Slough Estates Ltd v Slough Borough Council: HL 1971

Extrinsic evidence may be used to identify a thing or place referred to in a public document. Lord Reid said however that this was different from using evidence of facts known to the maker of the document but which are not common knowledge to alter or qualify the apparent meaning of words or phrases used in it. As he put it, members of the public, entitled to rely on a public document, ought not to be subject to the risk of its apparent meaning being altered by the introduction of extrinsic evidence.

Judges:

Lord Reid

Citations:

[1971] AC 958

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

CitedOpua Ferries Ltd and Another v Fullers Bay of Islands Ltd PC 5-Mar-2003
PC (New Zealand) The Board was asked whether whether the effect of the registration of the repondent as licencees to provide ferry services permitted them to operate the ferry service with two vessels or with one . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Litigation Practice

Updated: 18 May 2022; Ref: scu.271025