House of Lords judgments, 2002

A third party may commit contempt by deliberately frustrating an interlocutory injunction made against another person. Liability requires an intention to…

Under section 2 of the Leasehold Reform Act 1967, whether premises may reasonably be called a house does not override the structural rules governing…

A firm may be vicariously liable under section 10 of the Partnership Act 1890 for a partner’s fault-based equitable wrongdoing. Liability arises where the…

The mandatory life sentence for an adult convicted of murder is neither arbitrary nor disproportionate merely because the offender is unlikely to endanger the…

Fixing the punitive tariff of a mandatory life prisoner is a sentencing exercise. Article 6(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights therefore requires…

Section 5 of the Green Belt (London and Home Counties) Act 1938 regulates voluntary disposals proposed by a local authority. It does not apply when Part V of…

On an appeal against an old conviction, the court determines safety at the time of the appeal but applies the substantive law governing the original trial. A…

A person who personally makes a fraudulent representation, intending another to rely on it, is liable in deceit when it is relied upon. Acting as a director or…

Under section 47 of the Entail Amendment (Scotland) Act 1848, the relevant trust deed is identified by examining the applicant’s lawful possession when the…

Immigration Act 1971, Schedule 2 permits detention while an asylum seeker is examined and a decision on entry is made. The power does not depend on a risk of…

A publisher pleading justification must prove the substantial truth of the sting of the defamatory publication. It need not prove every allegation. Where…

Proceedings for an anti-social behaviour order under section 1 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 are civil under domestic law and do not determine a criminal…

Section 21(1A) of the National Assistance Act 1948 removes a local authority’s responsibility only where a person’s need for care and attention arises solely…

A single delivery cannot constitute performance or purported performance of two separate contracts for different goods merely because the carrier, acting for…

A safe-third-country certificate depends principally on the practical risk of onward removal, rather than whether the third country uses identical legal…

A local authority must decide whether an assessed need calls for community care services without regard to the person’s ability to pay. The assessment of…

Section 117 of the Mental Health Act 1983 is a free-standing source of the duty and power to provide after-care services to persons leaving specified forms of…

In a tripartite transaction, each supply and the consideration attributable to it must be identified by analysing the parties’ contractual rights and…

A constitutional statute should be interpreted generously and purposively, consistently with its language and the values which it embodies. A statutory…

A properly constituted court-martial may try both military offences and offences corresponding to the ordinary criminal law. Such a trial is compatible with…

For limitation purposes, a squatter dispossesses the paper owner by taking ordinary legal possession of land without consent for the statutory period. Hostile…

A Norwich Pharmacal order may require an innocent person involved in another’s wrongdoing to disclose the wrongdoer’s identity. Involvement, rather than…

Under the funding regime created by the Access to Justice Act 1999, it may ordinarily be reasonable for a personal injury claimant to enter a conditional fee…

A court may order an opposing party’s barrister to pay wasted costs. The jurisdiction covers preparatory work directly connected with advocacy, as well as…

Where a magistrates’ court commits an offender to the Crown Court for sentence under section 38 of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980, section 42 of the Powers…

A statutory corporation possesses both its express powers and powers which, on a fair and liberal construction, are reasonably incidental or consequential to…

Whether an applicant is a fit and proper person to hold a justices’ licence depends on the personal qualities and professional qualifications reasonably…

Ordinarily, a claimant must prove on the balance of probabilities that the defendant’s breach caused or materially contributed to the injury. An exceptional…

For judicial review of a grant of planning permission, the three-month period begins when permission is granted, not when the authority adopts a conditional…

Legal professional privilege is a fundamental and absolute common law right. General or ambiguous statutory words do not override it. Abrogation requires…

A constable who arrests a person in or on that person's premises under a provisional extradition warrant may, at common law, search those premises and seize…

An English court may exceptionally disregard foreign legislation where recognition would affront fundamental justice. The exception extends beyond grave human…

Under section 32(2) of the Limitation Act 1980, deliberately performing an act which later proves negligent is not, without more, the deliberate commission of…

Contribution under sections 1(1) and 6(1) of the Civil Liability (Contribution) Act 1978 requires the injured person to be entitled to recover compensation…

Where proof of damage is essential to a claim, a settlement with one wrongdoer defeats a claim against another only if the claimant agreed to accept the…

A compromise with one wrongdoer does not automatically release another wrongdoer. It bars a later claim for substantial damages in respect of the same loss…

A right to contribution under section 1(1) of the Civil Liability (Contribution) Act 1978 arises only where two or more persons are liable to compensate the…

An interim judicial sale of disputed property converts the property into money without prejudicing the parties’ substantive rights. The proceeds stand in place…

Money advanced for a specified purpose is held on trust where, on an objective construction of the arrangements, the recipient may use it solely for that…

A member or former member of the security and intelligence services charged under sections 1(1) or 4(1) and (3) of the Official Secrets Act 1989 has no public…

A final care order transfers responsibility for the child’s care to the local authority. The court has no continuing supervisory role and cannot impose a…

A mortgagee cannot necessarily rely on a solicitor’s confirmation that a vulnerable surety understood a transaction. Reliance will ordinarily suffice where the…

A statutory planning determination is a juridical act. Its existence and legal effect depend on the governing legislation, including procedures protecting…

Under article 17 of the Warsaw Convention, a carrier is not liable for fright, distress or psychiatric illness alone. The passenger must prove death, wounding…

The heads of liquidation expense listed in rule 4.218(1) of the Insolvency Rules 1986 form a definitive statutory statement. A post-liquidation liability…

A Crown Court has common-law power to begin, as well as continue, a trial in a defendant’s absence. The power is exceptional. It must be exercised with the…

An offshore services contract may allocate responsibility for employees’ death or injury to their employer regardless of fault. Clear words providing that…

A certificate permitting removal to another Dublin Convention state must address the statutory conditions when it is given. A certificate previously quashed…

Statutory assumptions attributing property and expenditure to drug trafficking are compatible with the right to a fair hearing. They pursue an important…

The Human Rights Act 1998 does not apply to the outcome of criminal proceedings concluded before its commencement merely because an appeal is heard afterwards.…