Search and Seizure – Concerns for Public Safety
The claimant supplied branded liquid gas containers and the gas, on condition that only its liquid gas would be used within the containers. The sought a search and seizure order against the defendants, saying that the public health and safety risks should be taken into account when granting such an order.
Held: The without notice application was granted. Where it so required, the court may look beyond the narrow focus on danger or harm to the applicant alone, and allow for broader questions of real danger to public health and safety, legitimately invoked by the applicant and linked to a cause of action of the applicant: ‘It would, in my judgment, the regrettable and harmful to the public interest and the interests of justice if this broader perspective could not properly be invoked in an appropriate case. That is not to say that the applicant somehow takes on the mantle of a public authority regulator, nor that the court transforms into a public law court in imposing an order in the public interest. Rather, the position is far more modest. It is that the court can properly be asked to have regard to public health and safety risks, in considering the claimant’s position: linked to the cause of action; linked to the implications of not making the order; and the risks as to evidence and as to property.’
Fordham J
[2020] EWHC 2426 (QB), [2020] WLR(D) 501
Bailii, WLRD
Civil Procedure Act 1997 7(1)(a)(b)
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Calor Gas Ltd v Stanford ChD 13-Nov-2009
Judgment on the return date following a search order which had been successfully obtained without notice from Wyn Williams J. The claimant said that the defendant had been refilling the claimant’s Liquid Petroleum Gas cylinders with gas from other . .
Cited – Bayerische Motoren Werke Ag (Bmw) v Premier Alloy Wheels (Uk) Ltd and Others ChD 8-Jun-2018
Application for a search order, interim injunction and related relief. The claimant alleged the manufacture of fake BMW wheels by the defendant.
Mr Justice Henry Carr gave his reasons for granting a search order, interim injunction and related . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Litigation Practice, Contract
Updated: 11 November 2021; Ref: scu.653954