The claimant, father of a child born by artificial insemination from a frozen embryo, alleged that the signature on the form of consent had been forged.
Jay J
[2017] EWHC 2438 (QB), [2017] WLR(D) 640
Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990
England and Wales
Updated: 21 January 2023; Ref: scu.598438
Attempt to recover legal aid fees said to have been paid on fraudulent claims.
Pepperall J
[2018] EWHC 3556 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 20 December 2022; Ref: scu.632217
The Defendant landlord had demanded rent arrears and said that if the Claimant did not do what he wanted he would evict her from her flat. He forcibly raped her and then fought a criminal trial, alleging that sexual relations had been consensual and calling witnesses to blacken the Claimant’s character.
Held: Damages of pounds 50,000 for a rape were correct. Rape is ‘in a quite different category from personal injury cases in general’. The victim had to go through a trial and deal with an allegation of consent. The sum included an element of aggravated damages.
Millett LJ, Rose LJ
Times 24-Nov-1995
England and Wales
Cited – Lawson v Glaves-Smith, Executor of the Estate of Dawes (Deceased) QBD 14-Nov-2006
The claimant sought damages saying that she had been falsely imprisoned, raped and drugged by the defendant who had since died.
Held: The court had only the evidence of the claimant, and must be careful in examining it. On that evidence the . .
Cited – AT and others v Dulghieru and Another QBD 19-Feb-2009
The claimants had been subject to unlawful human trafficking. Their abductors had been imprisoned, and they now sought damages. The court was asked now to assess the damages to be awarded for sexual enslavement. Each claimant suffered chronic post . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 09 December 2022; Ref: scu.81048
A bind-over order is no bar to the defendant bringing an action against the police for malicious prosecution in the matters which led to the court appearance.
Independent 18-Jan-1995
England and Wales
Updated: 09 December 2022; Ref: scu.81489
Allegation of unlawful immigration detendtion
Andrew Thomas QC
[2018] EWHC 454 (Admin)
England and Wales
Updated: 09 December 2022; Ref: scu.605882
Calim for damages by insurance company claiming that a claim by the defendant on which it had paid had in fact been fraudulent. The claim was made in deceit.
Held: ‘I have the required very high level of confidence that the Claimant’s allegation is true and I am not left in doubt as to what happened. The Claimant is therefore entitled to judgment on its claim.’
Teare J
[2018] EWHC 37 (QB)
England and Wales
Cited – Wisniewski v Central Manchester Health Authority CA 1997
The court considered the effect of a party failing to bring evidence in support of its case, as regards the court drawing inferences: ‘(1) In certain circumstances a court may be entitled to draw adverse inferences from the absence or silence of a . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 09 December 2022; Ref: scu.603731
Claim for delivery up, and damages for the conversion, of a Lamborghini Aventador motor car – issue about the relationship between illegality and the law of conversion.
Dingemans J
[2014] EWHC 29 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 09 December 2022; Ref: scu.520131
The claimants sought damages and asserted certain proprietary claims arising out of what they said were various acts of fraud and (in colloquial terms) ‘money-laundering’ activities committed towards the end of 2010 and in the course of 2011 by some or all of the defendants. In total, the alleged frauds are said to involve approximately US$ 175m.
Eder J
[2014] EWHC 191 (Comm)
England and Wales
Updated: 09 December 2022; Ref: scu.521118
An employee of a firm of solicitors took pawned jewellery to show to a third party possible purchaser. The jewels were misappropriated.
Held: The person involved, who was known to have a criminal record for fraud was for all relevant purposes the firm’s employee, and they had vicarious liability for his behaviour.
Overend J
[2003] EWHC 3084 (QB)
England and Wales
Cited – Dubai Aluminium Company Limited v Salaam and Others HL 5-Dec-2002
Partners Liable for Dishonest Act of Solicitor
A solicitor had been alleged to have acted dishonestly, having assisted in a fraudulent breach of trust by drafting certain documents. Contributions to the damages were sought from his partners.
Held: The acts complained of were so close to . .
Cited – Cochlan v Ruberella Limited CA 21-Jul-2003
The issue arose as to the liability of a firm for the acts of a partner who had made statements to the claimant regarding the rate of return on a proposed investment amounting to some 6,000 per cent per annum.
Held: The following propositions . .
Cited – Armagas Ltd v Mundogas SA (‘The Ocean Frost’) HL 22-May-1985
Ostensible authority creates estoppel
Apparent authority as agent can arise where an employer by words or conduct has represented that his employee, who has purported to act on behalf of the employer, is authorised to do what he is purporting to do. Ostensible authority depends on a . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 09 December 2022; Ref: scu.193837
Complaint of the alleged sale of an underlease at a low price, working as a corrupt agreement. It was said that one of the defendants, a local council, was liable for malicious prosecution of an enforcement notice. The Council’s replied that the tort ‘cannot apply in relation to the mere service of an enforcement notice’ because, as it is put in Clerk and Lindsell: ‘To prosecute is to set the law in motion and the law is only set in motion by an appeal to some person clothed with judicial authority in regard to the matter in question.’ The Council argued that the service of an enforcement notice involved no ‘appeal to some person clothed in judicial authority’
Held: Neey J said: ‘In my view, [Counsel for the Council] is right on this point. While it is now clear that the tort of malicious prosecution can apply without a criminal prosecution, there remains a requirement that the law has been ‘set in motion by an appeal to some person clothed with judicial authority’ and service of an enforcement notice cannot, as it seems to me, suffice for this purpose. I do not see Churchill v Siggers as providing authority to the contrary.’
Newey J
[2016] EWHC 3048 (Ch)
England and Wales
Cited – CXZ v ZXC QBD 26-Jun-2020
Malicious Prosecution needs court involvement
W had made false allegations against her husband of child sex abuse to police. He sued in malicious prosecution. She applied to strike out, and he replied saying that as a developing area of law a strike out was inappropriate.
Held: The claim . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 07 December 2022; Ref: scu.571982
The Commissioners claim was founded in an alleged conspiracy from a ‘missing trader intra-community fraud’ amounting to andpound;96 million.
Held: Section 423 had extra territorial effect.
David Richards J
[2010] EWHC 1799 (Ch), [2011] BPIR 59
England and Wales
Cited – Regalway Care Ltd v Shillingford and others ChD 25-Feb-2005
Applications to vary freezing order. Blackburne J set out a description of the workings of missing trader intra-community VAT carousel frauds. . .
Cited – Bilta (UK) Ltd and Others v Nazir and Others ChD 30-Jul-2012
The company was said to have engaged in a fraud based on false European Trading Scheme Allowances, and had been wound up by the Revenue. The liquidators, in the company name, now sought recovery from former directors and associates.
Held: The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 06 December 2022; Ref: scu.420810
An intention to injure is a necessary element of the tort of public misfeasance.
Times 28-Dec-1994
England and Wales
Updated: 30 November 2022; Ref: scu.78338
Appeal from a decision to grant the defendant bank summary judgment in respect of certain of the claimants’ claims. The result of the judgment is that the claimants can pursue a claim in deceit and contend that such claim is neither time-barred nor precluded by anti-set off provisions in their contract with the bank. No other claim is permissible. That is because it is arguable that the time for a deceit claim (as opposed to claims for negligent advice or breach of statutory duty) is extended pursuant to section 32 of the 1980 Act and that the anti-set off provisions may be unreasonable clauses within the relevant statutory provisions, on which the bank may not rely.
Longmore, Leggatt LJJ
[2018] EWCA Civ 1103
England and Wales
Cited – Boyse (International) Ltd v Natwest Markets Plc and Another ChD 27-May-2020
Claim alleging misselling of interest rate hedging products. The court considered the defendants strike out application, and applications for leave to amend pleadings.
Held: it will normally be appropriate for summary judgment to be pursued on . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 27 November 2022; Ref: scu.616341
The appellant bank had granted very substantial lending facilities to the defendant companies, and now alleged fraudulent misrepresentation. The defendants now sought to have the service set aside. The claimants also sought permission to amend the pleadings to set aside the veil of incorporation to add three further defendants.
Held: Leave was set aside. The application to amend was refused. The evidence did not establish a real risk of dissipation of assets by the fourth defendant and the original order was tainted by material non-disclosure by the claimant to the court.
Arnold J
[2011] EWHC 3107 (Ch)
England and Wales
At First Instance – VTB Capital Plc v Nutritek International Corp and Others SC 6-Feb-2013
The claimant bank said that it had been induced to create very substantial lending facilities by fraudulent misrepresentation by the defendants. They now appealed against findings that England was not clearly or distinctly the appropriate forum for . .
Appeal from – VTB Capital Plc v Nutritek International Corp and Others CA 20-Jun-2012
The claimant bank said that it had been induced to create very substantial lending facilities by fraudulent misrepresentation by the defendants. They now appealed against findings that England was not clearly or distinctly the appropriate forum for . .
Cited – Prest v Petrodel Resources Ltd and Others SC 12-Jun-2013
In the course of ancillary relief proceedings in a divorce, questions arose regarding company assets owned by the husband. The court was asked as to the power of the court to order the transfer of assets owned entirely in the company’s names. The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 27 November 2022; Ref: scu.449025
(Ireland) In an action for misrepresentation, it did not matter that the representation was made by an agent who did not know that the representation was untrue.
[1977] IR 307
England and Wales
Cited – Spice Girls Ltd v Aprilia World Service Bv ChD 24-Feb-2000
Disclosure Duties on those entering into contract
The claimants worked together as a five girl pop group. The defendants had signed a sponsorship agreement, but now resisted payment saying that one of the five, Geri, had given notice to leave the group, substantially changing what had been . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 23 November 2022; Ref: scu.194201
Claim by employer against agent or employee for allegedly taking a bribe.
[2013] EWCA Civ 275
England and Wales
Updated: 14 November 2022; Ref: scu.472026
Challenge to the lawfulness of the Claimant’s detention pending deportation.
[2013] EWHC 61 (Admin)
England and Wales
Updated: 13 November 2022; Ref: scu.470583
[2013] EWCA Civ 4
England and Wales
Updated: 13 November 2022; Ref: scu.470093
The claimant company was engaged in tuna fish culture off shore to Malta. The defendant ship was owned by a charity which campaigned against breaches of animal preservation conventions. Fish were being transporting live blue fin tuna in towed underwater cages. The defendant ‘attacked’ the cages causing much damage, on the basis that the fish had been caught illegally. The claimant denied this. The parties now disputed the responsibility of the ship owner for the torts of its captain.
Held: The claim against the ship’s paper owners failed. The practical reality is that at all times it was SSCS which had possession and control of the ‘STEVE IRWIN’, and ‘Although beneficial ownership does not carry with it the right to possession and control, in this case it helps to explain how and why possession and control was as a matter of fact exercised throughout by SSCS. Though there was no bareboat charter and such an arrangement would be necessary to transfer the right of possession to SSCS. However, if, as was the case, SSCS and SSUK acted on the basis that the ‘STEVE IRWIN’ was in SSCS’s possession and control there would be no need for any such formal arrangement. Watson and the crew were acting on behalf of SSCS and not SSUK or SSCS and SSUK whilst on board the ‘STEVE IRWIN’ during the Blue Rage campaign and at the time of the incident.’
Hamblen J set out the principles for establishing accessory liability in tort: ‘In respect of the common design issue, persons may be joint tortfeasors when their respective shares in the commission of a tort are done in furtherance of a common design . . The joint tortfeasor needs to join or share in the commission of the tort which generally means some act which at least facilitates its commission. . . there is no tortious liability for aiding and abetting or facilitating the commission of a tort, even knowingly. There may, however, be such a liability if that is done pursuant to a common design . . In considering whether there is any such liability it is relevant to consider whether the person has been so involved in the commission of the tort as to make the infringing act his own’
and ‘In summary, it is apparent that none of the matters relied upon by the claimant were of any real significance to the commission of the tort. The main thrust of the claimant’s pleaded case was that the attack was directed or authorised or carried out by [the appellant]. Once it is found that Watson and the crew were not acting on behalf of [the appellant] the claimant has to rely on participation which is remote in time and place. Whether considered individually or collectively I find that the matters so relied upon are of minimal importance and played no effective part in the commission of the tort.’
Hamblen J
[2012] EWHC 1717 (Admlty), [2012] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 409
England and Wales
Cited – The Koursk CA 1924
The navigators of two ships had committed two separate torts or one tort in which they were both tortfeasors.
Held: Three situations were identified where A might be jointly liable with B for B’s tortious act. Where A was master and B servant; . .
Cited – CBS Songs Ltd v Amstrad Consumer Electronics Plc CA 1987
Persons other than the Attorney General do not have standing to enforce, through a civil court, the observance of the criminal law as such. However, Sir Denys Buckley considered that such a claim might be maintained as a representative action . .
Cited – CBS Songs Ltd v Amstrad Consumer Electronics Plc HL 12-May-1988
The plaintiffs as representatives sought to restrain Amstrad selling equipment with two cassette decks without taking precautions which would reasonably ensure that their copyrights would not be infringed by its users.
Held: Amstrad could only . .
Cited – Unilever Plc v Gillette (UK) Limited CA 1989
Unilever claimed infringement of its patent. The court was asked whether there was a good arguable case against the United States parent company of the existing defendant sufficient to justify the parent company to be joined as a defendant and to . .
Cited – Generale Bank Nederland Nv (Formerly Credit Lyonnais Bank Nederland Nv) v Export Credit Guarantee Department CA 23-Jul-1997
The bank claimed that it had been defrauded, and that since an employee of the defendant had taken part in the fraud the defendant was had vicarious liability for his participation even though they knew nothing of it.
Held: Where A becomes . .
Cited – SABAF SpA v MFI Furniture Centres Ltd and Another CA 11-Jul-2002
The appellant challenged dismissal of its claim for patent infringement. The judge had held that the design was obvious, involving essentially only the collocation of two known features.
