The parties had resolved their claims of negligence, but asked the court to set the level of contributory negligence even though the appeal was academic.
Held: The court refused leave to appeal, but stated that its judgment could be reported. Sir Anthony Clarke MR concluded: ‘Thus the court was of the view (in Bowman v Fels) that, even though the litigation was private, if it was in the public interest to entertain the appeal, the court would be free to do so. This seems to me at bottom to be the correct approach. However, although as has been observed several times, the case involved public law duties, I do not read it as limiting the exception to each case, provided that the hearing of the appeal is in the public interest.’ and approved Professor Zuckerman who said : ‘In sum, the hearing of appeals that are no longer determinative of the rights of the parties will depend on whether the matter is of general public interest and whether entertaining an appeal is the most effective way of resolving the issue and promoting the overriding objective.’ He continued: ‘the court will not entertain an appeal between private parties in private litigation unless it is in the public interest to do so. Moreover, this is likely to be a very rare event, especially where the rights and duties to be considered are private and not public. Indeed, so far as I am aware, if we permitted this appeal to proceed, it would be the first case in which the court had ever considered such an appeal, since (as stated above) Bowman v Fels was a case involving an issue of public law.
All will depend upon the facts of the particular case . . ‘
Sir Anthony Clarke MR
2007 WL 5116827, [2007] EWHC Civ 373
Bailii
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Stanton v Collinson QBD 2-Mar-2009
The claimant was severely injured when a car driven by the defendant crashed. No-one was wearing a seat belt. The driver died. The driver’s estate argued that the claimant was contributorily negligent in not wearing a seat belt. The claimant said . .
Cited – Stanton v Collinson QBD 2-Mar-2009
The claimant was severely injured when a car driven by the defendant crashed. No-one was wearing a seat belt. The driver died. The driver’s estate argued that the claimant was contributorily negligent in not wearing a seat belt. The claimant said . .
Cited – Hutcheson v Popdog Ltd and Another CA 19-Dec-2011
The claimant had obtained an injunction to prevent the defendant publishing private materials regarding him. That injunction had been continued by consent but was no challenged by a third party news publisher.
Held: Leave to appeal was . .
Main Appeal – Gawler v Raettig (Leave) CA 3-Dec-2007
Application for leave to appeal. . .
These lists may be incomplete.
Updated: 24 June 2021; Ref: scu.322733