The House considered the definition of a ‘bar’ and the area to which a special hours certificate applied.
Held: The appellant’s conviction for selling intoxicating liquor after prescribed hours was upheld as the sale took place in an area not in accordance with the terms of the special hours certificate and the sale of the alcohol in that area was not ancillary to the provision of music and dancing and substantial refreshment.
Viscount Dilhorne said: ‘These provisions show that it was Parliament’s intention to secure that the sale of intoxicating liquor under a special hours certificate should always be ancillary to music and dancing, and that premises to which a special hours certificate applied should not be what was called in argument a ‘late night pub.”
Lord Diplock said that the inherent flexibility of the English language may make it necessary for an interpreter to have recourse to a variety of aids, and ‘Although the term ‘purposive construction’ is not new, its entry into fashion betokens a swing by the appellate courts away from literal construction. Lord Diplock said in 1975: ‘If one looks back to the actual decisions of [the House of Lords] on questions of statutory construction over the last 30 years one cannot fail to be struck by the evidence of a trend away from the purely literal towards the purposive construction of statutory provisions.’
Viscount Dilhorne, Lord Diplock
[1975] 1 WLR 1204
Licensing Act 1964
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – Carter v Bradbeer QBD 1975
Sales of alcohol had taken place at a bar within the meaning of section 76(5).
Held: Widgery LCJ said: ‘I think it must be remembered that the consumption of liquor in the special hours period, for want of a better phrase, is liquor which is . .
Cited by:
Cited – Luminar Leisure Ltd v Norwich Crown Court Admn 3-Oct-2003
The claimant challenged a grant on appeal of a Supper Hours Certificate. It had been refused initially on the ground that in reality it was sought merely to secure extended licensing hours.
Held: The purpose of the licensee must be that the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 22 August 2021; Ref: scu.186579