Held: Collocation was no more than a species of . .
Cited – Monsanto Plc v Tilly and Others CA 30-Nov-1999
A group carried out direct action in protesting against GM crops by pulling up the plants. The group’s media liaison officer, while not actually pulling up plants himself, ‘reconnoitred the site the day before. He met the press at a prearranged . .
Appeal from – Fish and Fish Ltd v Sea Shepherd Uk and Others CA 16-May-2013
The claimant company sought damages after their transport of live tuna was attacked by a protest group. They now appealed against a decision that the company owning the attacking ship was not liable as a joint tortfeasor.
Held: The appeal was . .
At first instance – Sea Shepherd UK v Fish and Fish Ltd SC 4-Mar-2015
Accessory Liability in Tort
The court considered the concept of accessory liability in tort. Activists had caused damage to vessels of the respondent which was transporting live tuna in cages, and had caused considerable damage. The appellant company owned the ship from which . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 10 November 2022; Ref: scu.467653
(Court of Appeal of New Zealand) Richardson J said: ‘a defendant who has procured the institution of criminal proceedings by the police is regarded as responsible in law for the initiation of the prosecution . . that requires close analysis of the particular circumstances . . It does not follow that there is any call for modifying the test which has been developed in the decisions of this court for determining whether a third party is responsible in an action for malicious prosecution for criminal proceedings instituted by the police. What is required is a cautious application of that test where the police have conducted an investigation and decided to prosecute. The core requirement is that the defendant actually procured the use of the power of the State to hurt the plaintiff. One should never assume that tainted evidence persuaded the police to prosecute. In some very special cases, however, the prosecutor may in practical terms have been obliged to act on apparently reliable and damning evidence supplied to the police. The onus properly rests on the plaintiff to establish that it was the false evidence tendered by a third party which led the police to prosecute before that party may be characterised as having procured the prosecution.’
Richardson J
[1989] 3NZLR 187
England and Wales
Cited – The Ministry of Justice (Sued As The Home Office) v Scott CA 20-Nov-2009
The claimant had been falsely accused of assault by five prison officers. The defendant appealed against a refusal to strike out a claim of of malicious prosecution.
Held: Proceedings for malicious prosecution cannot be regarded as being . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 09 November 2022; Ref: scu.381290
The bank claimed that it had been defrauded, and that since an employee of the defendant had taken part in the fraud the defendant was had vicarious liability for his participation even though they knew nothing of it.
Held: Where A becomes liable to B as a joint tortfeasor with C in the tort of deceit practised by C on B on the basis that A and C have a common design to defraud B and A renders assistance to C pursuant to and in furtherance of the common design, does D, A’s employer, become vicariously liable to B, simply because the act of assistance, which is not itself the deceit, is in the course of A’s employment with D? An employer was not liable for the fraudulent acts of his employee during the employment but may be for purposes of fraud by third party.
Hobhouse LJ said: ‘Mere assistance, even knowing assistance, does not suffice to make the ‘secondary’ party liable as a joint tortfeasor with the primary party. What he does must go further. He must have conspired with the primary party or procured or induced his commission of the tort . . ; or he must have joined in the common design pursuant to which the tort was committed’
Stuart-Smith LJ, Hobhouse LJ
Times 04-Aug-1997, Gazette 10-Sep-1997, [1998] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 19, [1997] EWCA Civ 2165
England and Wales
Appeal from – Generale Bank Nederland Nv (Formerly Credit Lyonnais Bank Nederland Nv) v Export Credit Guarantee Department 1996
The Export Credit Guarantee Department was not liable to the Bank for the loss which the Bank sustained due to the fraud of one of its customers in which an employee was involved. . .
Cited – PLG Research Ltd and Another v Ardon International Ltd and Others ChD 25-Nov-1994
A patent infingement claim was met by the assertion that the material covered had been disclosed before the patent had been obtained. The court was asked as to the test of whether the information in a claim had been disclosed. Aldous J said: ‘Mr. . .
Appeal from – Generale Bank Nederland Nv (Formerly Credit Lyonnais Bank Nederland Nv) v Export Credits Guarantee Department HL 19-Feb-1999
The wrong of the servant or agent for which the master or principal is liable is one committed in the case of a servant in the course of his employment, and in the case of an agent in the course of his authority. It is fundamental to the whole . .
Cited – AbouRahmah and Another v Abacha and others QBD 28-Nov-2005
Claims were made as to an alleged fraud by some of the respondents. . .
Cited – British Telecommunications Plc; Virgin Enterprises Ltd; J Sainsbury Plc; Marks and Spencer Plc and Ladbroke Group Plc v One In a Million Ltd and others CA 23-Jul-1998
Registration of a distinctive Internet domain name using registered trade marks and company names could be an infringement of a registered Trade Mark, and also passing off. It was proper to grant quia timet injunctions where necessary to stop . .
Cited – Total Network Sl v Customs and Excise Commissioners CA 31-Jan-2007
The defendants suspected a carousel VAT fraud. The defendants appealed a finding that there was a viable cause of action alleging a ‘conspiracy where the unlawful means alleged is a common law offence of cheating the public revenue’. The defendants . .
Cited – Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Another v Newzbin Ltd ChD 29-Mar-2010
The defendant operated a web-site providing a search facility of the Usenet news system which allowed its users to locate copies of films online for downloading. The claimant said this was an infringement of its copyrights.
Held: The defendant . .
Cited – The Rugby Football Union v Viagogo Ltd QBD 30-Mar-2011
The claimant objected to the resale through the defendant of tickets to matches held at the Twickenham Stadium. The tickets contained terms disallowing resales at prices over the face value. They sought orders for the disclosure of the names of the . .
Cited – Fish and Fish Ltd v Sea Shepherd UK and Another AdCt 25-Jun-2012
The claimant company was engaged in tuna fish culture off shore to Malta. The defendant ship was owned by a charity which campaigned against breaches of animal preservation conventions. Fish were being transporting live blue fin tuna in towed . .
Cited – Fish and Fish Ltd v Sea Shepherd Uk and Others CA 16-May-2013
The claimant company sought damages after their transport of live tuna was attacked by a protest group. They now appealed against a decision that the company owning the attacking ship was not liable as a joint tortfeasor.
Held: The appeal was . .
Cited – Sea Shepherd UK v Fish and Fish Ltd SC 4-Mar-2015
Accessory Liability in Tort
The court considered the concept of accessory liability in tort. Activists had caused damage to vessels of the respondent which was transporting live tuna in cages, and had caused considerable damage. The appellant company owned the ship from which . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 09 November 2022; Ref: scu.80791
Occupier employing independent contractor to carry out works, is not liable for failure of contractor to clean up removing danger.
Times 09-Jun-1997
England and Wales
Updated: 06 November 2022; Ref: scu.88880
‘Car repairs’ includes re-spraying – Landlord was liable for negligent misstatement on use.
Times 22-Apr-1997, [1997] EWCA Civ 1284
England and Wales
Updated: 05 November 2022; Ref: scu.78577
The bank had made an allegation of fraudulent misrepresentation against a firm of solicitors. It appealed a strike out of its claim.
Held: An appeal court may exceptionally overturn a finding that the Defendant was not guilty of fraud in a case where that conclusion is inevitable from the facts.
Times 26-Jun-1997, Gazette 09-Jul-1997, [1997] EWCA Civ 1942
England and Wales
Updated: 05 November 2022; Ref: scu.81322
The claimant child sought damages and an injunction from and against the defendant newspapers, alleging harassment and breach of her privacy. At times there had been as many as ten reporters encamped outside her house.
Nicola Davies J
[2012] EWHC 2103 (QB), [2013] EMLR 2
Protection from Harassment Act 1997, European Convention on Human Rights
Principal judgment – AAA v Associated Newspapers Ltd QBD 31-Jul-2012
. .
Appeal from – AAA v Associated Newspapers Ltd CA 20-May-2013
An order had been sought for the claimant child for damages after publication by the defendant of details of her identity and that of her politician father. She now appealed against refusal of her claim for damages for publication of private . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 04 November 2022; Ref: scu.463284
Allegation of misselling of payment protection insurance
Waksman QC HHJ
[2012] EWHC 1950 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 03 November 2022; Ref: scu.462835
The plaintiff claimed damages from the seller of land and from their solicitors for misrepresentation in the replies to enquiries before contract. He appealed a striking out of his claim.
Held: A lawyer’s disclaimer placed on his Replies to Enquiries before Contract were to be examined carefully to see if they constituted an unfair term. The claim was not unarguable, and should proceed. Whether the solicitor owed a duty of care could not be decided without assessing the validity of the disclaimer. ‘neither the duty of care issue nor the disclaimer issue is suitable to be determined under Order 14A.’
Lord Justice Nourse, Lord Justice Waller, Sir John May
Gazette 20-Nov-1996, Times 14-Nov-1996, [1996] EWCA Civ 886
Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977
England and Wales
Cited – Gran Gelato Ltd v Richcliff (Group) Ltd ChD 1992
The claimant wished to purchase an underlease from the first defendant. The claimant’s solicitors inquired of the second defendants, a firm of solicitors acting for the first defendant, whether any provisions in the headlease might affect the length . .
Cited – Kemp Properties (UK) Ltd v Dentsply Research and Development Corporation 1989
The court considered a Solicitor’s possible personal liability for misrepresentation made in replies given to enquiries before contract on acting on the sale of land. . .
Cited – Wilson v Bloomfield 1979
Negligence of solicitor in answering replies to preliminary enquiries on a sale of land. . .
Cited – Smith v Eric S Bush, a firm etc HL 20-Apr-1989
In Smith, the lender instructed a valuer who knew that the buyer and mortgagee were likely to rely on his valuation alone. The valuer said his terms excluded responsibility. The mortgagor had paid an inspection fee to the building society and . .
Cited – Hedley Byrne and Co Ltd v Heller and Partners Ltd HL 28-May-1963
Banker’s Liability for Negligent Reference
The appellants were advertising agents. They were liable themselves for advertising space taken for a client, and had sought a financial reference from the defendant bankers to the client. The reference was negligent, but the bankers denied any . .
Cited – Henderson v Merrett Syndicates Ltd HL 25-Jul-1994
Lloyds Agents Owe Care Duty to Member; no Contract
Managing agents conducted the financial affairs of the Lloyds Names belonging to the syndicates under their charge. It was alleged that they managed these affairs with a lack of due careleading to enormous losses.
Held: The assumption of . .
Cited – McCullagh v Lane Fox and Partners Ltd CA 19-Dec-1995
There was no duty in negligent mis-statement from a vendor’s estate agent to a purchaser for that purchaser’s financial loss after proceeding without first obtaining a survey relying upon the agent.
Hobhouse LJ said: ‘On the Sunday, Mr. Scott . .
Cited – William Sindall Plc v Cambridgeshire County Council CA 21-May-1993
Land was bought for development, but the purchaser later discovered a sewage pipe which very substantially limited its development potential. The existence of the pipe had not been disclosed on the sale, being unknown to the seller.
Held: . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 03 November 2022; Ref: scu.140753
The claimant said that whilst he had been being taken from an immigration detention centre to hospital, he had been restrained by various forms of handcuffs. He said that had been unlawful.
Held: The claim failed: ‘ the recommendation that there should only be handcuffing in exceptional circumstances is to apply too high a test. Those making the risk assessment have to decide whether handcuffing is reasonably necessary and so proportionate having regard to all relevant circumstances, which will include the insecure nature of the hospital. The claimant had criminal convictions and the most recent for affray indicated that there had been violence or a threat of violence to others. In addition, he had a history which indicated that he was liable to react to pressure in a disruptive fashion and there was also the possibility of self harm. It was known that he was most anxious to avoid return to Algeria. One of the main reasons for his detention was concern that if not detained he would abscond.
In my judgment, what was known of the claimant justified the assessment that he should be restrained during the hospital visit. Having seen and heard the two witnesses who gave evidence, I am satisfied that they did consider in a proper fashion whether restraint was needed.’
Collins J
[2012] EWHC 1804 (Admin)
Home Office Detention Services Order 1/2002, European Convention on Human Rights
England and Wales
Cited – Faizovas, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice CA 13-May-2009
. .
Cited – C, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice CA 28-Jul-2008
The court was asked as to what methods of physical restraint were proper in institutions accommodating youths in custody.
Held: The Court had been wrong not to quash the amended rules on the grounds of procedural breaches. The amended rules . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 03 November 2022; Ref: scu.461953
(Leedsounty Court) Claim for damages and an injunction alleging harassment
[2012] EW Misc 9 (CC)
England and Wales
Updated: 03 November 2022; Ref: scu.461765
Application for permission to appeal against an order striking out parts of the defence and granting summary judgment in a claim for damages for trespass to the person and harassment.
Spencer J
[2012] EWHC 1535 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 01 November 2022; Ref: scu.460353
The claimant had been convicted of the murder of PC Blakelock. The only substantial evidence was in the form of the notes of interview he said were fabricated by senior officers. His eventual appeal on this basis was not resisted. He now appealed against the striking out of his actions for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, and misfeasance in public office. He had remained in prison after conviction on another charge of murder.
Held: The appeal failed. The public policy purposes underlying the immunity were essentially two-fold. First, as in Munster, namely ‘. . to protect persons acting bona fide, who under a different rule would be liable, not perhaps to verdicts and judgments against them, but to the vexation of defending actions’ and secondly as in Roy v. Prior ‘. . to avoid a multiplicity of actions in which the value or truth of their evidence would be tried over again.’
Simon Brown LJ, Neill LJ, Waite LJ
Times 09-Jul-1996, [1996] 8 Admin LR 633, [1996] EWCA Civ 1311
England and Wales
Cited – Roy v Prior HL 1970
The court considered an alleged tort of maliciously procuring an arrest. The plaintiff had been arrested under a bench warrant issued as a result of evidence given by the defendant. He sued the defendant for damages for malicious arrest.
