The plaintiffs had been indicted on counts alleging conspiracy to import drugs and conspiracy to forge traveller’s cheques. During the criminal trial it emerged that there had been such inadequate disclosure by the police that the proceedings were stayed as an abuse of process. The plaintiffs then instituted civil proceedings alleging conspiracy to injure and … Continue reading Darker v Chief Constable of The West Midlands Police: HL 1 Aug 2000
met_shawEAT2011 EAT VICTIMISATION DISCRIMINATION – RemedyThe Claimant, an officer in the Metropolitan Police, reported dishonest conduct by a colleague. As a result of his complaint, the colleague and his superior officer had him suspended on unfounded disciplinary charges, which were collusively supported by a more senior officer. The charges were in due course dropped, but … Continue reading Commisioner of Police of The Metropolis v Shaw: EAT 29 Nov 2011
amnesty_ahmedEAT2009 EAT RACE DISCRIMINATION – Direct discriminationRACE DISCRIMINATION – Indirect discriminationRACE DISCRIMINATION – Protected by s. 41UNFAIR DISMISSAL – Constructive dismissalClaimant, of (northern) Sudanese ethnic origin, applied for promotion to role of ‘Sudan researcher’ for Amnesty International – Not appointed because Amnesty believed that the appointment of a person of her ethnic origin would compromise … Continue reading Amnesty International v Ahmed: EAT 13 Aug 2009
The company appealed against an adverse finding on its holiday pay payments to its pilots, saying that the pay was subject to the 2004 Regulations alone. The Directive suggested that holiday pay should be at normal average rates of pay, but the actual pay excluded bonus rates. The company said that the special regulations applicable … Continue reading British Airways Plc v Williams and Others: CA 3 Apr 2009
Exercise of Prerogative Power is Reviewable The House considered an executive decision made pursuant to powers conferred by a prerogative order. The Minister had ordered employees at GCHQ not to be members of trades unions. Held: The exercise of a prerogative power of a public nature may be, subject to constraints of national security and … Continue reading Council of Civil Service Unions v Minister for the Civil Service: HL 22 Nov 1984
Same Sex Partner Entitled to tenancy Succession The protected tenant had died. His same-sex partner sought a statutory inheritance of the tenancy. Held: His appeal succeeded. The Fitzpatrick case referred to the position before the 1998 Act: ‘Discriminatory law undermines the rule of law because it is the antithesis of fairness. It brings the law … Continue reading Ghaidan v Godin-Mendoza: HL 21 Jun 2004
The court considered the nature of evidence which will be available to tribunals considering a race discrimination claim. Held: A complainant must prove his or her case on the balance of probabilities, but it is unusual to find direct evidence of racial discrimination, and a case will usually depend on what inferences can properly be … Continue reading King v Great Britain China Centre: CA 1991
The claimant’s husband had been lost from the defendant’s ship at sea. The defendant had contracted to pay compensation unless the loss was by suicide. They so determined. The court was now asked whether that was a permissible conclusion in the circumstances: ‘This case raises two inter-linked questions of principle, one general and one particular. … Continue reading Braganza v BP Shipping Ltd: SC 18 Mar 2015
Loss of agent’s share for breach within LLP The court was asked whether the principle that a fiduciary (in particular, an agent) who acts in breach of his fiduciary duties can lose his right to remuneration, is capable of applying to profit share of a partner in a partnership or a member of a limited … Continue reading Hosking v Marathon Asset Management Llp: ChD 5 Oct 2016
The claimant was a police sergeant. After many years he had not been promoted. He began proceedings for race discrimination. Whilst those were in course, he applied for a post elsewhere. That force wrote to his own requesting a reference. In the light of the discrimination claim, they were advised not to reply for fear … Continue reading Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police v Khan: HL 11 Oct 2001
The defendant hospital had custody of sperm samples given by the claimants in the course of fertility treatment. The samples were effectively destroyed when the fridge malfunctioned. Each claimant was undergoing chemotherapy which would prevent them providing future samples. They appealed a finding that they they had no losses, based on the suggestion that the … Continue reading Yearworth and others v North Bristol NHS Trust: CA 4 Feb 2009
