a breach of contract. If the claimant takes reasonable steps in mitigation and those steps produce a benefit that exceeds the loss, the defendant is not liable for the original loss.
R v White
[1910] 2 KB 124 · Court of Criminal Appeal · 1910
The 'but for' test of factual causation: the defendant's act must be a factual cause of the prohibited result. If the victim would have died the same way regardless, causation is not established.
Herne Bay Steam Boat Co v Hutton
[1903] 2 KB 683 · Court of Appeal · 1903
A contract is not frustrated merely because an event that formed one party's motive for entering the contract fails to occur. Frustration only applies where the supervening event destroys the foundation or common purpose of the contract for both parties, not merely one party's particular purpose.
Krell v Henry
[1903] 2 KB 740 · Court of Appeal · 1903
A contract may be frustrated where a supervening event destroys the entire foundation or purpose of the contract, rendering it radically different from what was contemplated. It is not necessary that performance be physically impossible — frustration of purpose suffices.
Salomon v A Salomon & Co Ltd
[1897] AC 22 · House of Lords · 1897
A properly incorporated company is a separate legal entity from its shareholders, even where one person effectively controls the company and is its principal shareholder. The company's debts are not the debts of its shareholders. The corporate veil will not be lifted merely because it is 'just and equitable' to do so or because the company is in substance a one-person operation.
Rochefoucauld v Boustead
[1897] 1 Ch 196 · Court of Appeal · 1897
The Statute of Frauds cannot be used as an instrument of fraud. Where a person acquires land on an oral understanding to hold it on trust for another, equity will enforce the trust despite the lack of written evidence.
Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co
[1893] 1 QB 256 · Court of Appeal · 1893
An advertisement can constitute a unilateral offer to the world at large, which is accepted by performing the stipulated conditions. Consideration is provided by the inconvenience of performing those conditions. The deposit of money in a bank as a show of sincerity negates any argument that the offer was a mere puff.
Harvey v Facey
[1893] AC 552 · Privy Council · 1893
A statement of the minimum price at which a party would sell is not an offer to sell — it is merely a supply of information. An offer requires a clear indication of willingness to be bound on stated terms.
Derry v Peek
(1889) 14 App Cas 337 · House of Lords · 1889
Fraud (deceit) is proved when it is shown that a false representation was made knowingly, without belief in its truth, or recklessly (careless whether it be true or false). An honest belief in the truth of a statement, however unreasonable, negates fraud. Negligence, however gross, is not fraud.
The Moorcock
(1889) 14 PD 64 · Court of Appeal · 1889
A term will be implied into a contract where it is necessary to give business efficacy to the contract — that is, where without the term the contract would lack commercial or practical coherence.
R v Latimer
(1886) 17 QBD 359 · Crown Cases Reserved · 1886
The doctrine of transferred malice: where the defendant intends to harm one person but accidentally harms another, the mens rea is transferred to the actual victim.
R v Dudley and Stephens
(1884) 14 QBD 273 · Queen's Bench Division · 1884
Necessity is not a defence to murder. The deliberate killing of an innocent person, however extreme the circumstances and however genuine the belief that killing was necessary to preserve the lives of others, constitutes murder. No utilitarian calculus — that the death of one will save many — can justify taking an innocent life. The case also establishes that a special verdict of guilty can be reserved for consideration of the full court where a novel point of law arises.
Foakes v Beer
[1884] UKHL 1, (1884) 9 App Cas 605 · House of Lords · 1884
Payment of a lesser sum cannot be satisfaction for a greater debt. The rule in Pinnel's Case (1602) was affirmed: a creditor's promise to accept part payment in full settlement is not binding for want of consideration, even where the debtor has relied upon it.
Walsh v Lonsdale
(1882) 21 Ch D 9 · Court of Appeal · 1882
Where parties have entered into a specifically enforceable agreement for a lease, equity treats them as if the legal lease had already been executed. This is an application of the maxim that equity treats as done that which ought to be done. The equitable lease has the same terms as the agreed legal lease — including terms that differ from the common law periodic tenancy that would otherwise arise by implication from the tenant's occupation and payment of rent. Where there is a conflict between the legal relationship implied by conduct and the intended relationship expressed in the agreement, equity prevails, since in equity the agreed lease governs.
Sturges v Bridgman
(1879) 11 Ch D 852 · Court of Appeal · 1879
What amounts to a nuisance depends on the character of the locality. The standard is that of the reasonable user of land in that particular neighbourhood. A prescriptive right to commit a nuisance cannot be acquired until the activity actually becomes actionable.
Poussard v Spiers and Pond
(1876) 1 QBD 410 · Queen's Bench Division · 1876
A term going to the root of the contract is a condition. Breach of a condition entitles the innocent party to terminate the contract and claim damages.
Bettini v Gye
(1876) 1 QBD 183 · Queen's Bench Division · 1876
A contractual term that does not go to the root of the contract is a warranty rather than a condition. Breach of a warranty entitles the innocent party to damages only, and not to terminate the contract. Whether a term is a condition or a warranty depends on its importance to the substance of the agreement, judged in light of the whole contract and its purpose.
