The appellant sought a declaration that the employer had imposed disciplinary measures improperly, in that they had been put in place by a port manager who possessed no relevant disciplinary powers.
Held: The delegation by the London Dock Labour Board, a statutory body, of its disciplinary functions to a port manager, was unlawful. The manager’s purported suspension of workers was therefore a nullity, and the Board was unable to ratify the decision.
Denning LJ said: ‘we are not asked to interfere with the decision of a statutory tribunal; we are asked to interfere with the position of a usurper . . These courts have always had a jurisdiction to deal with such a case . . the courts of equity have always had power to declare the orders of a usurper to be invalid and to set them aside. So at the present day we can do likewise.’
Singleton, Denning, Romer LJJ
[1953] EWCA Civ 5, [1953] 2 QB 18, [1953] 1 All ER 1113, [1953] 2 WLR 995, [1953] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 371
Bailii
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Ridge v Baldwin (No 1) HL 14-Mar-1963
No Condemnation Without Opportunity For Defence
Ridge, a Chief Constable, had been wrongfully dismissed because he was not given the opportunity of presenting his defence. He had been acquitted of the charges brought against him, but the judge at trial had made adverse comments about his . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Employment, Torts – Other
Leading Case
Updated: 02 November 2021; Ref: scu.262851