The Chagos Islands had been a British dependent territory since 1814. The British government repatriated the islanders in the 1960s, and the Ilois now sought damages for their wrongful displacement, misfeasance, deceit, negligence and to establish a new tort of unlawful exile, derived from Magna Carta.
Held: Whatever the difficulties in law, some Chagossians had been treated shamefully over many years. Nevertheless the evidence was from a generally illiterate people, and lacked consistency. There was a power if necessary to take over private property for the purposes of defence interests. On the claims of misfeasance and deceit, no individual officers had been identified as having acted with malice, and those claims had no prospects. The alleged tort of wrongful exile was really an allegation of maladministration. The claim was struck out as an abuse of process.
The Honourable Mr Justice Ouseley
[2003] EWHC 2222 (QB), Times 10-Oct-2003, [2003] All ER (D) 166
Bailii
Magna Carta
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Three Rivers District Council and Others v Governor and Company of The Bank of England (No 3) HL 22-Mar-2001
Misfeasance in Public Office – Recklessness
The bank sought to strike out the claim alleging misfeasance in public office in having failed to regulate the failed bank, BCCI.
Held: Misfeasance in public office might occur not only when a company officer acted to injure a party, but also . .
Cited – Armstrong v Strain QBD 1951
armstrong_strainQBD1951
The necessary knowledge for the tort of deceit could not be found by adding the innocent mind of a principal, who knew facts which showed what his agent said to be untrue but did not know what the agent was saying, to the innocent mind of the agent . .
Cited – Armstrong v Strain CA 1952
(Upheld) . .
Cited – Dunlop v Woollahra Municipal Council PC 1982
A plaintiff can allege misfeasance in public office against a body such as a local authority or a government ministry. The tort was well establshed. . .
Cited – Bourgoin SA v Minister of Agriculture Fisheries and Food CA 1985
The plaintiffs were French producers of turkeys. They alleged that the Minister revoked their licence to import turkeys into this country by a decision that was ultra vires and motivated by a desire to assist British turkey producers, and that this . .
Cited – Thornton v The Police PC 1962
Leave to appeal was refused on the ground that the judgment of Hammet J was clearly correct. He held that nothing in the Act ‘precludes either the United Kingdom or any of the colonies from enacting such legislation as they chose to regulate and . .
Cited – Ibralebbe v The Queen PC 1964
(St. Christopher and Nevis) A power to make laws for ‘peace, order and good government’ was used to confer legislative power on the Parliament of independent Ceylon, to connote ‘in British constitutional language, the widest law-making powers . .
Cited – Liyanage v The Queen PC 1967
(Ceylon) The appellants had been convicted of grave criminal offences under laws of the Parliament of Ceylon. The Act under which they were convicted was passed after an abortive coup, and deprived the appellants retrospectively of their right to . .
Cited – Regina v Secretary of State ex parte Thakrar CA 1974
The obligation in international law owed by one state to another to admit its nationals expelled by another could not be relied on by an individual, conflicted with immigration legislation and in any event only arose if the national had nowhere else . .
Cited – Winfat Enterprise (Hong Kong) Co Ltd v Attorney-General of Hong Kong PC 1985
The power to make laws for ‘peace, order and good government’ was widely recognised. Section 15 of New Territories Land Court Ordinance 1900 provided: ‘All land in the New Territories is hereby declared to be the property of the Crown . . ‘. It . .
Cited – JH Rayner (Mincing Lane) Ltd v Department of Trade and Industry HL 1989
An undisclosed principal will not be permitted to claim to be party to a contract if this is contrary to the terms of the contract itself. Thus the provision in the standard form B contract of the London Metal Exchange ‘this contract is made between . .
Cited – Lonrho Exports Ltd v Export Credit Guarantee Department 1999
A court must follow the interpretation of the Crown and cannot venture its own interpretation of international treaties, nor could it seek to see whether the Crown had implemented its provisions in good faith as required . .
Cited – Regina (Abbasi) v Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs CA 6-Nov-2002
There is no authority in law to support the imposition of an enforceable duty on the state to protect the citizen, and although the court was able to intervene, in limited ways, in the way in which the Foreign and Commonwealth Office used its . .
Cited – Ashby v White KBD 1703
Mr Ashby a burgess of the borough of Aylesbury was deprived of his right to vote by the misfeasance of a returning officer.
Held: The majority rejected the claim.
Lord Holt CJ (dissenting) An action would lie: ‘If the plaintiff has a . .
Cited – Neville v London Express Newspaper HL 1919
The question was whether, in order to recover damages for the tort which existed, it was necessary to show specific loss.
Held: An action for damages for maintenance will not lie in the absence of proof of special damage. . .
