Case Summaries
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R v Clarke 1972
Example case summary. Last modified: 28th Oct 2021
Availability of insanity defence for depression and temporary absent mindedness. The defendant was apprehended for shoplifting after she placed certain items (including a jar of coffee, a jar of mincemeat and butter) into her handbag....
R v Hinks - 2000
Example case summary. Last modified: 28th Oct 2021
Unlawful appropriation of “gifted” money under the Theft Act 1968. The defendant (H) was a carer for a man of limited intelligence (D). H persuaded D to make a series of payments to her from his bank account which she contended were gifts. H was charged with theft....
F v West Berkshire Health Authority
Example case summary. Last modified: 28th Oct 2021
Declaration of legality, performing operation on patient incapable of giving consent. The case concerned a 36 year old woman who however had the mental age of a minor. ...
Hill v Tupper
Example case summary. Last modified: 28th Oct 2021
The plaintiff, Hill, was granted a lease of land on the side of the Basingstoke Canal by the canal company. The lease also gave the plaintiff the sole and exclusive right to put pleasure boats for hire on that stretch of the canal....
Pettitt v Pettitt
Example case summary. Last modified: 28th Oct 2021
The equitable interest of a spouse in a matrimonial home.. A woman purchased a matrimonial home for herself and her husband to live in out of her own sums and conveyed the home into her name....
Baker v Willoughby - 1970
Example case summary. Last modified: 28th Oct 2021
The complainant, Mr Baker, was a pedestrian who had been knocked down by the defendant driving a car in September 1964. The negligent driving by the defendant caused serious injury to his left leg, which left him with mobility problems and unable to work in the labour market as he did before...
Haystead v DPP
Example case summary. Last modified: 28th Oct 2021
A man punched a woman twice in the face while she was holding her child in her arms. As a direct result of the two punches, the child fell from the women’s arms and hit his head on the floor. ...
Ashburn Anstalt v Arnold
Example case summary. Last modified: 28th Oct 2021
The defendant was the successor-in-title to a company which persuaded the claimant to sell his lease to the company in exchange for a promise that he would continue occupying the property rent-free until the defendant gave him one quarter’s notice to leave....
Malone v MPC - 1979
Example case summary. Last modified: 28th Oct 2021
Malone (M) was charged with handling stolen property. During the Crown Court prosecution of M, the prosecution admitted that the Post Office (P) had intercepted M’s telephone conversations under the authority of the Secretary of State for use by the police....
R v Slingsby - 1995
Example case summary. Last modified: 28th Oct 2021
The defendant, Simon Slingsby, penetrated the complainant’s vagina and rectum with his fingers, accidentally cutting her with the signet ring he was wearing. The complainant did not notice the internal cuts, which later became infected, causing the complainant to develop septicaemia and die....
M v Home Office [1994] 1 AC 377
Example case summary. Last modified: 28th Oct 2021
Asylum; judicial review; contempt. M was a citizen of Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) who arrived in the UK seeking asylum. His repeated applications were rejected, as were his applications for judicial review....
Walker v Northumberland County Council
Example case summary. Last modified: 28th Oct 2021
Employer’s duty to provide safe system of work; whether duty extends to risk of psychiatric illness. Mr Walker was a social worker employed by the defendant who had a heavy, emotionally demanding caseload and suffered a mental breakdown in 1986....
Douglas v Hello Ltd
Example case summary. Last modified: 28th Oct 2021
The Douglases were a celebrity couple who sold exclusive photography rights of their wedding to OK! Magazine. An unauthorised freelance photographer gained access to the wedding and sold pictures to Hello! Magazine, a rival competitor....
R v Golds
Example case summary. Last modified: 28th Oct 2021
Golds admitted to killing his partner and prior to the killing he had sexually assaulted her. The question for the jury was whether he was guilty of murder or manslaughter by virtue of diminished responsibility under s. 2(1) Homicide Act 1957. ...
New Zealand Shipping v Satterthwaite - 1975
Example case summary. Last modified: 28th Oct 2021
When performance of an existing duty to third party can be consideration. The appellants were stevedores engaged as independent contractors to unload machinery from a ship. The contract between the respondent machinery owners and the carriers contained a limitation clause....
Shadwell v Shadwell
Example case summary. Last modified: 28th Oct 2021
Performance of a duty imposed by a contract with a Third Party. The defendant was the plaintiff’s uncle. The uncle promised to pay his nephew £150 a year until the nephew’s income reached 600 guineas provided the nephew married his fiancée....
Attorney-General v Jonathan Cape Ltd
Example case summary. Last modified: 28th Oct 2021
A Cabinet minister kept a diary of Cabinet discussions and events with the intention to once publish the contents in a book. After the minister’s death, volume one of the book (Diaries of a Cabinet Minister) was sent for approval to and rejected by the Secretary of the Cabinet....
DPP v Morgan - 1976
Example case summary. Last modified: 28th Oct 2021
Rape – Consent – Honest Belief to Consent – No Reasonable Belief Required if Honest and Genuine Belief to Consent. The defendant was a Royal Air Force Pilot and he had invited his friends over to have sexual intercourse with his wife....
R v Cato - 1976
Example case summary. Last modified: 28th Oct 2021
Mr Cato and the victim prepared their own syringes and then injected each other with heroin. The victim died. Mr Cato was convicted of manslaughter and administering a noxious thing contrary to s. 23 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861....
Ingram v Little - 1961
Example case summary. Last modified: 28th Oct 2021
The Plaintiffs were joint owners of a car. A fraudster attempted to purchase the car by cheque, which they initially refused. He pretended to be a reputable business man and the Plaintiffs then accepted payment by cheque. ...
Re Polemis and Furness, Withy & Co
Example case summary. Last modified: 28th Oct 2021
The extent of liability where the injuries resultant from tortious negligence are entirely unforeseeable. Employees of the defendant had been loading cargo into the underhold of a ship when they negligently dropped a large plank of wood....
McGhee v National Coal Board - 1973
Example case summary. Last modified: 28th Oct 2021
To satisfy causation, a claimant need only prove that the negligent behaviour most likely made a material contribution to the injury. The claimant, McGhee, contracted a skin condition (dermatitis) in the course of his employment with the defendant, the National Coal Board....
L Schuler v Wickman
Example case summary. Last modified: 28th Oct 2021
Schuler were a company engaged in the manufacture of types of tools. They had contracted with Wickman, who had sole rights to sell Schuler products in the UK....
Arcos v EA Ronaasen & Son - 1933
Example case summary. Last modified: 28th Oct 2021
English purchasers concluded a contract for the sale of staves of timber wood from the English agents of a Russian company for the purposes of making cement barrels, specifying staves of Russian redwood and whitewood to be of half-an-inch in thickness...
Nordenfelt v Maxim Nordenfelt Guns and Ammunition Co Ltd
Example case summary. Last modified: 28th Oct 2021
Whether restraint of trade clauses are unlawful. The appellant, Thorsten Nordenfelt, was a Swedish gun manufacturer with a valuable, world-wide business. ...
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