Associated Provincial Picture Houses Ltd v Wednesbury Corpn

An executive discretion conferred by statute is supervised for legality, rather than reheard on its merits. A court may intervene where the authority misdirects itself in law, considers irrelevant matters, fails to consider matters it is bound to consider, or reaches a conclusion so unreasonable that no reasonable authority could reach it.

Within those limits, the decision belongs to the statutory authority. The court cannot substitute its own assessment of reasonableness or public policy merely because it would have reached a different conclusion.

Section 1(1) of the Sunday Entertainments Act 1932 authorised the local licensing authority to impose conditions on Sunday cinema performances. Wednesbury Corporation granted the claimant cinema proprietor a licence subject to a condition excluding every child under 15, whether accompanied by an adult or not.

The proprietor sought a declaration that the condition was unreasonable and therefore ultra vires. Henn Collins J dismissed the action. The proprietor appealed, raising the central question whether the court could invalidate the condition as an unreasonable exercise of the Corporation's statutory discretion.

1. Disposition. The appeal was dismissed unanimously. Lord Greene M.R. delivered the leading judgment. Somervell L.J. expressly agreed with his reasons, and Singleton J. also agreed.
2. The power under section 1(1) of the Sunday Entertainments Act 1932 was an executive discretion expressed in general terms. The statute provided no appeal from the local authority. The court's function was therefore supervisory: it could investigate whether the authority had contravened the law, but could not substitute itself as the decision-maker. The burden of establishing illegality rested on the person challenging the condition.
3. A statutory discretion must be exercised genuinely and with proper legal direction. The authority must consider matters which the statute expressly or impliedly requires it to consider. It must exclude irrelevant or collateral matters. Even where it has remained within those boundaries, the court may intervene if the conclusion is so unreasonable that no reasonable authority could have reached it. This is a stringent standard requiring overwhelming evidence, rather than the court's own assessment of what was reasonable.
4. The physical and moral welfare of children was germane to conditions governing Sunday cinema performances. The Corporation had considered that legitimate subject and had itself reached a decision. Its exclusion of children under 15, including accompanied children, was neither outside its jurisdiction nor a conclusion which no reasonable authority could reach.
5. Harman v Butt [1944] KB 491 was approved as an unassailable decision that child welfare could legitimately inform such a condition. Roberts v Hopwood [1925] AC 578 was explained as concerning reliance on improper considerations and the exclusion of proper wage factors, rather than a general judicial power to determine reasonableness. R v Burnley Justices 85 LJ (KB) 1565 and Ellis v Dubowski [1921] 3 KB 621 were distinguished because they concerned unlawful delegation of the entrusted discretion.
6. The majority reasoning in Theatre de Luxe (Halifax), Ld. v Gledhill [1915] 2 KB 49 was disapproved as adopting too narrow a construction of the licensing power under a different Act. Atkin J.'s wider view of the licensing power was approved. His references to reasonableness and the public interest were explained as preserving supervisory review and not permitting the court to replace the authority's judgment with its own.
7. The appeal was dismissed with costs.

• Court of Appeal: In Associated Provincial Picture Houses Ltd v Wednesbury Corpn [1947] EWCA Civ 1, the court unanimously dismissed the proprietor's appeal and affirmed the dismissal of the action, with costs.
• High Court: Henn Collins J dismissed the action for a declaration that the licensing condition was ultra vires. No citation for that decision is stated.