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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.  














International - From: 1994 To: 1994

This page lists 13 cases, and was prepared on 08 August 2015.

 
Underwager -v- Salter 22 Fed 3d 730 (1994); [1994] USCA7 471; 22 Media L Rep 1852
1994

Judge Easterbrook
International, Defamation
(United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit) Judge Easterbrook spoke of a defamation claim in a scientific dispute: "[Plaintiffs] cannot, by simply filing suit and crying 'character assassination!', silence those who hold divergent views, no matter how adverse those views may be to plaintiffs' interests. Scientific controversies must be settled by the methods of science rather than by the methods of litigation. . More papers, more discussion, better data, and more satisfactory models - not larger awards of damages - mark the path towards superior understanding of the world around us."
1 Citers

[ Worldlii ]
 
El Al Israeli Airlines Ltd -v- Danielowitz [1994] Isrl LR 478
1994

Justice Barak
International
(Israel) A free society respects individual differences, and 'Only the worst dictatorships try to eradicate those differences.'
1 Citers


 
Owens Bank Ltd -v- Fulvio Braco and Another Times, 03 February 1994; C-129/92; [1994] EUECJ C-129/92
20 Jan 1994
ECJ

International, European
Convention on Recognition didn't apply with non-contracting state.
[ Europa ] - [ Bailii ]
 
Kinnear and Others -v- Falconfilms Nv and Others Times, 01 March 1994; [1994] EWHC QB 1; [1996] 1 WLR 920; [1994] 3 All ER 42; [1994] ILPr 731
27 Jan 1994
QBD
Phillips J
International, Personal Injury, Health and Safety, Jurisdiction
The actor Roy Kinnear died on being thrown from a horse while making a film in Spain. His widow sought damages from the fim company who in turn sought to issue a third party notice against those involved in Spain. Held: A third party claim with a sufficient nexus may bring a main claim with Brussels Convention.
[ Bailii ]
 
Mund & Fester -v- Hatrex Internationaal Transport Times, 29 March 1994; C-398/92; [1994] EUECJ C-398/92
10 Feb 1994
ECJ

International, European
(Judgment) A presumption against the successful enforcement of a judgment was not valid against an EU member.
1 Citers

[ Bailii ]

 
 Territorial Dispute (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya/Chad); ICJ 23-Feb-1994 - Times, 23 February 1994
 
Showlag -v- Mansour and Others Times, 29 March 1994
29 Mar 1994
PC

International, Commonwealth
Earliest of two foreign competing valid judgments is to be given priority.

 
Mecury Energy Ltd -v- Electricity Corporation of New Zealand Ltd Gazette, 13 April 1994
13 Apr 1994
PC

International, Commonwealth
Actions for breach of statutory duty were properly struck out when brought against a state enterprise.

 
In Re B (A Minor)(Child Abduction: Consent) Gazette, 15 June 1994; Times, 12 May 1994; Ind Summary, 09 May 1994; [1994] 2 FLR 294
9 May 1994
CA
Waite LJ
Children, International
A six year old boy, had lived in Western Australia all his life. Shortly prior to his removal from Australia, the mother had left Australia to live in Wales. The maternal grandmother asked the father for permission to take the child to Wales to visit the mother. The father said he would not allow the child to leave Australia for longer than 6 months, and he insisted that legal arrangements be put in place for the child's return. Accordingly, the father, maternal grandmother and the mother entered into "minutes of consent order" whereby the parents would have joint guardianship, the father sole custody, and the grandmother would return the child to Western Australia by a particular date. However, the minutes of consent were not able to be registered and were therefore not legally enforceable in Western Australia. The father was persuaded by the mother's assurances, and the grandmother's provision of a bond, that they were sincere in their undertaking to return the child to Australia. The mother later admitted in evidence that she signed the agreement without any intention of cooperating with its terms. The trial judge found that the consent was obtained by deceit. The mother appealed. Held: A consent to a child's removal from a country which had been obtained by deceit was not to be relied upon readily. An order for the return of a child to its home country could be made without a formal order having been made in that country. A claim of duress failed.
Waite LJ said: "The central issue.
Her counsel, Mr Munby, has not sought to suggest that the mother's conduct, or that of the maternal grandmother, can be defended on any equitable or moral ground. The judge's finding that: 'the mother, assisted by her own mother, cruelly deceived the father; and she now seeks to profit by her deceit', is not challenged. The crucial issues are:
. (2) does the fact that the father's consent to that removal was obtained by deception require him to be treated as though he had never consented at all, so as to render the removal a breach of his 'rights of custody'?
. . Mr Munby contends that the father's consent to F's removal on 25 August 1993 was a genuine consent, however fraudulently obtained by the mother and maternal grandmother. The deceit may be reprehensible, but the fact that consent can (sic) given makes it impossible to say that the removal was wrongful in the sense of involving a breach of the father's rights of custody. Mr Holman submits that the judge was right to hold that a consent obtained by deceit is no consent . .
. . As for the issue of consent, the question whether a purported consent to the child's removal obtained from the aggrieved parent was or was not a valid consent is similarly to be determined according to the circumstances of each case. The only starting-point that can be stated with reasonable certainty is that the courts of the requested State are unlikely to regard as valid a consent that has been obtained through a calculated and deliberate fraud on the part of the absconding parent. That applies in my judgment whatever the purpose for which the consent is relied on -- whether it be to nullify what would otherwise be considered a wrongful breach of rights of custody for the purposes of Art 3, or as a consent of the kind that is expressly referred to in Art. 13(a).'
Here again, the judge in my view reached a conclusion that is unassailable. The father's consent to F's removal last August was indeed obtained through a cruel deceit. It was cruel, moreover, not only to the father but to the child. F is only 6, but he is old enough to understand the assurance given to him when he left Australia that he would be returned after an interval to the only country he had ever known and the only parent who had given him continuous and consistent care; and vulnerable enough to suffer if that expectation is destroyed. The judge was right to hold that a consent so obtained was no true consent at all."
Child Abduction and Custody Act 1985
1 Citers