Held: . .
Cited – Munster v Lamb CA 1883
Judges and witness, including police officers are given immunity from suit in defamation in court proceedings.
Fry LJ said: ‘Why should a witness be able to avail himself of his position in the box and to make without fear of civil consequences . .
Cited – Dawkins v Lord Rokeby 1873
dawkins_rokeby1873
Police officers (among others) are immune from any action that may be brought against them on the ground that things said or done by them in the ordinary course of the proceedings were said or done falsely and maliciously and without reasonable and . .
Cited – Evans v London Hospital Medical College and Others 1981
The defendants employed by the first defendant carried out a post mortem on the plaintiff’s infant son. They found concentrations of morphine and told the police. The plaintiff was charged with the murder of her son. After further investigation no . .
Cited – Marrinan v Vibert CA 2-Jan-1963
A tortious conspiracy was alleged in the conduct of a civil action. The plaintiff appealed against rejection of his claim.
Held: The appeal failed as an attempt to circumvent the immunity of a wirness in defamation by framing a claim in . .
Cited – Marrinan v Vibart CA 2-Jan-1962
Two police officers gave evidence in a criminal prosecution of others, that the plaintiff, a barrister, had behaved improperly by obstructing a police officer in the execution of his duty and subsequently gave similar evidence at an inquiry before . .
Cited – Lincoln v Daniels CA 1961
The defendant claimed absolute immunity in respect of communications sent by him to the Bar Council alleging professional misconduct by the plaintiff, a Queen’s Counsel.
Held: Initial communications sent to the secretary of the Bar Council . .
Cited – Marrinan v Vibart CA 1962
The court considered an action in the form an attempt to circumvent the immunity of a witness at civil law by alleging a conspiracy.
Held: The claim was rejected. The court considered the basis of the immunity from action given to witnesses. . .
Cited – Martin v Watson HL 13-Jul-1995
The plaintiff had been falsely reported to the police by the defendant, a neighbour, for indecent exposure whilst standing on a ladder in his garden. He had been arrested and charged, but at a hearing before the Magistrates’ Court, the Crown . .
Cited – Darker v Chief Constable of The West Midlands Police HL 1-Aug-2000
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 . .
Cited – Taylor and Others v Director of The Serious Fraud Office and Others HL 29-Oct-1998
The defendant had requested the Isle of Man authorities to investigate the part if any taken by the plaintiff in a major fraud. No charges were brought against the plaintiff, but the documents showing suspicion came to be disclosed in the later . .
Cited – General Medical Council v Professor Sir Roy Meadow, Attorney General CA 26-Oct-2006
The GMC appealed against the dismissal of its proceedings for professional misconduct against the respondent doctor, whose expert evidence to a criminal court was the subject of complaint. The doctor said that the evidence given by him was . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 31 October 2022; Ref: scu.89263
The defendant agreed to indemnify the insured ‘in respect of all sums which the insured shall become legally liable to pay as compensation arising out of’ various matters including wrongful arrest, malicious prosecution and false imprisonment. The insurer contended that the use of the word ‘compensation’ excluded awards of exemplary damages.
Held: The contention was rejected. Insurance for local authorities and police authorities against vicarious liability including for criminal liability and for exemplary damages is not unlawful. The words of the clause ‘all sums which the insured shall become legally liable to pay as compensation’ was not clear as to its extent, and was not to be limited to any claim for compensation as such. Exemplary damages went beyond pure compensation but were included. Nor was there any public policy against insuring for liability for criminal conduct.
Simon Brown LJ discussed the use of public policy as an aid to construction: ‘The only way in which public policy can properly be invoked in the construction of a contract is under the rule ut res magis valeat quam pereat: if the words are susceptible of two meanings, one of which would validate the particular clause or contract and the other render it void or ineffective, then the former interpretation should be applied even though it might otherwise, looking merely at the words and their context, be less appropriate.’ and
‘Although I accept Mr. Glasgow’s submission that the natural and ordinary meaning of ‘compensation’ in the context of a legal liability to pay damages is one which excludes any element of exemplary damages, I cannot accept that this meaning is wholly clear and unambiguous. On the contrary it involves very much a literal, lawyer’s understanding of the term and is one which would not command universal acceptance. Many, including no doubt most recipients, would regard compensation to mean instead all damages (of whatever character and however calculated) payable to the victim of a tort.’
Lord Justice Staughton, Lord Justice Simon Brown and Lord Justice Thorpe
Gazette 05-Jun-1996, Times 08-Apr-1996, [1997] QB 897, [1996] EWCA Civ 1345, [1996] 3 All ER 545, [1996] 3 WLR 493, [1996] CLC 1459
England and Wales
Cited – AB v South West Water Services Ltd CA 1993
Exemplary and aggravated damages were claimed in an action for nuisance arising out of the contamination of water by the defendant utility.
Held: Sir Thomas Bingham MR said: ‘A defendant accused of crime may ordinarily be ordered (if . .
Cited – Riches v News Group Newspapers Ltd CA 20-Feb-1985
The defendant published serious defamatory allegations against several plaintiff police officers. The defendant newspaper appealed against an award of andpound;250,000 exemplary damages for their defamation of the respondent police officers.
Cited – Barrett v Universal-Island Records Ltd and others ChD 15-May-2006
The claimant was entitled to share in the copyright royalties of Bob Marley and the Wailers, and claimed payment from the defendants. The defendants said that the matters had already been settled and that the claim was an abuse of process, and also . .
Cited – Bedfordshire Police Authority v Constable and others ComC 20-Jun-2008
The authority insured its primary liability for compensation under the 1886 Act through the claimants and the excess of liability through re-insurers. The parties sought clarification from the court of the respective liabilities of the insurance . .
Cited – Mulcaire v News Group Newspapers Ltd ChD 21-Dec-2011
The claimant, a private investigator had contracted with the News of the World owned by the defendant but since closed. He had committed criminal offences in providing information for the paper, had been convicted and had served his sentence. He . .
Cited – Jetivia Sa and Another v Bilta (UK) Ltd and Others SC 22-Apr-2015
The liquidators of Bilta had brought proceedings against former directors and the appellant alleging that they were party to an unlawful means conspiracy which had damaged the company by engaging in a carousel fraud with carbon credits. On the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 31 October 2022; Ref: scu.82914
Appeal against extension of time to bring allegations of sexual abuse from childhood.
[1994] EWCA Civ 35, [1995] 3 FCR 649, [1995] 1 FLR 862
England and Wales
Updated: 27 October 2022; Ref: scu.267532
A prisoner who had been remanded to police cells had no claim of damages for false imprisonment for his later non-release.
Times 07-Feb-1996
Magistrates Courts Act 1980 128(7)
England and Wales
Updated: 27 October 2022; Ref: scu.81577
Where the owner was registered as proprietor of the land between the towpath and the water’s edge, the securing of boats at the water’s edge and the laying out of gangplanks, is a trespass to the land despite the existence of a right of towage.
Times 29-Jul-1993, Gazette 02-Aug-1993
England and Wales
Updated: 26 October 2022; Ref: scu.89618
It was alleged that Miss Shirley Bassey had breached her contract with a record producer Dreampace (or with her own management company which had in turn contracted with Dreampace), as a result of which Dreampace had been unable to perform a contract with the plaintiffs of which Miss Bassey had known.
Held: The court asked ‘Must the conduct of the defendant, the alleged tortfeasor, be aimed directly at the plaintiff, the contracting party, who suffers damage, in the sense that the defendant intends that the plaintiff’s contract should be broken, or is it sufficient that that conduct should have the natural and probable consequence that the plaintiff’s contract is broken?’ No specific intent is necessary to establish the tort of inducing a breach of contract. The tort is ‘a species of the genus of economic torts whereby the common law protects against the intentional violation of economic interests’.
Peter Gibson LJ: There had to be the deliberate interference with a contract with a view to bringing about its breach rather than interference causing a breach when that interference was merely the incidental consequence of the defendant’s conduct: ‘ . . it is a requirement of the tort that it should be established that the defendant by his conduct intended to break or otherwise interfere with and, with that intention, did break or otherwise interfere with a contract to which the plaintiff was a party.’
Beldam LJ: ”In the passage cited, Woolf LJ was in my opinion emphasising the distinction between an intention to bring about a consequence and the desire to do so and was pointing out that a person can intend a consequence if he knows that it will follow from a course of conduct on which he embarks deliberately. Nor I my view can a consequence properly be regarded as unintended or incidental if the deliberate action is taken knowing that it must inevitably bring about the consequence, desired or not. In truth in such a case the actor intends to bring about both the undesired and the desired consequence and is willing to bring about the one to achieve the other. ‘
Ralph Gibson and Beldam LJJ
Independent 26-Aug-1993, [1994] EMLR 44
England and Wales
Cited – OBG Ltd OBG (Plant and Transport Hire) Ltd v Raymond International Ltd; OBG Ltd v Allen CA 9-Feb-2005
The defendants had wrongfully appointed receivers of the claimant, who then came into the business and terminated contracts undertaken by the business. The claimant asserted that their actions amounted to a wrongful interference in their contracts . .
Considered – Latvian Shipping Company and Others v Stocznia Gdanska Sa CA 21-Jun-2002
A payment condition was just that and that a failure to pay entitled the seller to terminate at common law. Rix LJ said: ‘It is established law that, where one party to a contract has repudiated it, the other may validly accept that repudiation by . .
View of Stuart Smith LJ approved – Oren, Tiny Love Limited v Red Box Toy Factory Limited, Red Box Toy (UK) Limited, Index Limited, Martin Yaffe International Limited, Argos Distributors Limited PatC 1-Feb-1999
One plaintiff was the exclusive licensee of a registered design. The defendant sold articles alleged to infringe the design right. The registered owner had a statutory right to sue for infringement. But the question was whether the licensee could . .
Cited – Douglas and others v Hello! Ltd and others (No 3) CA 18-May-2005
The principal claimants sold the rights to take photographs of their wedding to a co-claimant magazine (OK). Persons acting on behalf of the defendants took unauthorised photographs which the defendants published. The claimants had retained joint . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 26 October 2022; Ref: scu.83721
The plaintiff was an eighteen year old girl who had had a friendship with the defendant, aged 28. The friendship broke down and the plaintiff said she would have no more to do with him, but the defendant did not accept this. There were many complaints against the defendant, including assaults, threats of violence, and pestering the plaintiff at her parents’ home where she lived. As a result of the defendant’s threats and abusive behaviour he spent some time in prison.
Held: Harassing telephone calls can be restrained on the basis that they can constitute a nuisance to the occupier. A court may restrain harassment not just to protect a strict legal right.
Dillon LJ (with whom Rose LJ agreed) described the authorities as establishing that ‘false words or verbal threats calculated to cause, uttered with the knowledge that they are likely to cause, and actually causing physical injury to the person to whom they are uttered are actionable’ and interpreted injury in the sense of ‘recognisable psychiatric illness with or without psychosomatic symptoms’, as distinct from ‘mere emotional distress’.
. . And ‘ . . false words or verbal threats calculated to cause, and uttered with the knowledge that they are likely to cause and actually causing physical injury to the person to whom they are uttered are actionable: see the judgment of Wright J in Wilkinson v Downton [1897] 2 QB 57 at 59, [1895-9] All ER Rep 267 at 269 cited by Bankes LJ in Janvier v Sweeney [1919] 2 KB 316 at 321-322, [1918-19] All ER Rep 1056 at 1059. There was a wilful false statement, or unfounded threat, which was in law malicious, and which was likely to cause and did in fact cause physical injury, viz illness of the nature of nervous shock.”
Dillon, Rose LJJ, Peter Gibson J
Gazette 21-Apr-1993, Independent 17-Mar-1993, [1993] Fam Law 679, [1993] 3 WLR 476, [1993] QB 727, [1993] 3 All ER 669, [1993] EWCA Civ 18
England and Wales
Followed – Motherwell v Motherwell 1976
(Appellate Division of the Alberta Supreme Court) The court recognised that not only the legal owner of property could obtain an injunction, on the ground of private nuisance, to restrain persistent harassment by unwanted telephone calls to his . .
Cited – Patel v Patel CA 1988
An exclusion zone order had been removed from an injunction granted to a father-in-law against his son-in-law. May LJ observed that an injunction ‘can only be an appropriate remedy where an actual tortious act has been or is likely to be committed’. . .
Cited – Wainwright and another v Home Office HL 16-Oct-2003
The claimant and her son sought to visit her other son in Leeds Prison. He was suspected of involvement in drugs, and therefore she was subjected to strip searches. There was no statutory support for the search. The son’s penis had been touched . .
Overruled – Hunter and Others v Canary Wharf Ltd HL 25-Apr-1997
The claimant, in a representative action complained that the works involved in the erection of the Canary Wharf tower constituted a nuisance in that the works created substantial clouds of dust and the building blocked her TV signals, so as to limit . .
Cited – Ward v Scotrail Railways Limited SCS 27-Nov-1998
The claimant sought damages from the defender, saying that a co-worker had sexually harrassed her. The behaviour continued after she made a complaint to her employer.
Held: It was conceded that the employee’s conduct was not such as to attract . .
Cited – Rhodes v OPO and Another SC 20-May-2015
The mother sought to prevent a father from publishing a book about her child’s life. It was to contain passages she said may cause psychological harm to the 12 year old son. Mother and son lived in the USA and the family court here had no . .
Cited – OPO v MLA and Another CA 9-Oct-2014
The claimant child sought to prevent publication by his father of an autobiography which, he said, would be likely to cause him psychological harm. The father was well known classical musician who said that he had himself suffered sexual abuse as a . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 26 October 2022; Ref: scu.82771
A Police Constable may arrest if he reasonably expects a Breach of the Peace – whether he was right is a question for the judge.
