Inco Europe Ltd v First Choice Distribution

Where the Court of Appeal has granted leave and determined an appeal, the applicant has standing to apply to the Appeal Committee of the House of Lords for leave to appeal. The Court of Appeal may therefore refuse leave while recognising that the applicant can apply directly to the House. A question concerning the Court of Appeal’s jurisdiction may possess general importance even though the substantive issue does not justify leave.

Following the Court of Appeal’s determination of an appeal, the applicant sought leave to appeal to the House of Lords. The supplied transcript does not state the disposition of the underlying appeal or identify the decision from which it arose.

The court distinguished between a question of general importance concerning its own jurisdiction and the substantive issue in the second part of the case. The immediate question was whether the Court of Appeal should grant leave to appeal to the House of Lords.

1. Application for leave to appeal refused. Hobhouse LJ, speaking for the court, held that the applicant could seek leave directly from the Appeal Committee of the House of Lords. The Court of Appeal had already granted leave and determined the appeal. Those circumstances gave the applicant the standing needed to make that further application.

2. The court recognised that the issue concerning the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal was important and affected other cases. Its refusal of leave did not prevent the applicant from asking the House of Lords to decide whether that issue warranted a further appeal.

3. The substantive issue arising in the second part of the case did not, in the court’s view, justify leave to appeal. The question possessing wider importance was confined to the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal.

4. The supplied transcript records only the refusal of leave to appeal to the House of Lords. It does not disclose the operative disposition or reasoning by which the underlying appeal was determined.

1. Court of Appeal: The court had granted leave and determined the appeal. It subsequently refused leave to appeal to the House of Lords, while recognising that the applicant had standing to apply directly to the Appeal Committee. The disposition of the underlying appeal is not stated in the supplied transcript. The judgment is reported at [1998] EWCA Civ 1460 and [1999] 1 WLR 270.

2. Earlier proceedings: not stated in the judgment.