Privy Council judgments, 2012

Where an agreement requires completion on a specified date but permits termination if completion has not occurred by an earlier date, business efficacy may…

The constitutional guarantee of a fair hearing does not itself require a right of appeal from every first-instance decision. A state may regulate appeal…

In quiet-title proceedings under the Quieting Titles Act 1959, the court may use any evidence that satisfies it of the truth, and appellate review of…

Section 4 of the Judicial Committee Act 1833 does not compel the Judicial Committee to answer every referred issue substantively. It may advise that a petition…

A defendant’s low intelligence or learning disability does not by itself establish unfitness to plead. The court must assess whether the defendant can…

An appellate court assessing trial error must ask whether the jury would inevitably have reached the same verdict had it been properly directed and all…

Identification evidence that is crucial to the prosecution case requires a separate, case-specific Turnbull direction. A direction given for a different…

Section 44 of the Judicature Act 1980-81 is a general slip rule. It applies to orders made on investigation of title and is not displaced by the specific…

An invalid land order made without jurisdiction may nevertheless fall within a statutory power to validate any invalid order, including one involving…

Section 4(7) of the Motor Vehicle Insurance (Third Party Risks) Act gives persons within the policy’s stated cover a statutory right to enforce the indemnity.…

A breach of the constitutional reasonable-time guarantee does not, by itself, require a conviction to be quashed or proceedings stayed. The court must ask…

Under rule 11(2) of the Judicial Committee (Appellate Jurisdiction) Rules Order 2009, an application for permission to appeal must ordinarily be filed within…

Registration under a Torrens system does not necessarily make title indefeasible against a transferee who acts in bad faith. The effect depends on the…

For a purely acting appointment that merely fills in for a permanent office-holder, eligible in Regulation 26(1)(a) is a threshold condition of appointability…

Identification directions should convey the substance and spirit of the Turnbull safeguards while addressing the actual circumstances. A rigid checklist or…

For immunity, liability and enforcement, a state-owned corporation with separate juridical personality is presumed distinct from the state, particularly where…

A breach of the constitutional guarantee of a fair hearing within a reasonable time does not automatically require a stay or the quashing of a conviction. The…

For estoppel by representation, an employee or agent need not have authority to approve a transaction to have ostensible authority to communicate that the…

A trial irregularity does not automatically require a conviction to be quashed. The judge must assess its significance in the context of the trial as a whole…

Under the Labour Act 1975, the Industrial Court, not the employer’s disciplinary committee, decides whether a dismissal was unjustified. The committee’s…

Under section 5(1) of the Transcription and Mortgage Act 1873, the buyer who first completes and transcribes a purchase ordinarily obtains priority over an…

Time spent in custody awaiting trial should ordinarily attract credit of 80–100 per cent, with 80 per cent as the default. Differences between remand and…

On an interlocutory application pending an appeal, the court should preserve the position that will make the appeal effective where interim changes may be…

To bring a tierce opposition to a judgment affecting premises, a person must show an interest founded on a right of tenancy. It is unnecessary to prove that an…

In Mauritian personal-injury claims, damages should be separately assessed under material and moral heads, including past expenditure, future care and…

In a public inquiry, a requirement to make a preliminary or provisional report does not prevent the commissioner from evaluating evidence, making findings of…

Detention after a lawful arrest requires separate justification. The arrestor must show reasonable grounds for the initial suspicion, and the detainer must…

A deliberate tactical decision not to advance a known defence weighs heavily against receiving fresh evidence on appeal, but it is not conclusive. The…

The date from which a statutory rent increase becomes payable is determined by the applicable statutory formula. Under the amended Second Schedule to the…

An appeal to the Supreme Court should not fail because documents mistakenly identify the particular appellate jurisdiction invoked where the mistake creates no…

A dock identification is not made reliable merely because a witness had a good opportunity to observe the offender. The quality of the original observation and…

A default judgment against one of several defendants does not automatically bar proceedings against another. Merger prevents a second action on the same cause…

A detainer has no common-law right to appeal against an order releasing a detainee on habeas corpus. That constitutional finality applies to the Judicial…

For the purposes of section 16 of the Income Tax Act, artificial is wider than fictitious and must be assessed in context. A transaction is artificial where…

A Mushtaq direction is required where the evidence leaves open that the accused made the statement, that it was true, and that it may have been induced by…

In a planned commercial development, dedication of secondary streets to public passage may be inferred from the layout, intended uses, approval conditions…

A judicial order is construed in one coherent, contextual exercise. The court’s reasons are always admissible because they authoritatively identify the…

In a Guernsey personal-injury claim where damages must be paid as a lump sum, the court must use the best available evidence to achieve full compensation…

A statutory saving clause preserving pre-constitutional laws from invalidation does not immunise omissions in the operation of a sentencing regime. Where a…

Commercial documents must be construed from their wording and admissible commercial context, rather than evidence of the parties’ undisclosed intentions. A…

The admission of weak bloodstain evidence is not necessarily erroneous where the evidence may assist the defence. The jury must, however, be directed that…

The Land Tenants (Security of Tenure) Act applies to a single tenancy in respect of land where a tenant-built chattel house, erected with the landlord’s…