Independent 25-Mar-1993
England and Wales
Updated: 26 October 2022; Ref: scu.82712
Local Authority knowing of earlier case was liable for child injuries by childminder.
Times 27-Jan-1994
Child Minding Regulations 1948 5 6
England and Wales
Updated: 26 October 2022; Ref: scu.81261
A store detective said the plaintiffs had stolen from the store. He was wrong. The plaintiffs sought damages from the defendant for false imprisonment.
Held: If the police use their own discretion to arrest a suspect, an informer is not liable for false imprisonment. The intervention by the police breaks any causation of the store detectives. The officer was not liable under the 1984 Act. The question was whether a defendant to a claim for false imprisonment had ‘himself been the instigator, promoter and active inciter of the action (namely, the arrest that followed)’.
Sir Thomas Bingham MR said: ‘Accordingly, as it would seem to me, the question which arose for . . Decision . . was whether there was information properly to be considered by the jury as to whether what [the defendant] did went beyond laying information before police officers for them to take such action as they thought fit, and amounted to some direction, or procuring, or direct request, or direct encouragement that they should act by way of arresting [the plaintiffs].’
The test of the store detective’s conduct was whether he: ‘went beyond laying information before police officers for them to take such action as they thought fit and amounted to some direction, or procuring, or direct request, or direct encouragement that they should act by way of arresting these defendants.’
As to the case of M, Laws J’s reasoning was approved but not the conclusion: ‘The judge goes straight from a finding that the hospital managers were entitled to act upon an apparently valid application to the conclusion that the applicant’s detention was therefore not unlawful. That is, in my judgment, a non sequitur. It is perfectly possible that the hospital managers were entitled to act on an apparently valid application, but that the detention was in fact unlawful. If that were not so the implications would, in my judgment, be horrifying. It would mean that an application which appeared to be in order would render the detention of a citizen lawful even though it was shown or admitted that the approved social worker purporting to make the application was not an approved social worker, that the registered medical practitioners whose recommendations founded the application were not registered medical practitioners or had not signed the recommendations, and that the approved social worker had not consulted the patient’s nearest relative or had consulted the patient’s nearest relative and that relative had objected. In other words, it would mean that the detention was lawful even though every statutory safeguard built into the procedure was shown to have been ignored or violated.’
Sir Thomas Bingham MR, Staughton LJ
Ind Summary 31-May-1993, [1994] 2 All ER 597
Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 24(6)
England and Wales
Overruled – Regina v Managers of South Western Hospital and Another, Ex Parte M QBD 24-Mar-1993
The patient was detained on the application of an AMHP. In purported pursuance of section 11(4) the AMHP had consulted the patient’s mother as her nearest relative. However, the patient’s mother was not ordinarily resident in the UK, and, according . .
Cited – Keegan and Others v Chief Constable of Merseyside CA 3-Jul-2003
The police had information suggesting (wrongly) that a fugitive resided at an address. An armed raid followed, and the claimant occupant sought damages.
Held: The tort of malicious procurement of a search warrant required it to be established . .
Cited – ID and others v The Home Office (BAIL for Immigration Detainees intervening) CA 27-Jan-2005
The claimants sought damages and other reliefs after being wrongfully detained by immigration officers for several days, during which they had been detained at a detention centre and left locked up when it burned down, being released only by other . .
Cited – Prison Officers Association v Iqbal CA 4-Dec-2009
The claimant, a prisoner, alleged false imprisonment. The prison officers had taken unlawful strike action leaving him to be confined within his cell and unable to be involved in his normal activities. In view of the strike, a governor’s order had . .
Cited – TTM v London Borough of Hackney and Others CA 14-Jan-2011
The claimant had been found to have been wrongfully detained under section 3. He appealed against rejection of his claim for judicial review and for damages. The court found that his detention was lawful until declared otherwise. He argued that the . .
Cited – Commissioner of Police of The Metropolis v Copeland CA 22-Jul-2014
The defendant appealed against the award of damages for assault, false imprisonment and malicious prosection, saying that the question posed for the jury were misdirections, and that the jury’s decision was perverse. The claimant was attending the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 26 October 2022; Ref: scu.79827
An injunction to restrain a wilful interference with highway works was properly granted.
Gazette 26-Jan-1994, Times 07-Dec-1993
England and Wales
Updated: 26 October 2022; Ref: scu.79914
The defendant’s garage had encroached by one brick’s width on the plaintiff’s land and had been built in 1975. The plaintiff obtained a declaration that that was the position in 1990 but was refused the mandatory injunction which she sought. The plaintiff would not accept this conclusion and she trespassed on, and interfered with, the defendant’s garage and land. The defendants obtained an injunction to restrain her from doing so, but she continued, and she was the subject of an application for committal for contempt, and she was committed for contempt for a period of two years. She appealed.
Held: She had not been entitled to use self help. Self help was wrong in a complicated case, but abatement is available in simple cases where the abatement would remove the nuisance and the cost of legal proceedings could not be justified. Self help to overcome a trespass by encroachment could rarely be justified.
Lloyd LJ discussed the relevant principles of self help: ‘Ever since the assize of nuisance became available, the courts have confined the remedy by way of self-redress to simple cases such as an overhanging branch, or an encroaching root, which would not justify the expense of legal proceedings, and urgent cases which require an immediate remedy. Thus, it was Bracton’s view that where there is resort to self-redress, the remedy should be taken without delay. In Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book III, chapter 1, we find: ‘And the reason why the law allows this private and summary method of doing one’s self justice, is because injuries of this kind, which obstruct or annoy such things as are of daily convenience and use, require an immediate remedy; and cannot wait for the slow progress of the ordinary forms of justice.’
The modern textbooks, both here and in other common law jurisdictions, follow the same line: see Salmond and Heuston on Torts, 20th ed. (1992) p. 485; Clerk and Lindsell on Torts, 16th ed. (1989) p. 36; Fleming, The Law of Torts, 7th ed. (1987), p. 415 and Prosser and Keeton, The Law of Torts, 4th ed. (1971), p.641. In Prosser and Keeton we find: ‘Consequently the privilege [of abatement] must be exercised within a reasonable time after knowledge of the nuisance is acquired or should have been acquired by the person entitled to abate; if there has been sufficient delay to allow resort to legal process, the reason for the privilege fails, and the privilege with it.’
. . And: ‘In my opinion, this never was an appropriate case for self-redress, even if the plaintiff had acted promptly. There was no emergency. There were difficult questions of law and fact to be considered and the remedy by way of self-redress, if it resulted in the demolition of the garage wall, would have been out of all proportion to the damage suffered by the plaintiff.’ As to the refusal of the mandatory injunction he said: ‘Self redress is a summary remedy, which is justified only in clear and simple cases, or in an emergency.’
Anthony Lloyd LJ
Gazette 02-Jun-1993, [1993] 1 WLR 1077, [1993] 3 All ER 847
England and Wales
Cited – Moffett v Brewer 1848
Greene J said: ‘This summary method of redressing a grievance, by the act of an injured party, should be regarded with great jealousy, and authorised only in cases of particular emergency, requiring a more speedy remedy than can be had by the . .
Applied – Chamberlain v Lindon Admn 18-Mar-1998
The appellant challenged the dismissal of his private prosecution of the defendant in destroying a new garden wall. The magistrates had found a lawful excuse in that the defendant said that the wall had been constructed to obstruct his private right . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 26 October 2022; Ref: scu.78775
Walker J
[2016] EWHC 298 (Comm)
England and Wales
Appeal from – Global Asset Capital, Inc and Another v Aabar Block Sarl and Others CA 1-Feb-2017
Appeal against refusal of summary judgment. The court set out the applicable principles concerning strike out and summary judgment: ‘(1) The court must consider whether the case of the respondent to the application has a realistic as opposed to . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 26 October 2022; Ref: scu.560179
The claimant sought damages from the defendant alleging abuse of email systems by sending large quantities of email spam. The defendant argued that the claimant had suffered no damage and had no standing to make a claim.
Held: The claim could proceed. The threshold question was determined according normal principles in deciding whether a private person, whether a natural person or a corporation, had a cause of action. If the claimant fell within the class of persons for whose protection the relevant requirements were imposed he had standing. The court must also be satisfied that the terms imposed enabled a claim to be brought. Microsoft was within that class and a person who had been caused damage by the sending of unsolicited electronic mail was able, in addition to or in lieu of compensation, to claim an injunction.
Lewison J
Times 26-Jan-2007
England and Wales
Updated: 24 October 2022; Ref: scu.248816
The defendant was said to have attempted to blackmail the claimant by threatening to publish intimate photographs. The court had granted an injunction restraining publication and identification of the parties.
Held: As to the remedy of an injunction contra mundum, Eady J said: ‘the remedy is available, whenever necessary and appropriate, for the protection of Convention rights whether of children or adults’.
Eady J
[2011] EWHC 1059 (QB)
England and Wales
Cited – In re A (A Minor) FD 8-Jul-2011
An application was made in care proceedings for an order restricting publication of information about the family after the deaths of two siblings of the child subject to the application. The Sun and a local newspaper had already published stories . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 21 October 2022; Ref: scu.434899
Claim for damages for false imprisonment arising out of the imposition of what has been referred to as a curfew, namely a requirement that the claimant be present for a certain number of hours each day at specified premises after release from immigration detention centre.
Lewis J
[2017] EWHC 2821 (Admin)
England and Wales
See Also – Jollah, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for The Home Department Admn 24-Feb-2017
Judicial review of refusal to lift curfew conditions . .
Appeal from – Jollah, Regina (on The Application of) v The Secretary of State for The Home Department CA 12-Jun-2018
. .
At Admin (2) – Jalloh, Regina (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department SC 12-Feb-2020
Claim for damages for false imprisonment brought in judicial review proceedings challenging the legality of a curfew imposed upon the claimant, purportedly under paragraph 2(5) of Schedule 3 to the Immigration Act 1971.
Held: The Court of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 15 October 2022; Ref: scu.599409
Claim for damages for misrepresentation
Andrew Baker QC
[2016] EWHC 1909 (Comm)
England and Wales
Updated: 13 October 2022; Ref: scu.567884
The bank sought repayment of substantial sums it said were due to it from its former managing director.
Burton J
[2011] EWHC 605 (Comm)
England and Wales
Updated: 12 October 2022; Ref: scu.430846
Whether valid grant of leave to appeal on retirement of judge.
[2018] EWCA Civ 1470, [2018] WLR(D) 396, [2018] 1 WLR 4766
Protection from Harassment Act 1997
England and Wales
Cited – HRH The Duchess of Sussex v Associated Newspapers Ltd ChD 22-Mar-2021
The defendant had been found to be in breach of copyright, and of misuse of private information. The court now considered the form of orders required to complete the judgment.
Held: The statement to be published by the defendant was not to be . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 07 October 2022; Ref: scu.618927
Appeal by a foreign national, who contends that his detention pending possible deportation was, or at least became, unlawful.
Pill, Jackson, Sullivan LJJ
[2012] EWCA Civ 414
England and Wales
Updated: 06 October 2022; Ref: scu.452409
[2017] EWHC 117 (Admin)
England and Wales
Updated: 05 October 2022; Ref: scu.573916
The claimant bank sought damages from the defendant solicitors, saying that they had paid on mortgage advance moneys but failed to deliver as promised and required, a first mortgage over the property purchased. The solicitors had failed to discharge an existing first charge (to Barclays). The parties now disputed whether the sum due to the bank was the entire sum loaned, or only the net sum lost after the sale.
Held: The solicitors had acted in good faith, but in breach of trust.
Prima facie the bank was entitled to reconstitution of the trust fund by repayment of the amount wrongly paid away. As to the bank’s alternative claim for equitable compensation or damages, he said that where the breach consisted of failure to discharge a prior mortgage, with the result that the bank’s interest had been postponed to the Barclays charge, the bank was entitled to equitable compensation for the additional amounts due to Barclays for which Barclays had security in priority to the bank. The solicitors were therefore liable to the bank for the additional amount ultimately obtained by Barclays by reason of its prior security.
The court analysed the breach of trust: ‘ In the present case, . . . what the defendant’s instructions authorised them to do with the funds paid to them was to pay to Barclays (or to its account) such sum as was required to procure a release of its charge, and pay the balance to the borrowers or to their order. Had they complied with their instructions they would have paid (taking all the figures in round terms) andpound;1.5m to Barclays and andpound;1.8m to the borrowers. In the event they paid andpound;1.2m to Barclays and andpound;2.1m to the borrowers. In my judgment, in so doing they committed a breach of trust in so far as payment was made contrary to the authority they had been given.
It does not however in my judgment necessarily follow that the whole of the payment of andpound;3.3m was made in breach of trust. The difference between what the defendant did and what it ought to have done if it had complied with its instructions was the andpound;300,000 that should have been paid to Barclays but was instead paid to the borrowers. That in my judgment was the extent of the breach of trust committed. It was not a breach of trust to pay andpound;1.2m to Barclays; that payment was made as partial performance of the authority and obligation to discharge Barclays’ secured debt. It was not a breach of trust to pay andpound;1.8m to the borrowers, as that was the sum to which they were entitled. The breach consisted of the failure to retain an additional andpound;300,000 and apply that to the discharge of the Barclays debt.’
David Cooke HHJ
[2012] EWHC 35 (Ch)
England and Wales
Cited – Cook v The Mortgage Business Plc CA 24-Jan-2012
The land owners sought relief from possession orders made under mortgages given in equity release schemes: ‘If the purchaser raises all or part of the purchase price on mortgage, and then defaults, the issue arises whether the mortgagee’s right to . .
Appeal from – AIB Group (UK) Plc v Mark Redler and Co Solicitors CA 8-Feb-2013
The defendant firm of solicitors had acted for the claimants under instructions to secure a first charge over the secured property. They failed to secure the discharge of the existing first charge, causing losses. AIB asserted breach of trust.
