Miss Martindale was made a ward of court on 11 April 1894. Knowing that she was a ward of court a young poet and novelist named Ford Madox Hueffer – later known as Ford Madox Ford – married her in May 1894. On 1 June 1894 North J granted an injunction restraining Hueffer from holding communication with her, it not being known then that he had married her. The case came back before North J on 6 June 1894. Reports of the proceedings on that day, heard in private, appeared in a number of newspapers which were then proceeded against for contempt. North J said that: ‘The paragraph . . was intended to appear to be and would be understood as a concise statement of what took place in my private room . . But . . there was no contempt in announcing the fact that the ward had become the wife of Hueffer; the contempt was in purporting to give the public information, though meagre, of what the Judge had decided ought not to be disclosed, by determining to hear the case in private and excluding the public.’ The contempt lay in publishing an account of the proceedings of the court, not in publishing the fact of the marriage.
Judges:
North J
Citations:
[1894] 3 Ch 193
Cited by:
Cited – In re F (otherwise A ) (A Minor) (Publication of Information) CA 1977
An allegation of contempt was made in proceedings related to the publication by a newspaper of extracts from a report by a social worker and a report by the Official Solicitor, both prepared after the commencement and for the purpose of the wardship . .
Cited – Doctor A and Others v Ward and Another FD 8-Jan-2010
Parents wished to publicise the way care proceedings had been handled, naming the doctors, social workers and experts some of whom had been criticised. Their names had been shown as initials so far, and interim contra mundum orders had been made . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Contempt of Court
Updated: 05 May 2022; Ref: scu.401609