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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.  














Health - From: 1849 To: 1899

This page lists 19 cases, and was prepared on 27 May 2018.

 
Re Cumming [1852] 1 De GM&G 537
1852
CA
Knight Bruce LJ
Health
Knight Bruce LJ said: "It is the right of an English person to require that the free use of his property, and personal freedom, shall not be taken from him on the ground of alleged lunacy, without being allowed the opportunity of establishing his sanity or denying his insanity before a jury as a contesting party, not merely as a subject of inquiry."
1 Citers


 
Affleck v Affleck [1857] EngR 369; (1856-1857) 3 Sm & G 394; (1857) 65 ER 709
26 Mar 1857


Trusts, Health
Covenant by G. on his marriage; that if he came into possession, he would exercise the power of jointuring, which, by the terms of the will, could only be exercised by a tenant for life in possession. G., before coming into possession, became of unsound mind. Held, that the covenant was a defective execution of the power, which this Court would enforce against the remainder-man. A previous covenant by a person of sound mind must prevail against any subsequent mental incapacity.
[ Commonlii ]
 
Symes v Green (1859) 1 Sw & Tr 401; (1859) 28 LJP & M 83; (1859) 164 ER 785
1859


Health, Wills and Probate
The deceased had been taken ill and his mind affected, but he recovered. For several weeks he behaved normally and wrote a will, but this was within a day of the recurrence of symptoms of his illness which included a fixated idea that he would be eternally damned, having taken communion whilst unworthy. A few days later he was declared insane and died a year later. Held. Where a will was apparently properly executed and was rational on the face of it, it was to be presumed to be valid and made by a person of proper capacity unless and until the contrary was shown. Once circumstances were shown to exist to counterbalance that presumption, the court must pronounce against the will unless it was established affirmatively that the testator was of sound mind when the will was executed. Here though there was nothing in the will to betray any lack of capacity, circumstances existed to require the shift in the burden of proof, and it was not discharged.

 
The Directors, Etc of The Stockton and Darlington Railway Company v John Brown, A Lunatic, By His Committees [1860] EngR 1043; (1860) 9 HLC 246; (1860) 11 ER 724
24 Jul 1860


Health, Land

[ Commonlii ]
 
In The Matter Of Leeming, A Lunatic [1861] EngR 233; (1861) 3 De G F & J 43; (1861) 45 ER 794
25 Jan 1861


Health

[ Commonlii ]
 
Scott v Wakem (1862) 3 F and F 328
1862

Baron Bramwell
Torts - Other, Health
If it could be shown to be necessary to protect him from harming himself, the common law gave power for a man to be detained.
1 Citers


 
In The Matter Of Walter Blackmore, A Person Of Unsound Mind [1862] EngR 1183; (1862) 1 De G J & S 84; (1862) 46 ER 33
19 Dec 1862


Health

[ Commonlii ]
 
Symm v Fraser (1863) 3 F and F 859
1863

Cockburn CJ
Health, Torts - Other
The common law permitted the detention of those who were a danger, or potential danger, to themselves or others, in so far as this was shown to be necessary.
1 Citers


 
Leatham, Treasurer Of Lunatic Asylum, &Amp;C, Against The Visitor And Guardians Of The United Parishes Of Bolton Le Sands, &Amp;C, [1865] EngR 482; (1865) 6 B & S 547; (1865) 122 ER 1297
15 May 1865


Health

[ Commonlii ]

 
 Banks v Goodfellow; QBD 1870 - (1870) LR 5 QB 549
 
Beal v Smith (1873) LR 9 Ch App 85
1873

Lord Justice James
Litigation Practice, Health
Lord Justice James discussed the practice in the Court of Chancery on claims brought by people without mental capacity: "The law of the Court of Chancery undoubtedly is that in certain cases where there is a person of unsound mind, not so found by inquisition, and therefore incapable of invoking the protection of the Court, that protection may in proper cases, and if and so far as may be necessary and proper, be invoked by any person as his next friend.
It is not by reason of the incompetency, but notwithstanding the incompetency, that the Court of Chancery entertains the proceedings."
1 Citers



 
 Drew v Nunn; CA 1879 - (1879) 4 QBD 661; (1879 40 LT 671; (1879 48 LJQB 59

 
 The Fore Street Warehouse Company Ltd v Durrant and Co; 1883 - (1883) 10 QBD 471
 
Durham v Durham, Hunter v Edney (Orse Hunter), Cannon v Smalley (Orse Cannon) [1885] 10 PD 10; 1 TLR 338
1885

Sir James Hannen P
Family, Health
The burden of establishing that a party to a marriage had lacked capacity through insanity, lay on the party making the assertion. The court is to decide whether the respondent was capable of understanding the nature of the contract, and the duties and responsibilities created, and was free of morbid delusions on the subject.
Sir James Hannen P said that marriage involves "protection on the part of the man, and submission on the part of the woman"
1 Citers


 
Queen-Empress v Ademma (1886) ILR 9 Mad 369
1886

Muttusami Ayyar and Brandt JJ
Health
(Appellate Criminal Court of Madras) A prosecution had been brought under section 312 of the Indian Penal Code, it being an offence “voluntarily [to] cause a woman with child to miscarry”. The trial judge had held that the defendant, who had only been pregnant for one month, could not be said to have been “with child”, for “according to the evidence, what came away was only a mass of blood” and “there was nothing which could be called even a rudimentary foetus or child”. Held: Setting aside the acquittal, and directing a re-trial, the appellate court said: “The term miscarriage is not defined in the Penal Code. In its popular sense it is synonymous with abortion, and consists in the expulsion of the embryo or foetus, ie., the immature product of conception. The stage to which pregnancy has advanced and the form which the ovum or embryo may have assumed are immaterial. Section 312 requires proof that the woman is “with child,” but it is enough if the fact of pregnancy and the intentional expulsion of the immature contents of the uterus are established. The words “with child” mean pregnant, and it is not necessary to show that “quickening”, ie., perception by the mother of the movements of the foetus has taken place or that the embryo has assumed a foetal form.”
1 Citers



 
 Imperial Loan Co v Stone; CA 1892 - [1892] 1 QB 599

 
 Re Cathcart; 1893 - [1893] 1 Ch 466
 
Van Grutten v Foxwell [1897] AC 658
1897

Lord Macnaghten, Lord Herschell
Estoppel, Health
It would be dangerous to allow a jury, eight years after the event, to decide that a woman executing a deed had been incompetent to do so when at the time she had been certified competent. It is one thing to put the rule in a nutshell and another to keep it there (Lord Macnaghten).
1 Cites

1 Citers


 
Pasmore v Oswaldtwistle Urban District Council [1898] AC 387
1898
HL
Earl of Halsbury LC
Nuisance, Litigation Practice, Health
Where an Act creates an obligation, and enforces the performance in a specified manner, it is a general rule that performance cannot be enforced in any other manner.
Earl of Halsbury LC said: "The principle that where a specific remedy is given by a Statute, it thereby deprives the person who insists upon a remedy of any other form of remedy than that given by the Statute, is one which is very familiar and which runs through the law. I think Lord Tenterden accurately states that principle in the case of Doe v. Bridges . ."
Public Health Act 1875
1 Cites

1 Citers


 
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