At ChD – AIB Group (UK) Plc v Mark Redler and Co Solicitors SC 5-Nov-2014
Bank not to recover more than its losses
The court was asked as to the remedy available to the appellant bank against the respondent, a firm of solicitors, for breach of the solicitors’ custodial duties in respect of money entrusted to them for the purpose of completing a loan which was to . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 04 October 2022; Ref: scu.450453
Sir Raymond Jack
[2011] EWHC 3304 (QB)
England and Wales
At QBD – Customer Systems Plc v Ranson CA 29-Mar-2012
Leave to appeal granted. . .
Appeal from – Ranson v Customer Systems Plc CA 27-Jun-2012
Lewison LJ considered the contractual duty of fidelity within an employment contract:
‘It is not disputed that an employee has an obligation of fidelity towards his employer. If the obligation is not expressed, it will invariably be implied.
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 04 October 2022; Ref: scu.450159
Munby LJ
[2011] EWHC 2576 (Fam)
England and Wales
Updated: 01 October 2022; Ref: scu.449967
Claim of unlawful administrative detention
[2011] EWHC 1514 (Admin)
England and Wales
Updated: 26 September 2022; Ref: scu.448115
(New Zealand)
[1966] UKPC 27, [1967] 1 AC 569, [1967] 1 All ER 649, [1967] 2 WLR 411
England and Wales
Updated: 20 September 2022; Ref: scu.445114
[2011] EWHC 2525 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 20 September 2022; Ref: scu.444970
The claimants sought an order under the 1997 Act against their neighbours.
Timothy Straker QC J
[2011] EWHC 2098 (QB)
Protection from Harassment Act 1997 1(1)
England and Wales
Updated: 17 September 2022; Ref: scu.442514
The claimant sought, through judicial review, a declaration that he was unlawfully detained for 46 days by the UKBA and damages for false imprisonment and for breach of Article 5 of the Human Rights Convention. The UKBA had detained the claimant under the Detained Fast Track procedure. The claimant contended that it had no right to do so. Under this procedure asylum seekers are detained at immigration detention facilities while their claims and any appeal are determined. The stated objective of the procedure was to enable straightforward claims to be determined speedily.
Thomas, Lloyd, Rimer LJJ
[2011] EWCA Civ 938
England and Wales
Updated: 17 September 2022; Ref: scu.442422
[2010] EWCA Civ 1637
England and Wales
Updated: 17 September 2022; Ref: scu.442426
The appellant company sought to recover assets which, it said, had been acquired by a former partner in breach of his obligations under the partnership agreement, but which had been taken in the names of some of the respondents. There had been an arbitration beween the claimant and the former partner, which were lost, and the defendants had successfully argued that it was an abuse of process for the claimant now to pursue them, even though they had not been party to the arbitration. The claimants now appealed.
Held: The appeal was allowed. There was indeed a jurisdition for a court to take account of an earlier arbitration (as opposed to a court) award, when considering whether proceedings were an abuse, but the Judge had been wrong to exercise the discretion which arose in these particular circumstances.
The court summarised the relevant principles: (1) In cases where there is no res judicata or issue estoppel, the power to strike out a claim for abuse of process is founded on two interests: the private interest of a party not to be vexed twice for the same reason and the public interest of the state in not having issues repeatedly litigated; see Lord Diplock in Hunter v. Chief Constable, Lord Hoffmann in the Arthur Hall case and Lord Bingham in Johnson v. Gore Wood. These interests reflect unfairness to a party on the one hand, and the risk of the administration of public justice being brought into disrepute on the other, see again Lord Diplock in Hunter v. Chief Constable. Both or either interest may be engaged.
(2) An abuse may occur where it is sought to bring new proceedings in relation to issues that have been decided in prior proceedings. However, there is no prima facie assumption that such proceedings amount to an abuse, see Bragg v. Oceanus; and the court’s power is only used where justice and public policy demand it, see Lord Hoffmann in the Arthur Hall case.
(3) To determine whether proceedings are abusive the Court must engage in a close ‘merits based’ analysis of the facts. This will take into account the private and public interests involved, and will focus on the crucial question: whether in all the circumstances a party is abusing or misusing the court’s process, see Lord Bingham in Johnson v. Gore Wood and Buxton LJ in Taylor Walton v. Laing.
(4) In carrying out this analysis, it will be necessary to have in mind that: (a) the fact that the parties may not have been the same in the two proceedings is not dispositive, since the circumstances may be such as to bring the case within ‘the spirit of the rules’, see Lord Hoffmann in the Arthur Hall case; thus (b) it may be an abuse of process, where the parties in the later civil proceedings were neither parties nor their privies in the earlier proceedings, if it would be manifestly unfair to a party in the later proceedings that the same issues should be relitigated, see Sir Andrew Morritt V-C in the Bairstow case; or, as Lord Hobhouse put it in the Arthur Hall case, if there is an element of vexation in the use of litigation for an improper purpose.
(5) It will be a rare case where the litigation of an issue which has not previously been decided between the same parties or their privies will amount to an abuse of process, see Lord Hobhouse in In re Norris . .
(6) An appeal against a decision to strike out on the grounds of abuse, described by Lord Sumption JSC in Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd v. Zodiac Seats UK Ltd [2014] AC 160 at [17] as the application of a procedural rule against abusive proceedings, is a challenge to the judgment of the court below and not to the exercise of a discretion. Nevertheless, in reviewing the decision the Court of Appeal will give considerable weight to the views of the judge, see Buxton LJ in the Taylor Walton case, at [13].
Patten , Simon LJJ, Sir Ernest Ryder SPT
[2017] EWCA Civ 3, [2017] WLR(D) 18
England and Wales
See Also – Emmott v Michael Wilson and Partners Ltd CA 12-Mar-2008
The court considered the implication of the obligation of confidentiality in banking contracts or in arbitration agreements. It is ‘really a rule of substantive law masquerading as an implied term’. . .
Cited – Reichel v Magrath PC 1889
The new vicar of Sparsholt, Dr Magrath, was able to rely on the abuse of process even though he had not been party to earlier proceedings between Reichel and the Bishop of Oxford and the Queen’s College and so was not bound by any issue estoppel . .
Cited – Arthur JS Hall and Co (A Firm) v Simons; Barratt v Woolf Seddon (A Firm); Harris v Schofield Roberts and Hill (A Firm) HL 20-Jul-2000
Clients sued their solicitors for negligence. The solicitors responded by claiming that, when acting as advocates, they had the same immunities granted to barristers.
Held: The immunity from suit for negligence enjoyed by advocates acting in . .
See Also – Michael Wilson and Partners Ltd v Emmott ComC 6-Nov-2008
Challenge to jurisdiction of arbitration proceedings. . .
See Also – Michael Wilson and Partners Ltd v Emmott ComC 8-Jun-2011
The claimant challenged an arbitration award made concerning the agreement under which the defendant had been admitted to partnership. MWP contended that the Tribunal were guilty of a large number of serious irregularities in their conduct of the . .
See Also – Michael Wilson and Partners Ltd v Sinclair and Others ComC 21-Sep-2012
The claimant company alleged that the defendants had variously received assests (shares and cash) acquired by a former partner in the claimant company and held on his behalf, in breach of his obligations to the caimant partnership. The defendants . .
See Also – Michael Wilson and Partners Ltd v Sinclair and Others CA 16-Jan-2013
Application to stay order for costs. . .
See Also – Michael Wilson and Partners Ltd v Sinclair and Others CA 23-Jul-2015
. .
See Also – Michael Wilson and Partners Ltd v Emmott CA 14-Oct-2015
Appeal against a finding that payments made by the appellant were made in the ordinary course of business and not in breach of a freezing injunction. . .
See Also – Michael Wilson and Partners Ltd v Emmott CA 11-Dec-2015
The court considered a residual jurisdiction to set aside an arbitrator’s award after a first appeal. . .
See Also – Emmott v Michael Wilson and Partners ComC 24-Nov-2016
Application for an anti-suit injunction against the defendant to restrain it from taking any further steps in ongoing proceedings in New South Wales and from commencing or pursuing any other substantive claims against the claimant on the ground that . .
Cited – Henderson v Henderson 20-Jul-1843
Abuse of Process and Re-litigation
The court set down the principles to be applied in abuse of process cases, where a matter was raised again which should have been dealt with in earlier proceedings.
Sir James Wigram VC said: ‘In trying this question I believe I state the rule . .
Cited – Johnson v Gore Wood and Co HL 14-Dec-2000
Shareholder May Sue for Additional Personal Losses
A company brought a claim of negligence against its solicitors, and, after that claim was settled, the company’s owner brought a separate claim in respect of the same subject-matter.
Held: It need not be an abuse of the court for a shareholder . .
Cited – Bragg v Oceanus Mutual Underwriting Association (Bermuda) Ltd CA 1982
The court considered the ability to prevent relitigation of issues already decided. The Court identified some of the limits of the abuse jurisdiction. Kerr LJ said: ‘To take the authorities first, it is clear that an attempt to relitigate in another . .
Cited – Henderson v Henderson 20-Jul-1843
Abuse of Process and Re-litigation
The court set down the principles to be applied in abuse of process cases, where a matter was raised again which should have been dealt with in earlier proceedings.
Sir James Wigram VC said: ‘In trying this question I believe I state the rule . .
Cited – In re Norris, Application by Norris HL 28-Jun-2001
The applicant’s husband had been made the subject of a drugs confiscation order. Part of this was an order against the house. She had failed in asserting that the house was hers. Her appeal to a civil court had been disallowed as an abuse. It was . .
Cited – The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry v Bairstow CA 11-Mar-2003
The Secretary of State attempted, in the course of director’s disqualification proceedings, to rely upon findings made against Mr Bairstow in an earlier wrongful dismissal action to which he had been a party but the Secretary of State not. The . .
Cited – Taylor Walton (A Firm) v Laing CA 15-Nov-2007
The appellants appealed against a refusal to strike out as an abuse of process the respondent’s claim against them for professional negligence in the drafting of development agreements.
Buxton LJ considered the nature of the enquiry on such an . .
Cited – Taylor Walton (A Firm) v Laing CA 15-Nov-2007
The appellants appealed against a refusal to strike out as an abuse of process the respondent’s claim against them for professional negligence in the drafting of development agreements.
Buxton LJ considered the nature of the enquiry on such an . .
Cited – Kotonou v National Westminster Bank Plc CA 30-Oct-2015
Appeal against summary dismissal of claim against the bank based on Henderson v Henderson.
Gloster LJ, commented on Buxton LJ’s observations in the Taylor Walton case: ‘Thus, in my view, what is required in the present case is ‘an intense focus . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 16 September 2022; Ref: scu.573280
Claims were made that property agents had accepted bribes or secret commissions.
King J
[2011] EWHC 983 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 16 September 2022; Ref: scu.442095
The defendant, operator of a holiday park, appealed against a finding of liability for the accident causing the claimant’s injury. The claimant, in a wheelchair, had ascended one part of the room by a ramp, but then tried to return to the lower level mistakenly believing a further ramp existed. It did not and she was injured. The claimant however had not herself given evidence. In correspondence, at a time when the defendant misunderstood the circumstances they had mistakenly asserted the existence of warning measures.
Held: The judge had allowed himself to be wrongly influenced by two misapprehensions, and his decision could not stand. On studying the photographs and ‘no one looking at that scene could possibly think that he or she was approaching a sloping ramp. In my judgment, it was quite obvious and apparent that there was a difference in level between the wooden floor of the upper level and the small seating area on the intermediate level.’
Lord Neuberger MR, Elias LJJ, Dame Janet Smith
[2011] EWCA Civ 753
Occupier’s Liability Act 1957 2
England and Wales
Updated: 15 September 2022; Ref: scu.441393
Applications for dismissal of interim freezing order and for continuance. Order not set aside. The claim was for a freezing order to support a claim for recovery of damage to goods being transported. The court now considered an allegation that the order had been made on the basis of a misrepresentation of a telephone call. It had been said that threats had been made, but a recording had shown this to be untrue.
Flaux J
[2008] EWHC 1615 (Comm), [2008] 2 CLC 51, [2008] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 602, [2009] 1 All ER (Comm) 479
England and Wales
Cited – Crawford v Jenkins CA 24-Jul-2014
The parties had divorced but acrimony continued. H now complained of his arrests after allegations from his former wife that he had breached two orders. He had been released and no charges followed. The court had ruled that W’s complaints were . .
Cited – Ahuja v Politika Novine I Magazini Doo and Others QBD 23-Nov-2015
Action for misuse of private information and libel. Application to have set aside leave to serve out of the jurisdiction. The defendant published a newspaper in Serbian, in print in Serbia and online. Though in Serbian, the claimant said that online . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 13 September 2022; Ref: scu.270815
Allegations of breach of fiduciary duty by company directors
Andrew Smith J
[2010] EWHC 3199 (Comm)
England and Wales
Updated: 11 September 2022; Ref: scu.427222
Claim by company’s liquidator of alleged fraud by former company directors
Arnold J
[2012] EWHC 1447 (Ch)
England and Wales
Updated: 10 September 2022; Ref: scu.460463
The claimants had sought damages alleging that the defendants had been involved in a fight leading to the death of their father. They appealed after losing the case, saying that the judge had wrongly excluded certain evidence.
[2011] EWCA Civ 441
England and Wales
Updated: 08 September 2022; Ref: scu.434844
Irwin J
[2006] EWHC 2708 (QB)
Statute of Frauds (Amendment) Act 1828
England and Wales
Appeal from – Contex Drouzhba Ltd v Wiseman and Another CA 20-Nov-2007
The defendant was a director of a company. He signed a letter for the company promising to pay for goods ordered. The representation was found to have been made fraudulently because he knew the company was insolvent, and unable to pay. He now . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 07 September 2022; Ref: scu.245961
The farmer complained that the department had, during the foot and mouth outbreak destroyed animals which did not belong to the owner of the land. The department said that the farmer had disposed of his land at an undervalue to defeat his creditors.