 
Da Cooper Lavalin Nv -v- Ken-Ren Chemicals and Fertilisers Ltd (Liq) Times, 09 May 1994; Gazette, 15 June 1994; Ind Summary, 16 May 1994
9 May 1994
HL

Arbitration, International
The High Court has power to order security for costs to be given with respect to an international arbitration to take place in London, where there may be doubt as to the plaintiff's creditworthiness.
ICC Rules of Conciliation & Arbitration 1988 - Arbitration Act 1950 812(6)

 
Red Sea Insurance Co Ltd -v- Bouygues SA and Others Gazette, 09 November 1994; Ind Summary, 26 September 1994; Times, 21 July 1994; [1995] 1 AC 190
21 Jul 1994
PC
Lord Slynn
International, Commonwealth
Lex loci delicti (the law of the jurisdiction in which the act complained of took place) can exceptionally be used when the lex fori (the jurisdiction formally assigned) gives no remedy. In the case of a claim under a foreign tort, the double actionability exception may be applied to allow use of the lex loci delicti. Lord Slynn: "Their Lordships, having considered all of these opinions, recognise the conflict which exists between, on the one hand, the desirability of a rule which is certain and clear on the basis of which people can act and lawyers advise and, on the other, the desirability of the courts having the power to avoid injustice by introducing an element of flexibility into the rule. They do not consider that the rejection of the doctrine of the proper law of the tort as part of English law is inconsistent with a measure of flexibility being introduced into the rules. They consider that the majority in Boys v Chaplin [1971] AC 356 recognised the need for such flexibility. They accept that the law of England recognises that a particular issue between the parties to litigation may be governed by the law of the country which, with respect to that issue, has the most significant relationship with the occurrence and with the parties. They agree with the statement of Lord Wilberforce, at pp 391-392, … as to the extent and application of the exception. They accept, as he did, that the exception will not be successfully invoked in every case or even, probably, in many cases and, at p 391H, that 'The general rule must apply unless clear and satisfying grounds are shown why it should be departed from and what solution, derived from what other rule, should be preferred."
1 Cites

1 Citers


 
Arab Monetary Fund -v- Hashim Times, 11 October 1994
11 Oct 1994

Chadwick J
International, Damages
In cases under the 1978 Act the court does not ask whether, under some rule of English private international law to be found independently of that Act, the contribution claim is to be determined by reference to the 1978 Act. Rather, the court asks whether, under the provisions of the 1978 Act itself, the contribution claim ought to succeed. Chadwick J said: "If B and C were each persons against whom liability had been or could be established in an action brought against them by A in an English court, applying the appropriate law in accordance with English private international law rules, then the Act conferred on B a right of contribution against C to which the court had to give effect. There was no preliminary question as to proper law the answer to which determined, independently of the Act, whether the Act applied."
Civil Liability Contribution Act 1978
1 Citers


 
Philipp Brothers Ltd -v- Republic of Sierra Leone and Others Times, 28 November 1994
28 Nov 1994
CA

International
Payment by European Commission under Lome Convention was garnisheeable - it was not subject to any special trust.

 
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