EAT WORKING TIME REGULATIONS: HOLIDAY PAY – DAMAGES FOR BREACH OF CONTRACT – UNLAWFUL DEDUCTION FROM WAGES The EAT held that Article 7 of the Working Time Directive is to be interpreted such that payments for overtime which the employees in two appeals before it were required to work, though which their employer was not … Continue reading Bear Scotland Limited v Fulton, and similar: EAT 4 Nov 2014
The House was asked whether an action for unlawful means conspiracy was available against a participant in a missing trader intra-community, or carousel, fraud. The company appealed a finding of liability saying that the VAT Act and Regulations contained the entire regime. Held: Criminal conduct at common law or by statute can constitute unlawful means … Continue reading Total Network Sl v Revenue and Customs: HL 12 Mar 2008
When a licence is really a tenancy The document signed by the occupier stated that she understood that she had been given a licence, and that she understood that she had not been granted a tenancy protected under the Rent Acts. Exclusive occupation was in fact granted. Held: This was a tenancy not a licence. … Continue reading Street v Mountford: HL 6 Mar 1985
The Court was asked as to: ‘the liability for Value Added Tax of a company which markets and arranges holiday accommodation through an on-line website. The outcome turns on the appropriate characterisation of the relationship between the company, the operators of the hotels, and the holiday-makers or their travel agents (which is an English law … Continue reading Revenue and Customs v Secret Hotels2 Ltd: SC 5 Mar 2014
Account taken of circumstances wihout ambiguity The respondent gave advice on home income plans. The individual claimants had assigned their initial claims to the scheme, but later sought also to have their mortgages in favour of the respondent set aside. Held: Investors having once assigned their causes of action to the ICS, could not later … Continue reading Investors Compensation Scheme Ltd v West Bromwich Building Society: HL 19 Jun 1997
Uninsured Driver Not Guilty of Causing Death The appellant though an uninsured driver, was driving without fault when another vehicle veered across the road. The other driver died from his injuries, and the appellant convicted of causing his death whilst uninsured. At trial he succeeded in arguing that he had not caused the death, but … Continue reading Hughes, Regina v: SC 31 Jul 2013
Allowance of Stigma Damages The employees claimed damages, saying that the way in which their employer had behaved during their employment had led to continuing losses, ‘stigma damages’ after the termination. Held: It is an implied term of any contract of employment that the employer shall not without reasonable and proper cause conduct itself in … Continue reading Malik v Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI); Mahmud v Bank of Credit and Commerce International: HL 12 Jun 1997
Police Retention of Suspects DNA and Fingerprints The claimants complained that their fingerprints and DNA records taken on arrest had been retained after discharge before trial, saying the retention of the samples infringed their right to private life. Held: The parts of DNA used for testing are not generally capable of revealing medical information about … Continue reading S, Regina (on Application of) v South Yorkshire Police; Regina v Chief Constable of Yorkshire Police ex parte Marper: HL 22 Jul 2004
The claimant was a post operative male to female trans-sexual. She claimed that her human rights were infringed when she was still treated as a man for National Insurance contributions purposes, where she continued to make payments after the age at which a woman would have ceased payments thus causing harassment. A second claimant again … Continue reading Goodwin v The United Kingdom: ECHR 11 Jul 2002
The claimant appealed against refusal of his challenge to the new constitutional law for Sark, and sought a declaration of incompatibility under the 1998 Act. He said that by restricting the people who could stand for election, a free democracy had been denied to them, and that the constitution did not achieve a sufficient separation … Continue reading Barclay and Others, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice and others: CA 2 Dec 2008
parharEAT2012 EAT UNFAIR DISMISSAL – Reasonableness of dismissalIll health capability dismissal. Section 98(4) Employment Rights Act 1996 reasonableness judged by Employment Tribunal only as at EDT; ET ought to have considered the whole disciplinary process, including subsequent appeals; West Midlands Co-operative Society Limited v Tipton [1986] IRLR 112; Taylor v OCS Group Limited [2006] IRLR … Continue reading First Hampshire and Dorset Ltd v Parhar: EAT 10 May 2012