Currie v Misa
(1875) LR 10 Ex 153 · Court of Exchequer · 1875
Valuable consideration in the sense of the law may consist either in some right, interest, profit, or benefit accruing to the one party, or some forbearance, detriment, loss, or responsibility, given, suffered, or undertaken by the other.
R v Pembliton
(1874) LR 2 CCR 119 · Crown Cases Reserved · 1874
Transferred malice operates only within the same type of offence. An intention to assault or strike a person cannot be transferred to the different offence of criminal damage to property; the mens rea for one kind of harm does not supply the mens rea for a different kind.
Pilcher v Rawlins
(1872) LR 7 Ch App 259 · Court of Appeal in Chancery · 1872
A bona fide purchaser for value of the legal estate without notice of a prior equitable interest takes free from that interest. This defence—equity's darling—is a complete answer to equitable claims.
Smith v Hughes
(1871) LR 6 QB 597 · Queen's Bench · 1871
The question is not what was the intention of the parties but what would a reasonable person understand the parties' intentions to be from their words and conduct. The objective test of agreement prevails over subjective intentions.
Banks v Goodfellow
(1870) LR 5 QB 549 · Queen's Bench · 1870
To make a valid will, the testator must: (1) understand the nature of the act and its effects; (2) understand the extent of the property being disposed of; (3) comprehend and appreciate the claims to which they ought to give effect; and (4) not be affected by any disorder of the mind or insane delusion that influences the dispositions made.
Rylands v Fletcher
(1868) LR 3 HL 330 · House of Lords · 1868
A person who brings onto their land and collects and keeps there anything likely to do mischief if it escapes must keep it in at their peril, and if they fail to do so, they are prima facie answerable for all the damage which is the natural consequence of its escape. This is a form of strict liability for non-natural use of land.
Ramsgate Victoria Hotel Co v Montefiore
(1866) LR 1 Ex 109 · Court of Exchequer · 1866
An offer lapses and is no longer open for acceptance after a reasonable time has elapsed. What constitutes a reasonable time is a question of fact depending on the nature of the subject matter and the circumstances of the transaction. For shares in a company, whose value fluctuates with market conditions, five months is plainly an unreasonable delay. A purported acceptance after the reasonable time has expired is of no legal effect and creates no contract; the offeree cannot be compelled to complete a transaction on terms that may be quite different in commercial substance from those prevailing when the offer was made.
Scott v London and St Katherine Docks Co
(1865) 3 H & C 596 · Court of Exchequer · 1865
Where an accident occurs that would not ordinarily happen without negligence, and the instrumentality causing the accident was under the defendant's control, the court may infer negligence (res ipsa loquitur). The burden then shifts to the defendant to provide a reasonable explanation.
Taylor v Caldwell
(1863) 3 B & S 826 · Queen's Bench · 1863
Where performance of a contract depends on the continued existence of a specific thing, and that thing is destroyed without fault of either party, the contract is discharged by frustration. Both parties are excused from further performance.
Milroy v Lord
(1862) 4 De GF & J 264 · Court of Appeal in Chancery · 1862
There are three and only three modes of making a valid voluntary settlement of property: (i) an outright transfer of property to the intended beneficiary; (ii) a declaration of trust in favour of the beneficiary by the owner (making themselves trustee); or (iii) a transfer of property to third-party trustees. Equity will not perfect an imperfect gift: if the donor has chosen one of these modes but failed to complete the necessary steps to effectuate it, the court will not intervene to achieve the intended result by treating the failed transaction as if it had been effected by another mode. Specifically, a failed transfer to trustees will not be treated as a self-declaration of trust by the settlor, even if that would produce the result the settlor intended.
Felthouse v Bindley
(1862) 11 CB (NS) 869 · Court of Common Pleas · 1862
Silence, or a mere unexpressed mental assent, cannot amount to acceptance of an offer. An offeror is not entitled to stipulate that the offeree's silence will be treated as acceptance so as to impose a contract on them; acceptance must be communicated by words or conduct. Because no contract came into existence between uncle and nephew, the uncle had no proprietary interest in the horse capable of founding an action in conversion against the auctioneer.
Tweddle v Atkinson
(1861) 1 B&S 393; 121 ER 762 · Queen's Bench · 1861
A person who is a stranger to a contract — that is, a person who is neither a party to the agreement nor has provided any consideration — cannot sue upon it to enforce rights purportedly created for their benefit, even if the contract was expressly intended to benefit them. This decision is an early statement of two interconnected doctrines: privity of contract (only a party to a contract can enforce it) and the consideration rule (a claimant must have provided consideration to found a contractual action). A third-party beneficiary of a contract, however clearly intended by the contracting parties, has no cause of action to enforce the contract.
Hadley v Baxendale
(1854) 9 Ex 341; 156 ER 145 · Court of Exchequer · 1854
Damages recoverable for breach of contract are limited to losses that fall within one of two limbs: (1) those which arise naturally — i.e. according to the usual course of things — from the breach itself, the so-called 'first limb' general damages; OR (2) those which, although not arising in the usual course of things, may reasonably be supposed to have been within the contemplation of both parties at the time of contracting as the probable result of the breach (the 'second limb', requiring special knowledge of unusual circumstances). Special losses outside the ordinary course are recoverable only where the defendant had actual or imputed knowledge of the facts that would make those losses probable.
