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These cases are from the lawindexpro database. They are now being transferred to the swarb.co.uk website in a better form. As a case is published there, an entry here will link to it. The swarb.co.uk site includes many later cases.  














Consumer - From: 1970 To: 1979

This page lists 14 cases, and was prepared on 20 May 2019.


 
 Havering London Borough Council v Stevenson; 1970 - [1970] 1WLR 1375
 
Naish v Gore [1971] 3 All ER 737
1971
QBD
Lord Widgery CJ
Crime, Consumer
The justices had come to the conclusion that reasonable precautions had been taken by the shopkeeper, and therefore that the defence in section 24 was made out. Held: Lord Widgery CJ said: "Accordingly, it seems to me that the proper disposal of this case is to observe that the justices with some evidence of reasonable precautions and due diligence before them were satisfied that that was sufficient to satisfy the terms of sec. 24. In the end, if the justices properly directed themselves as to the law and appreciated the onus that rests on the respondent, the question of whether the precautions taken were all reasonable precautions is a matter for them and, on the facts of this case, I am not disposed to say that they reached other than the conclusion which was open to them."
Lord Widgery contrasted the case before him with cases where no precautions had been taken, for example to test whether a watch said to be waterproof was in fact water resistant or whether the odometer had been altered in a case where there was no examination of the motorcar whatever. He observed that the trader had taken a certain amount of trouble to satisfy himself and said: "I for my part find it quite impossible to lay down as any general proposition in these cases that a motor dealer selling a secondhand car must wait for the log book and must check with the previous owner. To do so may be a very wise and proper precaution in appropriate cases, but I am not disposed to rule as a general principle that that must be so."
Trade Descriptions Act 1968 1(1)(b) 824
1 Citers



 
 Worcester Works Finance Ltd v Cooden; CA 1971 - [1972] 1 QB 210; [1971] 3 ALL ER 708
 
Beckett v Cohen [1972] 1 WLR 1593
1972
QBD

Consumer

Trade Descriptions Act 1968 14(1)
1 Citers



 
 Jarvis v Swans Tours Ltd; CA 16-Oct-1972 - [1973] 1 All ER 71; [1972] 3 WLR 954; [1973] QB 233; [1972] EWCA Civ 8
 
Parsons v Barnes [1973] CLR 537
1973

Lord Widgery CJ
Consumer, Criminal Practice
In the context of trading standards legislation: "No general proposition could be laid down that one partner was necessarily responsible for the acts of his co-partner under the legislation."


 
 Rees v Munday; QBD 1974 - [1974] 1 WLR 1284
 
Smedleys Limited v Breed [1974] AC 839
1974
HL
Viscount Dilhorne
Consumer, Crime
The defendant company had sold a can of peas. A caterpillar was found in it. Held: Despite having shown that they had taken all reasonable care, the defendant was guilty of selling food not to the standard required. The defence under the Act was available only if the incident was unavoidable, but that would require every person in the production line to have done everything humanly possible. Notwithstanding non-negligent quality control, there was strict liability at criminal law where a caterpillar identical in colour, size, density and weight to the peas in a tin survived the process in one out of three million tins.
Viscount Dilhorne said: “In 1951 the question was raised whether it was not a basic principle of the rule of law that the operation of the law is automatic where an offence is known or suspected. The then Attorney-General, Sir Hartley Shawcross, said: ‘It has never been the rule in this country - I hope it never will be - that criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution.’ He pointed out that the Attorney-General and the Director of Public Prosecutions only intervene to direct a prosecution when they consider it in the public interest to do so and he cited a statement made by Lord Simon in 1925 when he said: 'there is no greater nonsense talked about the Attorney-General’s duty than the suggestion that in all cases the Attorney-General ought to decide to prosecute merely because he thinks there is what the lawyers call a case. It is not true and no one who has held the office of Attorney-General supposes it is.' Sir Hartley Shawcross’s statement was indorsed, I think, by more than one of his successors.”
Food and Drugs Act 1955
1 Citers


 
Norman v Bennett [1974] 1 WLR 1229
1974

Lord Widgery CJ
Consumer
The court considered the requirements to establish an offence under the 1968 Act: "I think that, where a false description is attached to goods, its effect can be neutralised by an express disclaimer or contradiction of the message contained in the trade description. To be effective any such disclaimer must be as bold, precise and compelling as the trade description itself and must be as effectively brought to the notice of any person to whom the goods may be supplied. In other words the disclaimer must equal the trade description in the extent to which it is likely to get home to anyone interested in receiving the goods."
Trades Descriptions Act 1968
1 Citers


 
Regina v Ford Motor Company Limited [1974] 1 WLR 1221
1974
QBD
Bridge J
Consumer
The alleged false trade description was that a car supplied to a garage was "new", as ordered from Fords. Held: (Appeal allowed on other grounds) The effect of the order was that Parkway was seeking the supply from Fords of a "new vehicle". The car that was supplied had in fact earlier been damaged whilst in the care of Fords' forwarding agents: "... we have reached the conclusion that in the terms of the statute this was a request made by Parkway to Fords which gave an indirect indication that the trade description 'new' was applied to the car which Parkway requested Fords to deliver, and that being so the second part of Section 4(3) was in our judgment similarly satisfied by the evidence, that is to say, the circumstances was such as to make it reasonable to infer that the goods supplied pursuant to that request were supplied as goods corresponding to that trade description; and it follows, therefore, that Fords as the person supplying the goods in accordance with Section 4(3) are deemed to have applied that trade description to the goods." It had been argued about whether or not implied terms could constitute trade descriptions: "This seems to us to go much too far; it would be very startling, for instance, the effect of the Act of 1968 were to make a criminal of every seller of goods by description who delivers goods "in breach of the condition of merchantable quality which is implied by section 14(2) of the Sale of Goods Act 1893."
Trade Descriptions Act 1968 4(3)
1 Citers



 
 British Airways Board v Taylor; HL 1976 - [1976] 1 WLR 13

 
 Orakpo v Manson Investments Ltd; HL 1977 - [1978] AC 95; [1977] 3 All ER 1
 
Bertrand v Paul Ott KG C-150/77
21 Jun 1978
ECJ

European, Consumer
Europa Since the concept of a contract of sale on instalment credit terms varies from one member state to another, in accordance with the objectives pursued by their respective laws, it is necessary, in the context of the convention, to consider that concept as being independent and therefore to give it a uniform substantive content allied to the community order. According to the principles common to the laws of the member states, the sale of goods on instalment credit terms is to be understood as a transaction in which the price is discharged by way of several payments or which is linked to a financing contract. However, a restrictive interpretation of the second paragraph of article 14 of the convention, in conformity with the objectives pursued by section 4, entails the restriction of the jurisdictional advantage for which provision is made by that article to buyers who are in need of protection, their economic position being one of weakness in comparison with sellers by reason of the fact that they are private final consumers and are not engaged, when buying the product acquired on instalment credit terms, in trade or professional activities.

 
Commission v Italy C-93/79; [1979] EUECJ C-93/79
14 Dec 1979
ECJ

Consumer
Failure of a State to fulfil its obligations - Approximation of laws - Weighing machines.
[ Bailii ]
 
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