The applicants had been imprisoned and held without trial, being suspected of international terrorism. No criminal charges were intended to be brought. They were foreigners and free to return home if they wished, but feared for their lives if they did. A British subject, who was suspected in the exact same way, and there were … Continue reading A v Secretary of State for the Home Department, and X v Secretary of State for the Home Department: HL 16 Dec 2004
The House was asked as to the capacity of a limited company to sue for damage to its reputation, where it had no trading activity within the jurisdiction, and as to the extent of the Reynolds defence. The defendants/appellants had published an article which was said falsely to associate the claimants with terrorist activity. Held: … Continue reading Jameel v Wall Street Journal Europe Sprl: HL 11 Oct 2006
Former employees had obtained a protective award against the company for failing to consult on the impending redundancies and submitted proofs of debt to the liquidator who sought guidance from the court. The judge had held that since the Act provided only one remedy, the protective awards were not provable. Held: The appeal was allowed. … Continue reading Haine v Secretary of State for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and Another; Day v Haine: CA 11 Jun 2008
The claimant had been employed as a consultant orthodontist. She resigned claiming constructive dismissal and sex and race discrimination. The EAT reversed the findings on discrimination saying that they had not been sufficiently pleaded. The Court of Session re-instated the discrimination findings and the Board now appealed. Held: The Board’s appeal failed. Although the positions … Continue reading Hewage v Grampian Health Board: SC 25 Jul 2012
Result Decides Dscrimination not Motive The Council had allowed free entry to its swimming pools to those of pensionable age (ie women of 60 and men of 65). A 61 year old man successfully complained of sexual discrimination. Held: The 1975 Act directly discriminated between men and women by treating women more favourably on the … Continue reading James v Eastleigh Borough Council: HL 14 Jun 1990
The respondent appealed decisions by the court to allow claims for personal injury out of time. The claims involved cases of sexual abuse inflicted by its employees going back over many years. Held: The judge had misapplied the test laid down in Stebbings. The court of appeal had not previously considered how to apply its … Continue reading KR and others v Bryn Alyn Community (Holdings) Ltd and Another: CA 12 Feb 2003
No General Liability in Tort for Wrongful Acts The plaintiff had previously constructed an oil supply pipeline from Beira to Mozambique. After Rhodesia declared unilateral independence, it became a criminal offence to supply to Rhodesia without a licence. The plaintiff ceased supply as required, but complained that the defendants had continued to make supplies by … Continue reading Lonrho Ltd v Shell Petroleum Co Ltd (No 2): HL 1 Apr 1981
The claimant owned a house by the river Thames at Hedsor Water. Public rights of navigation existed over the Thames from time immemorial, and its management lay with the respondent. Landowners at Hedsor had sought to assert that that stretch was now private. She appealed an order declaring the continued public rights. Held: The applicant … Continue reading Rowland v The Environment Agency: CA 19 Dec 2003
Notice of dismissal begins when received by worker The court was asked: ‘If an employee is dismissed on written notice posted to his home address, when does the notice period begin to run? Is it when the letter would have been delivered in the ordinary course of post? Or when it was in fact delivered … Continue reading Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust v Haywood: SC 25 Apr 2018
Contractor and Client Copyrights The plaintiff had contributed a design for a system of classifying and selecting tracks to be played on a radio station. He did so under a consultancy contract. Held: A Joint authorship claim required that the contributor had made some direct contribution to the words appearing in the eventual published item. … Continue reading Robin Ray v Classic FM Plc: PatC 18 Mar 1998
The claimant sought a share in the royalties from the song ‘A whiter shade of pale’ but had delayed his claim for 38 years. He had contributed the organ solo which had contributed significantly to the song’s success. He now sought a share of future royalties. Held: His appeal was allowed. Limitation did not apply, … Continue reading Fisher v Brooker and Others: HL 30 Jul 2009
