Links: Home | swarblaw - law discussions

swarb.co.uk - law index


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.  














Jurisdiction - From: 1930 To: 1959

This page lists 16 cases, and was prepared on 02 April 2018.

 
Waterhouse v Reid [1938] 1 KB 743; [1938] 1 All ER 235
1938

Greer LJ
Jurisdiction
The court has no power to make orders against persons outside its territorial jurisdiction unless authorised by statute and that there is no inherent extra-territorial jurisdiction.
1 Citers


 
Compania Naviera Vascongado v Steamship "Cristina" [1938] AC 485
1938
HL
Lord Atkin
Jurisdiction, International
A state-owned ship that was used for public purposes could not be made the subject of proceedings in rem. Lord Atkin described the absolute immunity of a sovereign of a foreign state within this jurisdiction: "The foundation for the application to set aside the writ and arrest of the ship is to be found in two propositions of international law engrafted into our domestic law which seem to me to be well established and to be beyond dispute. The first is that the courts of a country will not implead a foreign sovereign, that is, they will not by their process make him against his will a party to legal proceedings whether the proceedings involve process against his person or seek to recover from him specific property or damages.
The second is that they will not by their process, whether the sovereign is a party to the proceedings or not, seize or detain property which is his or of which he is in possession or control. There has been some difference in the practice of nations as to possible limitations of this second principle as to whether it extends to property only used for the commercial purposes of the sovereign or to personal private property. In this country it is in my opinion well settled that it applies to both."
This doctrine derives from the maxim par in parem non habet imperium, but also from ideas as comity or reciprocity, the practicability of enforcement, or the respect for the dignity of other states.
1 Citers



 
 The El Condado; SCS 1939 - [1939] 63 L1L Rep 330
 
Vita Food Products Inc v Unus Shipping Co Ltd [1939] AC 277; [1939] UKPC 7
30 Jan 1939
PC
Lord Wright
Contract, Jurisdiction
(Nova Scotia) Goods were shipped from Newfoundland under a bill of lading which contained an exemption for loss caused by the servants of the carrier. This exemption was void by the law of Newfoundland, whose legislature had enacted the Hague Rules, but the action was brought in Nova Scotia where the courts had to apply the proper law of the contract contained in its bill of lading - English law - by which the exemption clause was valid. Lord Wright: "But whatever view a Newfoundland Court might take, whether they would hold that the contracts contained in the bills of lading must be taken to have incorporated the Hague Rules or whether they would hold them to have been illegal, the result would be the same in the present case, where the action was brought not in a Newfoundland but in a Nova Scotian Court. It may be that, if suit were brought on these bills of lading in a Newfoundland Court, and the Court held they were illegal, the Court would refuse to give effect to them, on the basis that a Court is bound to obey the laws of its own Legislature or its own common law . . But it does not follow that any other Court could properly act in the same way. If it has before it a contract good by its own law or by the proper law of the contract, it will in proper cases give effect to the contract and ignore the foreign law."
Lord Wright said: "Each case has to be considered on its merits. Nor must it be forgotten that the rule by which contracts not expressly forbidden by statute or declared to be void are in proper cases nullified for disobedience to a statute is a rule of public policy only, and public policy understood in a wider sense may at times be better served by refusing to nullify a bargain save on serious and sufficient grounds."
1 Citers

[ Bailii ]

 
 Lorentzen v Lydden; 1942 - [1942] KB 202
 
Frankfurther v W L Exner Ltd [1947] 1 Ch 629
1947

Romer J
Jurisdiction
The court refused to give effect to an Austrian decree extending to moveables situated in this country because it was penal in nature.
1 Citers


 
In re Duke of Wellington [1947] Ch 506
1947
ChD
Wynn-Parry J
Jurisdiction
The court was asked to settle the fate of Spanish estates which had been granted to the first Duke together with a title of nobility. To do this it had to consider the effect of Spanish law: "It would be difficult to find a harder task than that which faces me, namely, of expounding for the first time either in this country or Spain the relevant law of Spain as it would be expounded by the Supreme Court of Spain, which up to the present time has made no pronouncement on the subject, and having to base that exposition on evidence which satisfies me that on this subject there exists a profound cleavage of legal opinion in Spain, and two conflicting decisions of courts of inferior jurisdiction." and "The task of an English judge, who is faced with the duty of finding as a fact what is the relevant foreign law, in a case involving the application of foreign law, as it would be expounded in the foreign court, for that purpose notionally sitting in that court, is frequently a hard one; but it would be difficult to imagine a harder task than that which faces me, namely, of expounding for the first time either in this country or in Spain the relevant law of Spain as it would be expounded by the Supreme Court of Spain, which up to the present time has made no pronouncement on the subject, and having to base that exposition on evidence which satisfies me that on this subject there exists a profound cleavage of legal opinion in Spain, and two conflicting decisions of courts of inferior jurisdiction".
1 Citers



 
 Bata v Bata; CA 1948 - [1948] WN 366; (1948) 92 Sol Jo 574

 
 Bank Voor Handel En Scheepvaart NV v Slatford; 1951 - [1953] 1 QB 248; [1951] 2 TLR 755; [1951] 2 All ER 779

 
 Banque des Marchands de Moscou (Koupetschesky) v Kindersley; CA 1951 - [1951] Ch D 112

 
 Novello and Co Ltd v Hinrichsen Editions Ltd; 1951 - [1951] 1 Ch 595
 
Mattar and Saba v Public Trustee [1952] 3 DLR 399, 401 (NS)
1952


Jurisdiction
Alberta Appellate Division - The court denied enforcement of a Quebec judgment on promissory notes, and held that an agreement to submit to the jurisdiction of a foreign court is not to be implied from the fact that the defendant has entered into a contract in the foreign country or to be performed there.
1 Cites

1 Citers


 
Amoah Ababio, Ohene of Asamangkese Representing The Stool of Asamangkese and Another v John Edmund Turkson [1954] UKPC 10; [1954] 1 WLR 509
2 Mar 1954
PC

Jurisdiction
(West Africa)
[ Bailii ]

 
 The Fehmarn; 1957 - [1957] 1 WLR 815; [1957] 2 Lloyd's Rep 551; [1957] 2 All ER 707
 
Ideal General Supply Co Ltd v Louis Edelson and Edelson (t/a Ideal Clothing Co) [1957] RPC 252
1957

Diplock J
Jurisdiction, Estoppel, Defamation, Damages
The plaintiff had started an action for passing off and slander in the county court. The county court judge declined jurisdiction on the basis he thought they were equity proceedings and the claimant withdrew the proceedings and started again in the High Court. The question was whether this created an estoppel Held: It did not. Diplock J expressed no opinion on the view of the county court judge that he had no jurisdiction. Diplock J refused to award any damages because the plaintiff managed to put an end to the defendant’s passing-off by an injunction after 4 advertisements in a local evening newspaper and the plaintiff had suffered no damage at all. He was prepared to grant injunctive relief in respect of probable damage which would occur if the defendants continued their conduct.


 
 The Fehmarn; 1958 - [1958] 1 WLR 159
 
Copyright 2014 David Swarbrick, 10 Halifax Road, Brighouse, West Yorkshire HD6 2AG.