High Court: Queen's Bench Division judgments, 2003

Medical advice is subject to the Bolam standard. A consultant who revisits a material risk must take reasonable steps to ensure that the patient understands…

A contract is construed objectively by reference to the circumstances and documents available at the time of contracting. In deciding the parties to an…

A former executive director’s personal customer relationships, together with properly identified customer and equipment information, may constitute legitimate…

The decision whether to lift a stay is a discretionary one. The court must consider all the circumstances and the justice of the case in accordance with the…

A local planning authority may change its view on a planning application where subsequent amendments, information, expert advice and consideration of the site…

For standard disclosure, the issues in the action are identified by the parties’ pleadings. Assertions in a witness statement about the truth or falsity of…

A decision by a prosecuting authority not to prosecute is amenable to judicial review, but review is exercised sparingly. Intervention may be justified for an…

Qualified privilege for police disclosures requires a specific public justification. Damaging information obtained by the police should be disclosed only to…

A corporate claimant need not prove actual financial loss to maintain a libel action or obtain damages. The law may presume damage sufficient to establish a…

A contract governed by English law will not be enforced where its performance is unlawful in the country of performance. An agreement to pay for genuine…

Qualified privilege for publication to the general public requires an objective social or moral duty to publish the words at the time of publication. Public…

Under section 48(1) of the Representation of the People Act 1983, an election must be declared invalid where the court is satisfied on the evidence that an…

A satisfied claim does not necessarily bring litigation to an end. The critical distinction is between satisfaction of a judgment and satisfaction of the…

A compromise agreement, including one expressed by consent order, may be set aside for a common mistake of law. The mistake must be both common and fundamental…

A highway authority may owe a duty of care to persons and property beyond the highway where it creates a danger capable of causing vehicles to leave the…

A claimant is not contributorily negligent merely because a vehicle breaks down and remains partly on a carriageway. The relevant question is whether the…

Contractual working hours must be determined from the document read in its commercial and factual context. A reference to a “normal working week” does not…

Interpleader relief is discretionary. The court should not grant partial relief which protects some parties while potentially prejudicing another claimant…

For the purposes of section 1 of the Protection Against Harassment Act 1997, “person” does not include a corporate entity. A company therefore cannot be the…

In a libel action, words referring to monitoring of accounts for potential terrorist ties were capable of conveying only the second level of defamatory…

Delay does not, by itself, make a libel trial unfair or constitute an abuse of process. The court must assess the particular circumstances, including the…

When enforcement of an arbitral award has been ordered as a judgment and an appeal is pending, the court should make a brief assessment of the apparent…

Courts will not adjudicate doctrinal disputes, religious procedures, the customs of a religious community, or the moral and religious fitness of…

The court may extend the time for appealing registration of a foreign judgment under Brussels Convention 1982 art 36 and CPR Part 74, even after expiry of the…

An employer’s right to impose demanding performance standards does not permit treatment which objectively destroys or seriously damages the relationship of…

For the purposes of a civil proceedings order, a tribunal is a court where it exercises judicial rather than administrative functions. The assessment is…

Contractual earn-out provisions must be construed as a whole, having regard to the language used, the commercial purpose and the surrounding circumstances…

Statements made to a professional regulatory body during an active complaints investigation may attract absolute privilege where the body is recognised by law…

Under CPR Part 7.6(2), a prospective application to extend the validity of a claim form is not subject to the restrictions applicable after expiry under Part…

On an application for a ruling on meaning or strike out in a libel claim, the judge must assess the words in their publication context and identify the range…

Pre-action disclosure may be ordered even though the proposed claim remains imperfectly particularised or somewhat speculative. The applicant need only show…

For the two-year limitation period for contribution under Limitation Act 1980, the relevant date is the first date on which the right to contribution accrues.…

A party alleging an oral contract or warranty of authority bears the burden of proving it on the balance of probabilities. Contemporaneous documents must be…

Permission to plead justification in a libel action depends first on whether the proposed meaning is capable of being conveyed by the words and, secondly…