The employers were a well known roofing and tiling firm, Marley Tiles . The employer sought to impose post employment restrictions including a restriction on canvassing soliciting or dealing with customers in the whole of Devon and Cornwall. Within that area the plaintiffs had 2,500 customers. The covenant against soliciting was also a covenant against … Continue reading Marley Tile Co Ltd v Shaw: CA 1980
Mr Addis was wrongfully and contumeliously dismissed from his post as the defendant’s manager in Calcutta. He sought additional damages for the manner of his dismissal. Held: It did not matter whether the claim was under wrongful dismissal. There was a breach of contract in not allowing the plaintiff to discharge his duties as manager, … Continue reading Addis v Gramophone Company Limited: HL 26 Jul 1909
EAT jurisdiction EAT Practice and Procedure : Application/Claim – The Appellant appealed against the Decision of the Employment Tribunal (‘the ET’) not to reject the Claimant’s claim form under Rule 12(1)(b) of Schedule 1 to the Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2013 (‘the Rules’) and against a later Decision of the ET … Continue reading William Jones’s Schools Foundation v Parry: EAT 2 Aug 2016
Onus of Establishing Reason for Dismissal EAT Unfair Dismissal: Reason for Dismissal Including Substantial Other Reason – – Reasonableness of dismissal CONTRACT OF EMPLOYMENT – Wrongful dismissal Unfair dismissal – reason for dismissal – section 98(1) and (2) Employment Rights Act 1996 – burden of proof and evidential basis for decision – reasonableness of dismissal … Continue reading Dye v Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust: EAT 14 Sep 2016
The claimants had been employed by a local authority and then transferred to the respondents. They had had the benefit that their terms of employment were subject to collective agreement. The respondent was not part of the negotiation of later . .
The defendant had been convicted, under regulations made under the Act, of smoking in a railway carriage. He sought to challenge the validity of the regulations themselves. He wanted to argue that the power to ban smoking on carriages did not . .
The claimant had developed an additive which would assist in making plastic bags bio-degradable. They alleged that, in breach of confidentiality agreements, the defendants had copied the product. The defendants said the confidentiality agreement was . .
In each case, the employee had retired after long term sickness. The Employment tribunal had upheld their ability to claim arrears of sickness pay arising under the 1998 Regulations, as an unlawful deduction from their wages. They now appealed . .
A design for sunglasses was challenged for prior publication. However the law in England differed from that apparently imposed from Europe as to the existence of a 12 month period of grace before applying for registration.
Held: Instruments . .
The parties had engaged in a bitter 95 day trial in which allegations of forgery, theft, false accounting, blackmail and arson. A company owning patents and other rights had become insolvent, and the real concern was the destination and ownership of . .
The claimant had presented his unfair dismissal claim 88 seconds late. He appealed against refusal of jurisdiction by the Employent tribunal and the EAT.
Held: Leave was refused. The tribunal had given proper consideration to the question of . .
The claimant pursued Employment Tribunal proceedings against the Immigration Service when his security clearance was withdrawn. The Tribunal allowed the respondent to use a closed material procedure under which it was provided with evidence unseen . .
References: (1775) 1 Cowp 341, [1775] EngR 58, (1775) 98 ER 1120 Links: Commonlii, Commonlii Coram: Mansfield LCJ Ratio:Mansfield LCJ set out the principle of ex turpi causa non oritur actio: ‘The objection, that a contract is immoral or illegal as between plaintiff and defendant, sounds at all times very ill in the mouth of … Continue reading Holman v Johnson; 5 Jul 1775
The English legal system has been producing law reports since time immemorial, and the Scots for even longer. These pages are full of codes making reference to such series, with their wonderful array of abbreviations. You cannot enquire about the law without beginning at least to understand and use them. Here is a brief, but … Continue reading Reports
Our law-index is a substantial selection from our database. Cases here are restricted in number by date and lack the additional facilities formerly available within lawindexpro. Please do enjoy this free version of the lawindex. Case law does not ‘belong’ to lawyers. Judgments are made up of words which can be read and understood (if … Continue reading law index