Cited – Van Duyn v Home Office ECJ 4-Dec-1974
LMA Miss Van Duyn, a Dutch national, wished to enter the UK to take up work with the Church of Scientology. Art 48EC (new Art.39EC) confers rights on the individuals of each Member State to go to another MS (host . .
Cited – Farah and Others v Home Office, British Airways Plc and Another CA 6-Dec-1999
The applicants claimed in negligence against the Home Office after its advisers had wrongly advised the first defendants that the claimants’ travel documents were not valid. The claim was struck out, and the claimants appealed. The strike out was . .
Cited – Trendtex Trading Corporation v Central Bank of Nigeria CA 1977
The court considered the developing international jurisdiction over commercial activities of state bodies which might enjoy state immunity, and sought to ascertain whether or not the Central Bank of Nigeria was entitled to immunity from suit.
Cited – Society of Lloyd’s v Jaffray ComC 26-Jan-2000
. .
Cited – Jaffray and others v Society of Lloyd’s CA 26-Jul-2002
There is no more scope for corporate dishonesty in deceit than in misfeasance, other than by the attribution to a corporate body of the dishonesty of an individual. It was alleged that there was unfairness through inequality of representation: ‘In . .
Cited – X (Minors) v Bedfordshire County Council; M (A Minor) and Another v Newham London Borough Council; Etc HL 29-Jun-1995
Liability in Damages on Statute Breach to be Clear
Damages were to be awarded against a Local Authority for breach of statutory duty in a care case only if the statute was clear that damages were capable of being awarded. in the ordinary case a breach of statutory duty does not, by itself, give rise . .
Cited – Rathbone v Bundock 1962
In the context of road traffic regulation, unless extended to statutory instruments expressly, ‘enactment’ meant an Act of Parliament. . .
Cited – La Compagnie Sucriere v Government of Mauritius PC 1995
Section 1 of the constitution of Mauritiius dealt with deprivation of property and section 6 dealt with compulsory purchase; neither dealt with legislative extinction of title with a provision for overreaching into the purchase price. . .
Cited – Red Sea Insurance Co Ltd v Bouygues SA and Others PC 21-Jul-1994
Lex loci delicti (the law of the jurisdiction in which the act complained of took place) can exceptionally be used when the lex fori (the jurisdiction formally assigned) gives no remedy. In the case of a claim under a foreign tort, the double . .
Cited – Pearce v Ove Arup Partnership Ltd and others CA 21-Jan-1999
An English court does not have to refuse an application which sought to apply a foreign copyright law in a claim based on acts committed abroad on the basis that not actionable here. Such restrictions applicable to land actions only: ‘It is, we . .
Cited – Dorset Yacht Co Ltd v Home Office HL 6-May-1970
A yacht was damaged by boys who had escaped from the supervision of prison officers in a nearby Borstal institution. The boat owners sued the Home Office alleging negligence by the prison officers.
Held: Any duty of a borstal officer to use . .
Cited – Stovin v Wise, Norfolk County Council (Third Party) HL 24-Jul-1996
Statutory Duty Does Not Create Common Law Duty
The mere existence of statutory power to remedy a defect cannot of itself create a duty of care to do so. A highway authority need not have a duty of care to highway users because of its duty to maintain the highway. The two stage test ‘involves . .
Cited – Phelps v Hillingdon London Borough Council; Anderton v Clwyd County Council; Gower v Bromley London Borough Council; Jarvis v Hampshire County Council HL 28-Jul-2000
The plaintiffs each complained of negligent decisions in his or her education made by the defendant local authorities. In three of them the Court of Appeal had struck out the plaintiff’s claim and in only one had it been allowed to proceed.
Cited – Caparo Industries Plc v Dickman and others HL 8-Feb-1990
Limitation of Loss from Negligent Mis-statement
The plaintiffs sought damages from accountants for negligence. They had acquired shares in a target company and, relying upon the published and audited accounts which overstated the company’s earnings, they purchased further shares.
Held: The . .
Cited – MacFarlane and Another v Tayside Health Board HL 21-Oct-1999
Child born after vasectomy – Damages Limited
Despite a vasectomy, Mr MacFarlane fathered a child, and he and his wife sought damages for the cost of care and otherwise of the child. He appealed a rejection of his claim.
Held: The doctor undertakes a duty of care in regard to the . .
Cited – Williams and Another v Natural Life Health Foods Ltd and Another HL 30-Apr-1998
A company director was not personally reliable in negligence for bad advice given by him as director unless it could clearly be shown that he had willingly accepted such personal responsibility. A special relationship involving an assumption of . .
Mentioned – Welby v Drake 12-Jan-1825
. .