Held: The department did not have power under the Act to bury slaughtered animals on land which was not occupied by their owner, and the counterclaim succeeded. However the defendant had displayed a readiness to dissemble in order to get his bank which had taken possession of the farm to resell it to the lady who was soon to be his wife without disclosing his relationship. The legislation was operative against someone who took part in a transaction at an undervalue. Mr Feakins knew that she would immediately resell the land for twice the amount once purchased when he, by arrangement, had already agreed to surrender his agricultural tenancy. Accordingly the transaction could be set aside.
Hart J
Times 29-Dec-2004
Insolvency Act 1985 423, Animal Health Act 1981 34
England and Wales
See Also – Regina on the Application of Feakins v Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs CA 4-Nov-2003
The applicant farmer had substantial volumes of potentially contaminated carcasses on his land. The respondent derogated from the European regulations which would have arranged for the disposal of the carcasses. The respondent challenged the . .
Cited – Re Brabon 2001
The debtor had contracted to sell his land to a third party developer, Silver. Between contract and completion, the debtor was made bankrupt. His wife, who already held legal charges over part of the land, took a transfer of a charge over the . .
See Also – Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs v Feakins and Another ChD 26-Nov-2004
. .
See Also – Regina on the Application of Feakins v Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs CA 4-Nov-2003
The applicant farmer had substantial volumes of potentially contaminated carcasses on his land. The respondent derogated from the European regulations which would have arranged for the disposal of the carcasses. The respondent challenged the . .
Appeal from – Feakins and Another v Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Civ 1513) CA 9-Dec-2005
The department complained that the defendants had entered into a transaction with their farm at an undervalue so as to defeat its claim for recovery of sums due. The transaction used the grant of a tenancy by the first chargee.
Held: The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 07 September 2022; Ref: scu.220647
The claimant had supplied clothing to the defendant under a contract containing a retention of title clause. The defendant fell into financial difficulties and administration. The claimant now sought damages for conversion of its goods by the defendant and the administrators. The claimant appealed against an order which found that the defendants had had authority to sell the goods.
Held: The appeal failed. Moore-Bick LJ said: ‘Having regard to the commercial considerations mentioned earlier and to the language of clause 7, I am unable to accept that Jet Star’s authority to sell and dispose of goods subject to the retention of title clause was limited to disposals in what, in the context of a floating charge, could be described as the ordinary course of business. ‘
Maurice Kay LJ, Smith LJ, Moore-Bick LJ
[2011] EWCA Civ 459
England and Wales
Cited – Driver v Broad 1893
An agreement to create a floating charge counted as an interest in land. Kay LJ said that there was no distinction between a debenture which expressly gives the company liberty to dispose of the charged property ‘in the ordinary course of its . .
Cited – In Re Bond Worth Ltd 1980
The parties disputed the property in goods which had been sold and then gone through successive manufacturing processes. The contract included a retention of title clause. Fibres were converted into manufactured carpets and thus lost their identity . .
Cited – Ashborder Bv and others v Green Gas Power Ltd and others ChD 29-Jun-2004
. .
Cited – Four Point Garage v Carter 1985
A simple retention of title clause was argued to have the effect of preserving title, despite the sale to an ultimate customer. The plaintiff had sold a car to a garage who in turn, it thought was leasing it to the defendant. The defendant was in . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 06 September 2022; Ref: scu.432839
The claimants had succeeded in their applications for asylum, but now said that the inordinate delays created by the respondent had caused them further losses.
[2011] EWCA Civ 453
England and Wales
Updated: 06 September 2022; Ref: scu.432815
Newman J
[2004] EWHC 808 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 06 September 2022; Ref: scu.431906
The claimant alleged complicity by the defendant, (now former) Foreign Secretary, in his mistreatment by the US while held in Libya. He also alleged involvement in his unlawful abduction and removal to Libya, from which had had fled for political persecution. The defendants now appealed from rejection of the defendants’ claim to state immunity and their reliance on the foreign act of state doctrine which, he held, was not engaged.
Held: The defendants’ appeals failed. State immunity is a matter of customary international law acknowledged by common law and statute. It arose from the equality of sovereign states and a need for international comity. The immunity given was personal to the state as to its sovereign actions. It worked only on the direct or indirect impleading of the state, in non-consensual proceedings were or where the proceedings, even though the state was not itself a party, related to its property.
These claims were rather against officials of the UK, not of any foreign state, and no question arose of any relief being sought other than against the domestic defendants. No legal position of no foreign state being directly or indirectly affected by the claims, the pleas of state immunity failed.
135
Lord Sumption said: ‘The act of state doctrine comprises two principles. The first can conveniently be called ‘Crown act of state’ and does not arise in the present cases. It is that in an action based on a tort committed abroad, it is in some circumstances a defence that it was done on the orders or with the subsequent approval of the Crown in the course of its relations with a foreign state. The second, commonly called ‘foreign act of state’, is that the courts will not adjudicate upon the lawfulness or validity of certain sovereign acts of foreign states. For this purpose a sovereign act means the same as it does in the law of state immunity. It is an act done jure imperii, as opposed to a commercial transaction or other act of a private law character. These are distinct principles, although they are based on certain common legal instincts.’
Lord Neuberger, President, Lady Hale, Deputy President, Lord Mance, Lord Clarke, Lord Wilson, Lord Sumption, Lord Hughes
[2017] UKSC 3, [2017] HRLR 4, [2017] AC 964, [2017] 3 All ER 337, [2017] WLR(D) 51, [2017] 2 WLR 456, UKSC 2014/0264
Bailii, Bailii Summary, WLRD, SC, SC Summary, SC Summary Video
England and Wales
Cited – Yukos Capital Sarl v OJSC Rosneft Oil Company CA 27-Jun-2012
The court was asked to enforce an award of a foreign court, but the claimant objected to admission of evidence as to the procedures underlying the obtaining of the judgment which might go to show unfairness.
Held: International comity and the . .
See Also – Rahmatullah v Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Another Admn 29-Jul-2011
The claimant, a Pakistani national, detained by US Armed forces in Bagram in Afghanistan, sought a writ of habeas corpus. He had been first captured by British forces in Iraq in 2004, and transferred to US military under a Memorandum of . .
Cited – United States of America v Dollfus Mieg et Cie SA HL 1952
The Bank of England was holding, in safe custody for the governments of the US, France and the UK, bars of gold which had been wrongly removed by German troops from a French bank and later captured by the allied armies in Germany during the Second . .
Cited – Secretary of State for Home Affairs v O’Brien HL 1923
The Crown has no right of appeal against the grant of a discharge of a prisoner on a writ of habeas corpus.
The Home Secrtary appealed against the issue of a writ of habeas corpus against him in respect of a prisoner held in Mountjoy prison in . .
Cited – Nissan v The Attorney General HL 11-Feb-1969
The plaintiff was a British subject with a hotel in Cyprus taken over by British troops on a peace-keeping mission. At first the men were there by agreement of the governments of Cyprus and the United Kingdom. Later they became part of a United . .
Cited – Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs v Rahmatullah SC 31-Oct-2012
The claimant complained that the UK Armed forces had taken part in his unlawful rendition from Iraq by the US government. He had been detaiined in Iraq and transferred to US Forces. The government became aware that he was to be removed to . .
Cited – Rahmatullah (No 2) v Ministry of Defence and Another SC 17-Jan-2017
‘another round in the series of important points of law which arise as preliminary issues in actions brought by people who claim to have been wrongfully detained or mistreated by British or American troops in the course of the conflicts in Iraq and . .
See Also – Belhaj and Others v Security Service and Others IPT 18-Nov-2014
. .
Cited – The Parlement Belge CA 1879
An action in rem indirectly impleaded a sovereign who was the owner of the vessel served because his property was affected by the judgment of the court. An unincorporated treaty cannot change the law of the land and, ‘the immunity of the sovereign . .
Cited – Belhaj and Another v Straw and Others QBD 20-Dec-2013
The Claimants sought a declaration of illegality and claim damages arising from what they contend was the participation of the seven Defendants in their unlawful abduction, kidnapping and illicit removal across state borders to Libya in March 2004. . .
Cited – Belhaj and Another v Straw and Others CA 30-Oct-2014
Judiciary 1. In these proceedings the appellants seek a declaration of illegality and damages arising from what they contend was the participation of the respondents in their unlawful abduction, kidnapping and . .
Cited – Compania Naviera Vascongado v Steamship ‘Cristina’ HL 1938
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 . .
Cited – Propend Finance Property Ltd and Others v Sing and Another CA 17-Apr-1997
Diplomatic immunity had not been waived by an Australian policeman acting in breach of a court undertaking re documents. The effect of s14(1) was to give state officials protection ‘under the same cloak’ as the state itself: ‘The protection afforded . .
Cited – Holland v Lampen-Wolfe HL 20-Jul-2000
The US established a base at Menwith Hill in Yorkshire, and provided educational services through its staff to staff families. The claimant a teacher employed at the base alleged that a report on her was defamatory. The defendant relied on state . .
Cited – Hatch v Baez 1876
(United States) The plaintiff claimed that he had suffered injuries in the Dominican Republic as a result of acts done by the defendant in his official capacity of President of that Republic. The Court accepted that because the defendant was in New . .
Cited – Underhill v Hernandez 29-Nov-1897
(US Supreme Court) Underhill, a US citizen, had constructed a waterworks in Bolivar for the government which was eventually overthrown by revolutionary forces, one of whose generals was Hernandez. After Hernandez had captured Bolivar, Underhill . .
Cited – Carr v Fracis Times and Co HL 1902
The House considered a claim following seizure of ammunition by British officers in Muscat under the authority of a proclamation of the absolute ruler, the Sultan of Muscat, whose word was law.
Held: The appeal succeeded. To found an action . .
Cited – Oetjen v Central Leather Co 1918
(US Supreme Court) Animal hides were seized and sold to satisfy a monetary assessment to support the revolution, and there was an issue of title between an assignee from the original owner and a person deriving his claim to title from the purchaser . .
Cited – Aksionairnoye Obschestvo A M Luther v James Sagor and Co CA 1921
A claim was made as to property seized by a decree of Russian revolutionaries later recognised as the government.
Held: A court is required to recognise a foreign state’s dealings with private proprietary rights within its jurisdiction. An . .
Cited – Princess Paley Olga v Weisz 1929
English courts will refrain from examining the validity of foreign executive action relating to matters within the territorial jurisdiction of the foreign state. . .
Cited – In re Helbert Wagg and Co Ltd’s Claim ChD 8-Dec-1955
Conflict of Laws – Movables – Assignment – Foreign legislation –
Validity – Foreign exchange legislation – Whether confiscatory –
German Moratorium law of 1933 – Debt payable in London made payable to
Konversionskasse in Reichsmarks – German law . .
Cited – Rahimtoola v Nizam of Hyderabad HL 1957
A claim was made against the former High Commissioner for Pakistan personally for money had and received. He established that he had received the money in England in his official capacity as High Commissioner.
Held: Appeal allowed. The . .
Cited – Oppenheimer v Cattermole (Inspector of Taxes) HL 5-Feb-1975
HL Income tax, Schedule D – Foreign possessions – Double taxation relief – German government pension for past services – Paid to British subject of German origin – Whether German nationality deemed to be retained . .
Cited – Williams and Humbert Ltd v W and H Trade Marks (Jersey) Ltd HL 1986
There had been an expropriation by Spanish decrees of shares in a Spanish company whose English subsidiary had rights in trade marks which it had sold to a Jersey company. The Spanish and English companies sought certain relief in relation to the . .
Cited – Golder v The United Kingdom ECHR 21-Feb-1975
G was a prisoner who was refused permission by the Home Secretary to consult a solicitor with a view to bringing libel proceedings against a prison officer. The court construed article 6 of ECHR, which provides that ‘in the determination of his . .
Cited – Kuwait Airways Corporation v Iraqi Airways Company and Others (Nos 4 and 5) HL 16-May-2002
After the invasion of Kuwait, the Iraqi government had dissolved Kuwait airlines, and appropriated several airplanes. Four planes were destroyed by Allied bombing, and 6 more were appropriated again by Iran.
Held: The appeal failed. No claim . .
Cited – Roche v The United Kingdom ECHR 19-Oct-2005
(Grand Chamber) The claimant had been exposed to harmful chemicals whilst in the Army at Porton Down in 1953. He had wished to claim a service pension on the basis of the ensuing personal injury, but had been frustrated by many years of the . .
Cited – Jones v Ministry of Interior for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and others HL 14-Jun-2006
The claimants said that they had been tortured by Saudi police when arrested on false charges. They sought damages, and appealed against an order denying jurisdiction over the defendants. They said that the allegation of torture allowed an exception . .
Cited – Canada (Justice) v Khadr 23-May-2008
Supreme Court of Canada
Civil procedure – Motion for sealing order – Documents to be adduced as fresh evidence can be filed only if subject to sealing order – Admissibility and use of documents to be determined by panel of Supreme Court . .
Cited – AK Investment CJSC v Kyrgyz Mobil Tel Ltd and Others PC 10-Mar-2011
Developing Law – Summary Procedures Very Limited
(Isle of Man) (‘Altimo’) The parties were all based in Kyrgyzstan, but the claimant sought a remedy in the Isle of Man which would be unavailable in Kyrgyzstan.
Held: Lord Collins said: ‘The general rule is that it is not normally appropriate . .
Cited – Sabeh El Leil v France ECHR 29-Jun-2011
Grand Chamber – The applicant alleged that he had been deprived of his right of access to a court as a result of the immunity from jurisdiction upheld by the domestic courts.
