On the day after the judge had given judgment in a county court, he decided that he had been wrong. The judge provided the party with grounds upon which he would, if not persuaded otherwise, alter his previous judgment and order. A further hearing was fixed at which counsel made further submissions. In the course of his further judgment, the judge said that, within minutes of delivering his first judgment, he was sure that his decision was wrong and that he remained of that view. The plaintiff landlords appealed against the altered decision.
Held: The circumstances here where exceptional.
There was no requirement of a clause requiring or allowing an election for arbitration to be mutual. Fox LJ said ‘There is a fully bilateral agreement which constitutes a contract to refer. The fact that the option is exercisable by one of the parties only seems to me to be irrelevant. The arrangement suits both parties . . the landlord is protected, if there is no arbitration, by his own assessment of the rent as stated in his notice: and the tenant is protected, if he is dissatisfied with the landlord’s assessment of the rent, by his right to refer the matter to arbitration. Both sides have, therefore, accepted the arrangement and there is no lack of mutuality.’
Dillon LJ said: ‘An order pronounced in open court, or implicit in a judgment pronounced or handed down in open court, may be recalled or varied before it has been perfected by the sealing of a written order: ‘it is indeed exceptional for a judge who has pronounced an order in open court to be completely satisfied, before the order has been drawn up, registered or perfected, that the order was wrong.’
Fox LJ, Dillon LJ
[1986] QB 868, [1986] 2 WLR 1003, [1986] 2 All ER 227
England and Wales
Citing:
Applied – Millensted v Grosvenor House (Park Lane) Ltd CA 1937
For the negligence of the hotel in upsetting a jug of hot water over her, the judge awarded damages of pounds 50 to the plaintiff, but on the following day, without further argument on that point, he informed the parties that his award had been . .
Cited by:
Cited – NB Three Shipping Ltd. v Harebell Shipping Ltd ComC 13-Oct-2004
Under charterparty agreements, certain disputes were to be referred to arbitration. The claimant sought to pursue a dispute before the court.
Held: The lack of mutuality on the arbitration clause did not prevent its validity. The party had the . .
Cited – Read v Edmed QBD 8-Dec-2004
The claimant had offered to accept damages subject to a 50% finding of contributory negligence. The defendant did not accept. That was the exact order made. The claimant appealed refusal to award her costs on the standard basis to the time for . .
Cited – Re L and B (Children) SC 20-Feb-2013
The court was asked as to the extent to which a court, having once declared its decision, could later change its mind. Though this case arose with in care proceedings, the court asked it as a general question. The judge in a fact finding hearing in . .
Cited – TZ v General Medical Council Admn 17-Apr-2015
Appeal against decision of a Fitness to Practise Panel holding that the Appellant’s fitness to practise as a medical practitioner was impaired by reason of his misconduct. It directed that his name be erased from the Medical Register under section . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 14 August 2021; Ref: scu.216403