Cited – Hirachand Punamchand v Temple CA 1911
The defendant, a British army officer in India, had given a promissory note to the plaintiff moneylenders. Unable to pay, he suggested they apply to his father, Sir Richard Temple. In reply, Sir Richard Temple’s solicitors wrote saying they were . .
Mentioned – Morris v Wentworth-Stanley CA 4-Sep-1998
Two actions had been brought by a contractor against the partners in a farming partnership. Those actions were consolidated. One of the partners died and when the plaintiff found that out he discontinued his claims against the deceased partner and . .
Cited – Johnson v Gore Wood and Co HL 14-Dec-2000
Shareholder May Sue for Additional Personal Losses
A company brought a claim of negligence against its solicitors, and, after that claim was settled, the company’s owner brought a separate claim in respect of the same subject-matter.
Held: It need not be an abuse of the court for a shareholder . .
Cited – Jennifer Gairy (as administratrix of the estate of Eric Matthew Gairy, deceased) v The Attorney General of Grenada PC 19-Jun-2001
(Grenada) The appellant sought to enforce an order of compensation against the crown in Grenada. The new constitution of Grenada expressly replaced all previous laws. It was not to be assumed that protections by way of Crown privilege under the . .
Cited – Bank of Credit and Commerce International SA v Ali, Khan and others (No 1); BCCI v Ali HL 1-Mar-2001
Cere Needed Releasing Future Claims
A compromise agreement which appeared to claim to settle all outstanding claims between the employee and employer, did not prevent the employee later claiming for stigma losses where, at the time of the agreement, the circumstances which might lead . .
Cited – Norwich and Peterborough Building Society v Stead 1993
It is for the person who has signed a document to show that the transaction which it effects is essentially different from the transaction intended so that the signatory can claim non est factum and say that he did not consent to it. But he also has . .
Mentioned – Gallie v Lee HL 1971
Lord Wilberforce said that the principles of non est factum are designed to protect also innocent third parties who may rely upon a document signed apparently correctly. . .
Cited – Alec Lobb (Garages) Ltd v Total Oil Ltd CA 1985
The court was asked whether the terms of a lease and lease back amounted to an unconscionable bargain and was unenforceable.
Held: The court affirmed the decision at first instance, but emphasised the need for unconscientious behaviour rather . .
Cited – Alec Lobb (Garages) Ltd v Total Oil Ltd QBD 1983
To establish that a contract was unconscionable, a party had to have made an unconscientious use of its superior position or superior bargaining power to the detriment of someone suffering from some special disability or disadvantage. This weakness . .
Cited – Fry v Lane QBD 1888
A court should be ready to set aside unconscionable transactions with ‘poor and ignorant persons’ where there had been no independent advice. . .
Cited – Boustany v Piggott PC 1995
In discussing what was said to be unconscionable contract, the Board accepted that ‘It is not sufficient to attract the jurisdiction of equity to prove that a bargain is hard, unreasonable or foolish; it must be proved to be unconscionable, in the . .
Cited – Credit Lyonnais Bank Nederland NV v Burch CA 1-Jul-1996
A Bank was to assume that undue influence existed where they knew that an employee was giving security for his employer’s debt to the bank. An unlimited guarantee given by an employee to his employer’s bank was set aside as unconscionable. The . .
Application for leave to appeal – Chagos Islanders v Attorney-General and Another CA 22-Jul-2004
The claimants sought leave to appeal against a finding that they had no cause of action for their expulsion from their islands.
Held: ‘Exile without colour of law is forbidden by Magna Carta. That it can amount to a public law wrong is already . .
Cited by:
Leave to appeal from – Chagos Islanders v Attorney-General and Another CA 22-Jul-2004
The claimants sought leave to appeal against a finding that they had no cause of action for their expulsion from their islands.
Held: ‘Exile without colour of law is forbidden by Magna Carta. That it can amount to a public law wrong is already . .
See Also – Bancoult, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Admn 11-Jun-2013
The claimant, displaced from the Chagos Archipelago, challenged a decision by the respondent to create a no-take Marine Protected Area arround the island which would make life there impossible if he and others returned. The respondent renewed his . .
Cited – Bancoult, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (No 2) SC 29-Jun-2016
Undisclosed Matter inadequate to revisit decision
The claimant sought to have set aside a decision of the House of Lords as to the validity of the 2004 Order, saying that it had been based on a failure by the defendant properly to disclose matters it was under a duty of candour to disclose.
See Also – Bancoult, Regina (on The Application of) (No 3) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs SC 8-Feb-2018
Diplomatic Protection Lost to Public Domain
The claimant challenged the use of a Marine Protected Area Order to exclude the Chagossians from their homelands on their British Indian Overseas Territory. They had sought to have admitted and used in cross examination of witnesses leaked . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 18 October 2021; Ref: scu.186638