A defendant relying on inevitable accident must establish, on the balance of probabilities, that the accident occurred without negligence. Where the defence…

Housing Act 1980, section 89 applies to possession orders made by either the High Court or a county court, including consent orders. Possession cannot…

Particulars of claim must be confined to matters relevant to the pleaded cause of action and issues for trial. Lengthy background, collateral allegations and…

An employee’s obligation of confidence may arise expressly or by implication from the employment relationship and may continue after employment ends.…

Whether words are fact or comment is determined by the article as a whole and its context. A journalist’s inference about a person’s motives may constitute…

For contribution purposes, claims arise from the same damage where the alleged wrongs may have combined to cause one loss, even though the wrongdoers acted at…

A justification amendment in defamation proceedings must identify precisely the defamatory sting which it seeks to justify and plead facts capable of proving…

In defamation proceedings, a justification defence based on reasonable grounds to suspect must identify and prove objective primary facts that existed at…

Summary judgment may be granted where the opposing case has no real, as opposed to fanciful, prospect of success. A party’s failure to challenge alleged…

For service on an overseas company under the default provisions of the Companies Act 1985, the claimant must prove that the company established a place of…

Lifetime anonymity injunctions are exceptional. Notoriety alone does not justify restraining publication about a former serious offender. The court must…

In a libel action to be tried by a jury, summary judgment or strike-out should be exercised sparingly. The judge may withdraw an issue only where the evidence…

On an appeal from a refusal to amend a statement of claim, the court applied the real prospect of success test applicable to summary judgment under CPR Part…

A local education authority is not liable in negligence merely because a child’s education was interrupted or a later placement proved difficult. Liability…

An employer’s liability policy covering liability for disease caused by negligent exposure must be construed by reference to the legal liability established…

The court has power to impose a costs cap in group litigation, although the Civil Procedure Rules contain no express provision for such an order. The power…

Extreme military aircraft noise may constitute a nuisance even where the activity serves a vital public interest. Public interest is relevant to the balance…

Section 3 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 is not apt to protect a corporation from harassment where the statutory interpretation would also expose…

Applications to disapply the one-year limitation period for defamation under Limitation Act 1980, section 32A, require an equitable assessment of all the…

A default judgment obtained against a defendant domiciled in another Convention state must be set aside where the English court lacked Convention jurisdiction…

Damages for future accommodation must reflect the claimant’s reasonable needs and best interests, rather than simply reproduce the life that the claimant would…

After abandoning justification and qualified privilege, a defendant in a libel action cannot reintroduce substantially the same case by describing allegations…

An exclusion of liability for accidents involving motorised waterborne craft includes a jet ski when read in its ordinary context. An insured riding a jet ski…

For the purposes of determining whether a person is a patient, capacity to manage affairs is a legal question for the court. The court must consider all the…

The fact that a proposed expert has been employed by, or connected with, a party does not automatically make the evidence inadmissible. The court must assess…

Damages for personal injury may be recovered where an accident accelerates the onset of pain or disability caused by a pre-existing condition. The claimant is…

Legal parentage under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 depends on statutory consent and treatment conditions. A husband’s general consent to…

A statutory charge securing publicly funded legal costs may attach to property recovered through a third-party insurer where the recovery depends upon a…

A solicitor instructed to advise on and document an investment transaction must investigate legal issues capable of invalidating the transaction, unless the…

Under the statutory offer of amends procedure, compensation is assessed without commencing a libel action and on the same principles as damages in defamation…

Under the Commercial Agents (Council Directive) Regulations 1993, “termination” includes expiry of a fixed-term agency contract by effluxion of time.…

Workplace conduct must be assessed cumulatively when deciding whether it amounts to bullying or harassment. Liability also requires reasonable foreseeability…

An allegation appearing in the words complained of may be justified only if it is truly severable and distinct from the meaning complained of. Context…

On an appeal from a costs assessment, the court should decide whether the costs judge was wrong. It should not conduct a rehearing or undertake a further trawl…