Note: ‘In accordance with the well established principles of stare decisis the decisions of a higher court are binding on judges sitting in a lower court. This principle serves the interests of legal certainty: see Broome v. Cassell and Co [1972] AC 1027 at 1054. The needs of litigants and their advisers to know where they stand is not served if a lower court is free to create a conflict of authority by declining to follow the relevant decision of a higher court.
The County Court is a lower court than the High Court in the hierarchy of the legal system of England and Wales and is bound by the decisions of the High Court, as well as those of courts above; see Cross on Precedent in English Law at page 123 which refers to an almost invariable assumption to this effect.
The Chancery Division of the High Court does not cease to be a higher court than the County Court when it exercises the same first instance jurisdiction as has been conferred on the County Court by the Leasehold Reform Acts. The fact that both the High Court and the County Court are courts of first instance exercising the same statutory jurisdiction does not justify the creation of an exception to the general rule of stare decisis stated in paragraph 92 above.’
Judges:
Mummery LJ, Arden LJ, Jacob LJ
Citations:
[2007] EWCA Civ 499, [2007] 3 All ER 910, [2007] 23 EG 165, [2007] NPC 69, [2008] HLR 1, [2008] 1 P and CR 22, [2007] L and TR 29, [2008] Ch 26, [2007] 3 EGLR 141, [2007] 3 WLR 542
Links:
Statutes:
Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 130
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Appeal from – Cadogan and others v 26 Cadogan Square Ltd, Howard de Walden Estates Limited v Aggio and others HL 25-Jun-2008
In each case all or part of a building was let by a head-lease and then as self-contained units under sub-leases. The head lessees had served notices under the 1993 Act requiring new leases. The freeholder denied that they were qualifying tenants, . .
Cited – Willers v Joyce and Another (Re: Gubay (Deceased) No 2) SC 20-Jul-2016
The Court was asked whether and in what circumstances a lower court may follow a decision of the Privy Council which has reached a different conclusion from that of the House of Lords (or the Supreme Court or Court of Appeal) on an earlier occasion. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Landlord and Tenant
Updated: 02 June 2022; Ref: scu.252526