Privy Council judgments, 2015

A constitutional tax exemption for prescribed presidential or vice-presidential emoluments includes a pension where the office is the source of the…

Mandatory motor insurance does not extend to liabilities outside the policy’s defined scope. A policy and its certificate must be read together, and a…

In construing partnership articles, the court must read the provisions as a whole, in the context of the partnership’s principal objective and commercial…

In employment law, a breach of an employee’s duty not to compete ordinarily starts as faute grave, but the classification remains fact-sensitive. A long and…

An appellate court reviewing a trial judge’s findings based on witness credibility and reliability must recognise the trial judge’s evidential advantage. It…

An arbitrator has no general discretion, absent contrary agreement, to award compound interest. In Jamaica the relevant power is modelled on the court’s…

A warning under the Evidence Act 2006, section 146, is not justified merely because a witness has a history of mental illness. There must be medical grounds…

Reynolds privilege is a public-interest defence requiring an assessment of whether publication was responsible in all the circumstances. The public importance…

Gang evidence may be admissible where it materially supports issues such as motive and identity. A shared motive need not be unique to the defendant, and…

A procedural defect in a public tender does not automatically make the resulting contract void. An instruction that non-compliance is liable to cause rejection…

In an open contract for the sale of land, the vendor must show good marketable title within a reasonable time, and completion must follow promptly. A vendor…

In a construction contract incorporating FIDIC conditions, the question whether material supplied by an employer amounts to reasonable evidence of maintained…

Under the Industrial Relations Act 1972, a person supplied under a labour-only contract is deemed to be employed by the person receiving the services.…

Equitable tracing depends on the substance and overall effect of a transaction, rather than the strict chronological order of associated events. The value of…

For diminished responsibility under the Offences Against the Person Act 1925, the decisive question is the effect of the accused’s mental abnormality on mental…

A breach of a constitutional right or the Judges’ Rules does not automatically require confession evidence to be excluded. The court must first determine…

A procedural misnomer does not necessarily make proceedings a nullity. The question is whether the defect is so fundamental that justice requires the order to…

Judicial independence is assessed objectively. A limited term does not of itself undermine independence where an ad hoc judge is appointed for a defined task…

In a court-supervised sale of property in a liquidation, fairness does not require bidding to remain open indefinitely. A judge may set a clear cut-off and…

At the leave stage of judicial review, the duty of candour applies throughout the proceedings, but the response to non-disclosure must secure justice and…

In a professional-negligence claim involving a defective conveyance, limitation runs from actual damage, not discovery of the breach. The court must…

Contractual service requirements must be construed in their particular context. The expression “ten years continuous service” need not invariably mean 3,650…

In construing a conveyance, clearly stated boundaries ordinarily identify the land conveyed, while an erroneous statement of acreage may be disregarded where…

Under rule 45 of the Rules of the Supreme Court 2000, an applicant for a new trial must establish that an error occurred and that it deprived him of the…

Actual undue influence is established by proof of actual wrongdoing, and a court may draw appropriate inferences from the evidence. Once actual wrongdoing is…

Whether a purported acceptance concluded a contract while proposing additional terms is determined objectively from its language and surrounding circumstances.…

Where compulsory motor insurance has an aggregate limit for claims arising from one accident, the statutory scheme does not require the insurer to ascertain…

Where a constitution provides that a proclamation takes effect on the next dissolution after it is made, those words bear their natural meaning. A proclamation…

In civil litigation, a settlement freely reached by parties who are masters of their case should bring the proceedings to a binding conclusion. A court need…

On an application to vary periodical maintenance, sections 23(1) and 23(2) of the Matrimonial Causes Act, read with section 15(1)(b) of the Maintenance Act…

Whether a jury should be discharged because potentially prejudicial material was shown is an evaluative question for the trial judge, assessed in the…

Part IV of the Real Estate (Dealers and Developers) Act 1987 is a self-contained scheme protecting purchaser prepayments. A charge created under section 31(4)…

Judicial review of a financial regulator’s decision concerns legality, not an appeal on disputed professional judgments, which attract a margin of discretion.…

Carefully structured arrangements using separate and autonomous contracts do not give rise to tortious duties which cut across their terms or performance. The…

For constructive notice in a proprietary claim, a bank need not investigate every mere possibility of a third-party right, and it need not first conclude that…

A court may correct an obvious drafting error by adding, omitting or substituting statutory words only where it is abundantly sure of the provision’s intended…

A nominee director must understand the company’s affairs, apply an independent mind to its interests and exercise personal judgment. The director cannot…

The right to equality of treatment from a public authority requires a structured comparison. The claimant must show situations that are comparable, analogous…

Expert evidence on an ultimate issue is not automatically admissible merely because Evidence Act 2006 section 25(2)(a) removes the common-law exclusion. The…

Pre-sentence custody should ordinarily be credited by an arithmetical deduction. The sentencing court retains a discretion to withhold credit in unusual cases…

A partial defence of provocation presupposes that murder, including an intent to kill or cause grievous bodily harm, has been proved. A jury direction must…

A notice of appeal should be struck out without a merits hearing only in a clear case where the appeal is effectively unarguable. A first appellate court must…

Under the Labour Act 1975, unauthorised absence exceeding two consecutive working days without good and sufficient cause may constitute a repudiatory breach…

The compulsory insurance scheme does not make an insurer liable beyond the persons and liabilities covered by the policy. The policy may therefore exclude a…

Despite the use of may in section 60 of the Municipal Corporations Act 1990, the Commission had a duty to consider what regulations were required for municipal…

Rectification of a company’s register of members is available only where the applicant has a present right to registration through a valid transfer of legal…