This was a claim for unfair dismissal, brought before the French . .
Cited – Dobree And Others v Napier And Another 9-May-1836
A vessel (Lord of the Isles) supplying the revolutionary Don Miguel of Portugal was seized in the Portuguese port of St Martinho by Sir Charles Napier as admiral in the service of the Queen of Portugal lawfully under Portuguese law. The ship was . .
Cited – Charles Duke of Brunswick v The King of Hanover 13-Jan-1844
Discussion of the question whether a sovereign prince was liable to the jurisdiction of the Courts of a foreign country, in which he happens to be resident, and as to the liability to suit of one who unites in himself the characters both of an . .
Cited – Government of India v Taylor HL 1955
The Government of India sought to prove in the voluntary liquidation of a company registered in the United Kingdom but trading in India for a sum due in respect of Indian income tax, including capital gains tax, which arose on the sale of the . .
Cited – Buck v Attorney General CA 2-Jan-1965
By an action for declaratory relief, a challenge was offered to the validity of the Order in Council giving effect to the 1961 Act.
Held: The appeal failed. As a matter of international comity an English court should not grant declarations . .
Cited – Buttes Gas and Oil Co v Hammer (No 3) HL 1981
In a defamation action, issues arose as to two conflicting oil concessions which neighbouring states in the Arabian Gulf had granted over their territorial and offshore waters. The foreign relations of the United Kingdom and Iran were also involved . .
Cited – Empresa Exportadora de Azucar v Industria Azucarera Nacional S.A, The Playa Larga CA 1983
There had been a theft by Cuban sellers of one cargo of sugar, property in which had already passed to the buyers, and non-delivery of a second combined with trickery whereby the intended buyers were nonetheless induced to pay its price. The first . .
Cited – Lucasfilm Ltd and Others v Ainsworth and Another SC 27-Jul-2011
The claimant had produced the Star War films which made use of props, in particular a ‘Stormtrooper’ helmet designed by the defendant. The defendant had then himself distributed models of the designs he had created. The appellant obtained judgment . .
Cited – Council of Civil Service Unions v Minister for the Civil Service HL 22-Nov-1984
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 . .
Cited – Kurt v Turkey ECHR 25-May-1998
The court referred to ‘the fundamental importance of the guarantees contained in Article 5 for securing the right of individuals in a democracy to be free from arbitrary detention at the hands of the authorities’ and to the need to interpret . .
Cited – Moti v Regina 7-Dec-2011
High Court of Australia – Mr Moti claimed that he had been deported by officials of the Solomon Islands Government from the Solomon Islands to Australia, where he was wanted for trial. The deportation occurred after the High Commissioner had issued . .
Cited – Gul (M), Regina v CACD 22-Feb-2012
The defendant appealed against his conviction under the 2006 Act for disseminating terrorist publications. He had uploaded to the internet videos showing attacks ofn coalition forces on soldiers of the coalition. He said that his were not acts . .
Cited – Gul, Regina v SC 23-Oct-2013
Mr Gul appealed against a dismissal of his appeal against his conviction for dissemination of terrorist publications contrary to section 2 of the 2006 Act. The Court was now asked as to the meaning of ‘terrorism’ in section 1 of the Terrorism Act . .
Cited – Khan, Regina (on The Application of) v The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs CA 20-Jan-2014
The claimant’s father had been killed in Pakistan by a missile in a drone strike by the USA. He alleged that the strike had been supported by positional information supplied by the British intelligence agencies, and sought judicial review of the . .
Cited – Shergill and Others v Khaira and Others SC 11-Jun-2014
The parties disputed the trusts upon which three Gurdwaras (Sikh Temples) were held. The Court of Appeal had held that the issues underlying the dispute were to be found in matters of the faith of the Sikh parties, and had ordered a permanent stay. . .
Cited – Regina (Abbasi) v Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs CA 6-Nov-2002
There is no authority in law to support the imposition of an enforceable duty on the state to protect the citizen, and although the court was able to intervene, in limited ways, in the way in which the Foreign and Commonwealth Office used its . .
Cited – A and others v Secretary of State for the Home Department (No 2) HL 8-Dec-2005
Evidence from 3rd Party Torture Inadmissible
The applicants had been detained following the issue of certificates issued by the respondent that they posed a terrorist threat. They challenged the decisions of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission saying that evidence underlying the . .
Cited – Markovic and Others v Italy ECHR 14-Dec-2006
The applicants were relatives of persons who had been killed in the NATO air-raid on Belgrade in 1999. The raid was said to be an act of war in violation of international law. It had been launched from bases in Italy. The Corte de Cassazione had . .
Cited – McElhinney v Ireland; Al-Adsani v United Kingdom; Fogarty v United Kingdom ECHR 21-Nov-2001
Grand Chamber – The first applicant said he had been injured by a shot fired by a British soldier who had been carried for two miles into the Republic of Ireland, clinging to the applicant’s vehicle following an incident at a checkpoint.
Held: . .
Cited – Jones and Others v The United Kingdom ECHR 14-Jan-2014
. .
Cited – Nabob of The Carnatic v The East India Company 2-Jan-1789
A political treaty, between sovereigns, or parties exercising sovereign authority cannot be the subject of a municipal jurisdiction. . .
Cited – Nabob of The Carnatic v East India Company 28-Jan-1793
The case arose out of the East India Company’s controversial relations with the Nabob at a stage when the courts had not yet learned to identify the East India Company with the British government. The Company had assisted the Nabob, a sovereign . .
Cited – Thomas Cook and James Charles Cook v Sir James Gordon Sprigg PC 1-Aug-1899
Municipal courts have not and cannot have the competence to adjudicate upon or to enforce the rights arising out of transactions entered into by independent sovereign states between themselves on the plane of international law.
(Cape of Good . .
Cited – Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) v Prime Minister and others Admn 17-Dec-2002
CND sought an advisory declaration as to the meaning of UN Security Council resolution 1441, which had given Iraq ‘a final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations’ and whether the resolution authorised states to take military action . .
Cited – Peer International Corporation Southern Music Publishing Company Inc Peermusic (UK) Limited v Termidor Music Publishers Limited Termidor Musikverlag Gmbh and Co Kg -And-Editoria Musical De Cuba CA 30-Jul-2003
Peer sought declarations that they were the owners, or licensees, of the UK copyright in musical works composed by Cuban nationals, relying on assignments in writing by the composers and in some instances by their heirs. The defendants claimed under . .
Cited – Maclaine Watson and Co Ltd v International Tin Council HL 2-Jan-1989
The International Tin Council was a body constituted by an international treaty not incorporated into law in the United Kingdom. The ITC was also created a legal person in the United Kingdom by article 5 1972 Order.
Held: As a legal person in . .
Cited – Regina v Horseferry Road Magistrates’ Court, ex Parte Bennett (No 1) HL 24-Jun-1993
The defendant had been brought to the UK in a manner which was in breach of extradition law. He had, in effect, been kidnapped by the authorities.
Held: The High Court may look at how an accused person was brought within the jurisdiction when . .
Cited – Mullen and Another, Regina v CACD 5-May-2000
Mr Mullen, had been deported from Zimbabwe to the United Kingdom as a result of a plan concocted between the United Kingdom and Zimbabwean authorities which involved breaching Zimbabwean extradition law.
Held: The subsequent conviction was set . .
Cited – Princess Paley Olga v Wiesz CA 1929
The Court considered a seizure of property from the plaintiff which had then been adopted by the Russian Government and a later confiscation decree.
Held: The decree was effective to vest the goods in the Russian authorities and the adopted . .
Cited – Khaira and Others v Shergill and Others CA 17-Jul-2012
The parties disputed the trusteeship and governance of two Gurdwaras (Sikh temples). The defendants now applied for the claim to be struck out on the basis that the differences were as to Sikh doctrines and practice and as such were unjusticiable. . .
Cited – Rex v Earl of Crewe, Ex parte Sekgome CA 2-May-1910
By an Order in Council, dated May 9,1891, made ‘in exercise of the powers by the Foreign Jurisdiction Act, 1890, or otherwise in Her Majesty vested,’ the High Commissioner for South Africa was authorized to exercise in the Bechuanaland Protectorate . .
Cited – Blad v Bamfield PC 2-Nov-1674
Peter Blad was holder of a patent of monopoly from the King of Denmark to trade in Iceland, then a Danish possession. Bamfield was an Englishman whose property was seized on the high seas in 1668 by the authority of the Danish Crown and forfeited by . .
Cited – Secretary of State in Council of India v Kamachee Boye Sahaba 1859
Lord Kingsdown said: ‘ . . the transactions of independent States between each other are governed by other laws than those which Municipal Courts administer’. . .
Cited – Rio Tinto Zinc Corporation v Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Re Westinghouse Electric Corpn Uranium Contract Litigation MDL Docket No 235 (No 2) HL 1977
The court considered a claim that a party was not compelled to give evidence where it might incriminate him: ‘No one is bound to furnish information against himself. It [the common law] says: ‘If a witness claims the protection of the court, on the . .
Cited – Al-Saadoon and Others v Secretary of State for Defence Admn 17-Mar-2015
Leggatt J explained the idea of enforced disappearance: ‘a concept recognised in international law and . . a practice which is internationally condemned. It involves detention outside the protection of the law where there is a refusal by the state . .
Cited – Playa Larga (Owners of Cargo Lately Laden on Board) v I Congresso del Partido (Owners) HL 1983
The concept of absolute immunity for a Sovereign adopts a theory of restrictive immunity in so far as it concerns the activities of a State engaging in trade: (Lord Wilberforce) ‘It was argued by the [appellants] that even if the Republic of Cuba . .
Cited – Schuler-Zgraggen v Switzerland ECHR 24-Jun-1993
The court considered a contributory invalidity scheme: ‘today the general rule is that Article 6(1) does apply in the field of social insurance, including even welfare assistance . . State intervention is not sufficient to establish that Article . .
Cited – Schuler-Zgraggen v Switzerland (Article 50) ECHR 31-Jan-1995
. .
Cited – AIG Capital Partners Inc and Another v Kazakhstan ComC 20-Oct-2005
Aitkens J said as to the United Nations Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property that it though not in force, and not ratified by the United Kingdom: ‘its existence and adoption by the UN after the long and careful work . .
Cited – Cudak v Lithuania ECHR 23-Mar-2010
Grand Chamber – The applicant alleged that there had been a violation of her right of access to a court, as guaranteed by Article 6-1 of the Convention.
The applicant was a secretary and switchboard operator employed in the Polish embassy in . .
Cited – El-Masri v The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia ECHR 13-Dec-2012
(Grand Chamber) The applicant, a German national of Lebanese origin, alleged that he had been subjected to a secret rendition operation, namely that agents of the respondent State had arrested him, held him incommunicado, questioned and ill-treated . .
Cited – Al Nashiri v Poland (Chamber Judgment) ECHR 24-Jul-2014
. .
See Also – Al-Waheed v Ministry of Defence SC 17-Jan-2017
‘These two appeals arise out of actions for damages brought against the United Kingdom government by detainees, alleging unlawful detention and maltreatment by British forces. They are two of several hundred actions in which similar claims are made. . .
See Also – Belhaj and Another v Straw and Others QBD 21-Jul-2017
The claimant sought a declaration that the acts of the defendants had contributed to his unlawful rendition into US custody during the Iraq War, and that such actions were criminal. The Defendants applied for a declaration that these are proceedings . .
See Also – Belhaj and Another v Director of Public Prosecutions Admn 1-Dec-2017
The claimants alleged that the defendants had been involved in their unlawful rendition in 2004 from Thailand to Libya, in particular now challenging by judicial review the decision not to prosecute certain senior British Officers. . .
See Also – Belhaj and Another v Director of Public Prosecutions and Others (1) Admn 15-Mar-2018
A claim that the DPP erred in her decision not to prosecute for alleged involvement in the unlawful rendition of the Claimants to Libya. . .
See Also – Belhaj and Others v Director of Public Prosecutions and Others (2) Admn 15-Mar-2018
Second judgment on the scope of privilege to which we have both contributed – inadvertent disclosure . .
See Also – Belhaj and Another v Director of Public Prosecutions and Others Admn 3-May-2018
Incorrect disclosure of non-redacted material in closed hearing. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 04 September 2022; Ref: scu.573213
The Court was asked whether the Second Claimant was entitled to recover damages from the Defendant Bank for having wrongfully failed to honour five letters of credit, or alternatively to recover in restitution.
Jonathan Hirst QC
[2011] EWHC 538 (Comm)
England and Wales
Updated: 04 September 2022; Ref: scu.431651
[1999] EWCA Civ 3048
England and Wales
Updated: 04 September 2022; Ref: scu.431611
The defendant appealed against a finding of conversion of a taxi. The parties disputed whether he had been in possession of it.
[2011] EWCA Civ 189
England and Wales
Updated: 03 September 2022; Ref: scu.430606
The court was asked: ‘in deciding whether a foreign national facing deportation has been detained for too long, does time which he has spent appealing against deportation count? If it does, then sufficiently protracted legal proceedings will sooner or later secure his release however weak his case and however strong the reasons for detaining him. If it does not, then a detainee with a sound legal challenge to removal or deportation may be penalised for asserting his rights by years of incarceration. So the question inexorably raises another question: is there a middle way?’
[2011] EWCA Civ 242
England and Wales
Updated: 03 September 2022; Ref: scu.430470
[2010] EWCA Civ 1082
England and Wales
Updated: 03 September 2022; Ref: scu.430475
[2011] EWCA Civ 153
England and Wales
Updated: 02 September 2022; Ref: scu.429726
The claimant challenged his continued detention pending deportation.
Beatson J
[2011] EWHC 338 (Admin)
England and Wales
Updated: 02 September 2022; Ref: scu.429731
The defendants appealed against an order allowing the claimants to amend their particulars of claim.
