A house owner had failed to give proper notice to the Board they had under an Act of 1855 authority to demolish any building he had erected and recover the cost from him. This action was brought against the Board because they had used that power without giving the owner an opportunity of being heard. The Board maintained that their discretion to order demolition was not a judicial discretion and that any appeal should have been to the Metropolitan Board of Works.
Byles J said: ‘although there are no positive words in a statute requiring that the party shall be heard, yet the justice of the common law will supply the omission of the legislature’.
Erie CJ held that the power was subject to a qualification repeatedly recognised that no man is to be deprived of his property without his having an opportunity of being heard and that this had been applied to ‘many exercises of power which in common understanding would not be at all a more judicial proceeding than would be the act of the district board in ordering a house to be pulled down’.
Willes J said that the rule was ‘of universal application and founded upon the plainest principles of justice’
Byles J, Eyrie CJ, Willes J
(1863) 32 LJCP 185, (1863) 14 CBNS 180, (1863) 143 ER 414, [1863] EngR 424
Worldlii
England and Wales
Cited by:
Approved – Hopkins and Another v Smethwick Local Board of Health CA 1890
Willes J said: ‘In condemning a man to have his house pulled down, a judicial act is as much implied as in fining him pounds 5 ; and as the local board is the only tribunal that can make such an order its act must be a judicial act, and the party to . .
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.
Updated: 10 October 2021; Ref: scu.653095 br>