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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: 1970 To: 1979

This page lists 10 cases, and was prepared on 27 May 2018.

 
In re W (EEM) [1971] Ch 123
1971

Mr Justice Ungoed-Thomas
Health, Trusts
It would be for the "benefit" of the patient to exercise the powers conferred by section 95(1) of the 1983 Act so as to enable there to be done something which the patient would have wished to do if he had been able to act for himself.
1 Citers


 
Mason v Mason [1972] Fam 302
1972


Family, Health
The court considered the mental capacity required of somebody to give their consent to a decree of divorce.
1 Citers


 
X v United Kingdom (Unreported 5 October 1972)
5 Oct 1972
ECHR

Human Rights, Prisons, Health
A complaint by a prisoner that as a mentally disordered person he should have been held in a psychiatric hospital rather than a prison was rejected as inadmissible.
1 Citers



 
 In re S (F G) (Mental Health Patient); 1973 - [1973] 1 WLR 178
 
W v L [1974] QB 711
1974
CA
Lawton LJ
Health
For civil patients, it matters a great deal whether the classification of their condition is 'severe subnormality' or just 'subnormality' or whether it is 'mental illness' or 'psychopathic disorder'. Lawton LJ discussed the construction of the phrase 'mental illness': "The answer in my judgment is to be found in the advice which Lord Reid gave in Cozens v. Brutus [1973] AC 854 at 861, namely that ordinary words in the English language should be construed in the way that ordinary sensible people would construe them. That being the right test, then I ask myself what would the ordinary sensible person have said about the patient's condition in this case … In my judgment such a person would have said 'well the fellow is obviously mentally ill'. It is that application of the sensible person's assessment of the condition, plus the medical indication, which in my judgment brought the case within the classification of mental illness and justified the finding of the County Court Judge."
1 Cites

1 Citers


 
Pountney v Griffiths Unreported, 1975
1975
QBD
Lord Widgery CJ
Health
A mental patient sought damages for assault from a nurse. The nurse replied that the proceedings were a nullity since the patient had not first obtained permission to commence proceedings. Held: Lord Widgery CJ said: "Although no point was taken under this section in the course of the hearing in the court below, it is now contended on behalf of the applicant that the proceedings brought against him were criminal proceedings in respect of an act purporting to be done in pursuance of the Mental Health Act 1959. It is common ground that the consent of the High Court was not obtained to the institution of the proceedings, and it is further common ground that if such permission was necessary in the circumstances of this case the proceedings below were a nullity and the order can be quashed. The sole question therefore is whether these proceedings came within the ambit of s.141(1) so as to make the leave of the High Court necessary."
Mental Health Act 1959
1 Citers



 
 In re Quinlan; 1976 - (1976) 355 A2d 647
 
Finlayson v HM Advocate 1978 SLT (Notes) 60
1978


Scotland, Health

1 Citers


 
Addington v Texas 60 L Ed 2d 323; 60 L Ed 323; 99 SCt 1804; 441 US 418
30 Apr 1979

Burger CJ
Health, International
(US Supreme Court) To commit an individual to a mental institution in civil proceedings, the state was required by the "due process" clause of the US Constitution to prove by clear and convincing evidence the statutory preconditions to commitment. That was an intermediate standard, between proof beyond reasonable doubt and proof on the preponderance of the evidence, which was held to strike a fair balance between the rights of the individual and the legitimate concerns of the state.
1 Citers

[ Worldlii ]

 
 Winterwerp v The Netherlands; ECHR 24-Oct-1979 - [1979] 2 EHRR 387; [1979] ECHR 4; 6301/73
 
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