Tugendhat J
[2010] EWHC 3228 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 01 September 2022; Ref: scu.428326
The claimant appealed against dismissal of his claim that he had been assaulted in the course of his arrest.
Maurice Kay, Stanley Burnton, Jackson LJJ
[2010] EWCA Civ 1509
England and Wales
Updated: 01 September 2022; Ref: scu.428232
Lady Paton
[2013] ScotCS CSIH – 110
Scotland
Updated: 31 August 2022; Ref: scu.519242
The court was asked which of two innocent parties should bear the loss caused by a rogue.
Mummery, Sullivan, Gross LJJ
[2010] EWCA Civ 1412
England and Wales
Updated: 29 August 2022; Ref: scu.427212
Suspected of having ingested bags of cocaine, the deceased had been arrested on arrival at the airport. He refused all liquids and foods, but after a week, he died of acute cocaine poisoning. His wife sought damages alleging human rights infringement, and the defendant sought to strike out the claim under ex turpi causa non oritur actio. His family appealed direct from the county court.
Held: The appeal succeeded. The defence of ex turpi causs could not be applied in a human rights case.
Lord Neuberger MR, Maurice Kay VP, Sedley LLJ
[2010] EWCA Civ 1443, [2011] HRLR 9, [2011] 2 WLR 488, [2011] 2 All ER 31, [2011] UKHRR 1
England and Wales
Updated: 28 August 2022; Ref: scu.427168
The court heard an appeal in private, against the order of Teare J imposing a receivership on the assets of Mr A pending the trial of claims made against him for misappropriations allegedly made by him while he was chairman of the claimant bank in Kazakhstan
Maurice Kay VP, Longmore, Patten LJJ
[2010] EWCA Civ 1141
England and Wales
Cited – Derby and Co Ltd v Weldon (Nos 3 and 4) CA 1990
The plaintiff had obtained an asset freezing order against a defendant Panamanian Company, which now appealed saying that it was inappropriate to make such an order where the company had no assets in the jurisdiction.
Held: The appeal failed. . .
Cited – Derby v Weldon (No. 3) ChD 7-Nov-1988
The plaintiff alleged conspiracy to defraud in a sum in excess of andpound;25m. During the application for a freezing order the stance of the defendant had been one of ‘taciturnity’ and non-disclosure. But on the last day of the hearing it was said . .
See Also – JSC BTA Bank v Ablyazov and Others CA 27-Oct-2009
Appeal against disclosure orders made in support of freezing order. . .
See Also – JSC BTA Bank v Ablyazov and Others CA 27-Oct-2009
The court considered a Defendant’s appeal asking whether section 13 of the 2006 Act removed the privilege against self-incrimination in respect of an offence under section 328 of the 2002 Act. The defendant contended that were it to comply with the . .
See Also – JSC BTA Bank v Ablyazov and Others ComC 12-Nov-2009
The claimant sought continuation of a freezing order in a claim brought against senior officers of the company. . .
See Also – JSC BTA Bank v Ablyazov and Others (Rev 1) ComC 11-Dec-2009
Applications to correct suggested error in earlier order for stay. . .
See Also – JSC BTA Bank v Ablyazov and Others ComC 28-Jan-2010
The claimant sought a order that information released to it under court order could be used for additional purposes beyond those allowed. . .
See Also – JSC BTA Bank v Ablyazov and Others ComC 17-Mar-2010
Application by Claimant to set aside an order obtained ex parte so as to ensure that the hearing of an application issued by the Claimant for a receiver to be appointed in respect of the First Defendant’s assets be in private, that the public should . .
See Also – JSC BTA Bank v Ablyazov ComC 16-Jul-2010
The former bank in Kazakhstan had been nationalised to prevent its liquidation, and now sought recovery of sums said to have been taken by its former chairman: ‘The Court has to determine three applications. The first is an application by the Bank . .
See Also – JSC BTA Bank v Ablyazov and Others QBD 24-Aug-2010
When considering a strike out application, the judge should consider ‘the effect of making, or not making, the order sought on the overall fairness of the proceedings and the wider interests of justice as reflected in the overriding objective’. . .
See Also – JSC BTA Bank v Ablyazov and Others (Rev 1) ComC 24-Aug-2010
Application for an ‘unless’ order debarring the respondents from defending and entitling the claimant to enter judgment unless certain information and documents were provided. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 28 August 2022; Ref: scu.426856
The plaintiffs had bought land including iron mines from the defendants. They sought and were given explicit re-assurances about the mine’s capacity, but these proved false after the plaintiffs had begun to work the mine themselves.
Held: (Lords Lyndhurst and Wynford dissenting) The contract could not be rescinded. There was no sufficient evidence of fraud, and because the plaintiffs had tested the re-assurances given and then relied upon that testing.
[1838] UKHL J14, 7 ER 684, [1838] UKHL J60
England and Wales
See Also – Attwood v Small And Others 8-Nov-1827
. .
See Also – Attwood v Small And Others 9-Aug-1827
An agreement, contained by itself less than 1080 words, but there was in it a stipulation that a clause in a previous agreement, which was duly stamped, should be taken as part of the new agreement.
Held: That although with the clause referred . .
See Also – Attwood v Small 12-Dec-1827
Where a great number of exceptions were taken to an answer, and shortly before the argument the defendant submitted to answer them, in consequence of which, it was urged, that the answer was clearly evasive, and that the ordinary costs were greatly . .
See Also – Small And Others v Attwood And Others 3-May-1828
Amendment of pleadings . .
Cited – Small And Others v Attwood And Others 1-Nov-1832
Where a contract is entered into for the purchase of an estate by certain persons in their own names, but in fact on their own account, and also as agents for other parties, a bill to rescind the contract may be filed in the names of the agents and . .
At HL – Attwood v Small etc 22-Mar-1838
. .
See Also – Attwood v Small 1840
. .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 27 August 2022; Ref: scu.426444
A claimant sought an order for disclosure of documents by a third party bank, SCB. The company wished to allege that former directors had misappropriated a business opportunity for their own private purposes.
Morgan J
[2010] EWHC 2647 (Ch)
England and Wales
Updated: 25 August 2022; Ref: scu.425383
The claimant sought judicial review and a declaration as to damages saying that her detention by immigration authorities had been unlawful.
Blake J
[2010] EWHC 2397 (Admin)
England and Wales
Updated: 24 August 2022; Ref: scu.424780
Lewison J
[2010] EWHC 2029 (Ch)
England and Wales
Cited – Revenue and Customs v Dempster (T/A Boulevard) ChD 24-Jan-2008
The revenue wished to refuse a claim to set off input tax for two transactions involving the alleged purchase of software. They said the transactions were a sham.
Held: The revenue’s appeal failed.
Briggs J said: ‘the critical question . .
Cited – London Borough of Haringey v Hines CA 20-Oct-2010
The authority sought rescission of a lease granted to the defendant under the right to buy scheme, saying that she had misrepresented her occupation when applying. The tenant replied that no adequate evidence had been brought that she was not a . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 22 August 2022; Ref: scu.421234
Allegations of abuse by persons for whose conduct it is alleged the Defendant is liable, arising out of the Kenyan Emergency.
Stewart J
[2018] EWHC 2066 (QB)
England and Wales
See Also – Kimathi and Others v The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Strike out) QBD 24-Nov-2016
The defendant sought to have struck out from the group litigation, as a nullity the claim by one claimant who had been deceased at the time of issue. His PRs responded that the court could deal with the matter under CPR Pt 3.
Held: The court’s . .
See Also – Kimathi and Others v The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Cross examination request) QBD 24-Nov-2016
Application to cross examine translators of claimant witness statements. . .
See Also – Kimathi and Others v The Foreign and Commonwealth Office QBD 9-Feb-2017
Application notice seeking an order that certain issues be listed for hearing as a preliminary point. . .
Cited – Kimathi and Others v The Foreign and Commonwealth Office QBD 9-May-2018
Admissibility of extracts from Hansard . .
See Also – Kimathi and Others v The Foreign and Commonwealth Office QBD 18-Apr-2018
Continued dispute as to admissibility of certain documents . .
See Also – Kimathi and Others v The Foreign and Commonwealth Office QBD 24-May-2018
The Claimants claimed damages against the Defendant for alleged abuses arising during the course of the Kenyan Emergency during the 1950s. . .
See Also – Kimathi and Others v The Foreign and Commonwealth Office QBD 21-Nov-2018
. .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 21 August 2022; Ref: scu.620628
Decision upheld (dicta approved)
[1963] 1 QB 582
England and Wales
Appeal from – Marrinan v Vibart QBD 1963
The plaintiff sought to sue police officers who had prepared a report for the Director of Public Prosecutions and appeared as witnesses against him at his criminal trial.
Held: The claim failed. Salmon J considered the principle of the . .
Cited – Westcott v Westcott QBD 30-Oct-2007
The claimant said that his daughter in law had defamed him. She answered that the publication was protected by absolute privilege. She had complained to the police that he had hit her and her infant son.
Held: ‘the process of taking a witness . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 20 August 2022; Ref: scu.267517
(New South Wales)
[1889] UKPC 26
Commonwealth
Updated: 19 August 2022; Ref: scu.418116
(South Australia)
[1883] UKPC 16, , (1882-83) LR 8 App Cas 314
Australia
Updated: 19 August 2022; Ref: scu.418225
The claimant had said that his detention under the 1983 Act was unlawful, and that the court should issue a writ of habeas corpus for his release. Having been released he sought damages on the basis that his human rights had been infringed. The admission had been made despite the claimant’s brother having notified the defendant of his objections under 11(4), the hospital had made the order without reference to him.
Held: The claim failed.
Collins J
[2010] EWHC 1349 (Admin), [2010] Med LR 362, [2010] ACD 78
Mental Health Act 1983 3 139, Human Rights Act 1998, European Convention on Human Rights 5 8
England and Wales
Cited – E, Regina (on the Application of) v Bristol City Council Admn 13-Jan-2005
The patient did not wish her nearest relative, namely her sister, to be involved with her case and there was evidence that she would be so distressed by the sister being consulted that it could harm her health. The sister likewise did not wish to . .
Cited – Regina v Ashworth Hospital Authority (Now Mersey Care National Health Service Trust) ex parte Munjaz HL 13-Oct-2005
The claimant was detained in a secure Mental Hospital. He complained at the seclusions policy applied by the hospital, saying that it departed from the Guidance issued for such policies by the Secretary of State under the Act.
Held: The House . .
Cited – Regina v Managers of South Western Hospital and Another, Ex Parte M QBD 24-Mar-1993
The patient was detained on the application of an AMHP. In purported pursuance of section 11(4) the AMHP had consulted the patient’s mother as her nearest relative. However, the patient’s mother was not ordinarily resident in the UK, and, according . .
Cited – Prison Officers Association v Iqbal CA 4-Dec-2009
The claimant, a prisoner, alleged false imprisonment. The prison officers had taken unlawful strike action leaving him to be confined within his cell and unable to be involved in his normal activities. In view of the strike, a governor’s order had . .
Appeal from – TTM v London Borough of Hackney and Others CA 14-Jan-2011
The claimant had been found to have been wrongfully detained under section 3. He appealed against rejection of his claim for judicial review and for damages. The court found that his detention was lawful until declared otherwise. He argued that the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 19 August 2022; Ref: scu.416634
The claimant challenged as unlawful his administrative detention for 10 months pending deportation.
King J
[2010] EWHC 1177 (QB)
European Convention of Human Rights 5, Immigration Act 1971 5(5)
England and Wales
Cited – A v Secretary of State for the Home Department, and X v Secretary of State for the Home Department HL 16-Dec-2004
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 . .
See Also – Secretary of State for the Home Department v AH Admn 9-May-2008
The claimant, an Iraqi national, had been about to be deported when he was re-arrested for Terrorism offences for which he was acquitted. He was then made subject to a non-derogating control order. He now challenged the renewal of that order, even . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 18 August 2022; Ref: scu.415983
(Jersey) A fraudulent exercise of a trust power is constituted if it is exercised for a purpose or with an intention beyond the scope of the power. It was said that ‘it is not enough that an appointor or some person not an object of power may conceivably derive some benefit’: ‘The general presumption which the law makes is in favour of the good faith and validity of transactions which have long stood unchallenged, and if the known facts and existing documents are, though such as to give rise to suspicion, nevertheless capable of a reasonable explanation, the Court ought not to draw inferences against the integrity of persons who have long been dead and cannot therefore defend themselves.’
Lord Parker went on: ‘The term fraud in connection with frauds on a power does not necessarily denote any conduct on the part of the appointor amounting to fraud in the common law meaning of the term or any conduct which could be properly termed dishonest or immoral. It merely means that the power has been exercised for a purpose, or with an intention, beyond the scope of or not justified by the instrument creating the power.’
Lord Parker of Waddington
[1915] AC 372, [1914] UKPC 100
England and Wales
Cited – Futter and Another v Futter and Others ChD 11-Mar-2010
Various family settlements had been created. The trustees wished to use the rule in Hastings-Bass to re-open decisions they had made after receiving incorrect advice.
Held: The deeds were set aside as void. The Rule in Hastings-Bass derives . .
Cited – Eclairs Group Ltd and Glengary Overseas Ltd v JKX Oil and Gas Plc SC 2-Dec-2015
Company Director not Trustee but is Fiduciary
The Court was asked about an alleged ‘corporate raid’, an attempt to exploit a minority shareholding in a company to obtain effective management or voting control without paying what other shareholders would regard as a proper price.
Held: The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 17 August 2022; Ref: scu.408859
Appeal against dismissal of claim for fraudulent misrepresentation on sale of nursing home business.
[2000] EWCA Civ 5565, [2000] FSR 921, [2000] CPLR 171, [2000] 1 WLR 1443
England and Wales
Updated: 17 August 2022; Ref: scu.408784