Hochster v De La Tour
(1853) 2 E&B 678; 118 ER 922 · Queen's Bench · 1853
Where a party to a contract repudiates it before the time fixed for performance — by making clear they will not perform their obligations — the other party has an immediate right to treat the contract as at an end and to bring an action for damages, without being required to wait until the date of performance. The doctrine of anticipatory breach holds that a renunciation of a future contractual obligation is itself a breach giving rise to an immediate cause of action. The innocent party need not stand idle and refuse alternative engagements while waiting for the performance date: they may mitigate their loss immediately.
Tulk v Moxhay
(1848) 2 Ph 774 · Court of Chancery · 1848
A restrictive covenant — a negative obligation burdening land (e.g. not to build) imposed by a vendor on a purchaser — will be enforced in equity against a subsequent purchaser of the burdened land who took it with notice of the covenant. Equity acts on the conscience of a purchaser with notice: it would be unconscionable to allow that purchaser to buy land at a reduced price (reflecting the encumbrance) and then act free of the encumbrance. The key principle is that equity looks on as done that which ought to be done in conscience. This principle allowed restrictive covenants to run with the land in equity even though at common law a burden cannot pass with a freehold under the rule in Austerberry v Oldham Corporation (1885).
Foss v Harbottle
(1843) 2 Hare 461; 67 ER 189 · Court of Chancery · 1843
Two fundamental rules govern litigation in respect of wrongs alleged to have been done to a company. First, the 'proper plaintiff rule': the only person who can sue for a wrong done to a company is the company itself, acting through its directors or, in certain circumstances, through a liquidator. Individual shareholders cannot sue on behalf of the company for wrongs done to it. Second, the 'majority rule': if the alleged wrong is something that a simple majority of shareholders could ratify or confirm, a minority shareholder cannot compel the court to intervene to prevent or remedy it. The courts will not act at the suit of a minority to restrain or remedy a matter that lies within the ordinary powers of the company's majority.
Saunders v Vautier
(1841) 4 Beav 115 · Rolls Court · 1841
A beneficiary who is of full age and capacity and is absolutely entitled to trust property can call upon the trustee to transfer the property to them, even if the trust instrument provides for a later date of distribution.
Hyde v Wrench
(1840) 3 Beav 334 · Court of Chancery · 1840
A counter-offer destroys the original offer, which cannot thereafter be accepted. When an offeree responds with a counter-offer rather than an unconditional acceptance, the original offer is terminated and a new offer is made which the original offeror is free to accept or reject.
Knight v Knight
(1840) 3 Beav 148 · Rolls Court · 1840
For a valid express trust, three certainties must be present: certainty of intention (words must show a clear intention to create a trust), certainty of subject matter (the trust property must be identifiable), and certainty of objects (the beneficiaries must be ascertainable).
Adams v Lindsell
(1818) 1 B & Ald 681 · King's Bench · 1818
Where acceptance is sent by post, the contract is formed at the moment the letter of acceptance is posted, even if it never reaches the offeror. This is the 'postal rule'.
Stilk v Myrick
(1809) 2 Camp 317 · King's Bench · 1809
Performing an existing contractual duty owed to the promisor does not constitute good consideration for a fresh promise. Where a party merely does what they are already contractually bound to do, they provide nothing additional to support a new promise of extra payment.
Entick v Carrington
(1765) 19 St Tr 1029; 2 Wils KB 275 · Court of Common Pleas · 1765
The executive branch of government has no power to interfere with the property or liberty of subjects except where it can point to clear legal authority, whether by Act of Parliament or established rule of common law. A general warrant to search premises and seize papers — without naming particular documents, and not authorised by any statute or common law rule — is void. The mere assertion of state necessity or executive convenience cannot create a legal power where none exists. This case established the foundational constitutional principle of legality: the government can only do what the law permits.
Keech v Sandford
(1726) Sel Cas Ch 61 · Court of Chancery · 1726
A trustee must not profit from their position of trust. Where a trustee takes a renewal of a lease that they hold on trust, the renewed lease is held on the same trust, even if the landlord had refused to renew the lease for the benefit of the beneficiary. The rule is strict and inflexible to prevent trustees from being tempted to act in their own interest.
Pinnel's Case
(1602) 5 Co Rep 117a; 77 ER 237 · Court of Common Pleas · 1602
The payment of a lesser sum of money in satisfaction of a greater sum of money cannot be any satisfaction for the whole debt. A creditor who promises to accept part payment in full discharge of the debt receives no fresh consideration for that promise, since the debtor was already obliged to pay the full amount. However, the payment of a lesser sum before the due date, or at a different place at the creditor's request, or the delivery of a chattel (even of trivial value) in place of part of the money may constitute sufficient consideration for the release of the remainder. The rule is therefore not absolute: the addition of some new element requested by the creditor — some benefit conferred on the creditor beyond mere part payment — can constitute consideration.