Court : House of Lords
viscount simonds my lords, these consolidated appeals raise once more a question, which has so often caused doubt and difficulty in the courts of this country, whether certain trusts are charitable in the sense which the law accords to that word. it need cause no surprise, though it may cause regret, that this should be so. for while no comprehensive definition of legal charity has been given either by the legislature or in judicial utterance, there is no limit to the number and diversity of the ways in which man will seek to benefit his fellow-men. to determine whether the privileges, now considerable, which are accorded to charity in its legal sense, are to be granted or refused in a particular case, is often a matter of great nicety and i think that this house can perform no more useful function in this branch of the law than to discourage a further excess of refinement where already so many line distinctions have been made. in the present appeals the controversy is about the amount of stamp duty payable in respect of two deeds of conveyance, by which trusts were declared of certain property thereby respectively conveyed. if the trusts so declared were charitable the duty is smaller than if they were not charitable. the sums actually at stake are trifling, but the issue is an important one. it was decided in favour of the appellants, the commissioners of inland revenue, by mr. justice harman but against them by the court of appeal. hence the present appeal. i find it .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : House of Lords
..... supplementary award that the footing of the contract was removed, and his reason for so finding is that both parties entered into the contract on the basis that adequate supplies of labour and materials would be available at the times required but that adequate supplies were not available with the result that the duration of the work was unavoidably extended from 8 months to 22 months. ..... . later he says: no one can tell how long a spell of commercial depression may last; no suspense can be more harrying than the vagaries of foreign exchanges, but contracts are made for the purpose of fixing the incidence of such risks in advance, and their occurrence only makes it the more necessary to uphold a contract and not ..... that the contract price was subject to an express overriding condition contained in a letter of the 18th march, 1946, that there should be adequate supplies of labour and material and (b) that the contract had been entered into on the footing that adequate supplies of labour and material would be available to complete the work within eight months, but, contrary to the expectation of both parties, there was not sufficient skilled ..... having been asked to state his own conclusions he further found that both parties entered into the contract on the basis that adequate supplies of labour and material would be available at the times required, that such supplies were not so available and that, as the duration of the work was unavoidably extended from a period of eight months to .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : House of Lords
..... not, surely, when the first country squire exchanged his carriage and horses for a motor car or the first haulage contractor bought a motor lorry. ..... the learned judge is saying that the skilled labourer of the first sentence is under the same contractual obligation to his master as those mentioned in the sentence are to their customers or clients. ..... 246, has never been questioned: when a skilled labourer, he said, artizan, or artist is employed, there is on his part an implied warranty that he is of skill reasonably competent to the task he undertakesspondes peritiam artis. ..... the second seems to be the natural exchange to take place between the company and their lorry driver. ..... said: when a skilled labourer, artisan or artist, is employed, there is on his part an implied warranty that he is of skill reasonably competent to the task 'he undertakesspondes peritiam artis. ..... these general rules, some of which are now statutory, for example, sale of goods act, bills of exchange act, etc. ..... he had previously for a short time been employed by them as a general labourer. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : House of Lords
my lords, 1 have had an opportunity of reading the speech which has been prepared by my noble and learned friend, lord devlin, and i am in general agreement with it. i need not set out the facts of this case, and i can go straight to the question of general importancewhat is the basis on which damages for serious injuries are awarded? the determination of that question in the ordinary case where the injured person is fully conscious of his disability will go far to decide how to deal with a case like wise v. kaye [1962] 1 q.b. 638, where the injured person was wholly unconscious with no prospect of ever regaining consciousness or like the present case where the respondent is only conscious to a slight extent. in the ordinary case of a man losing a leg or sustaining a permanent internal injury, he is entitled to recover in respect of his pain and suffering: if he is fortunate in suffering little pain he must get a smaller award. so it is not disputed that where an injured person does not suffer at all because of unconsciousness he gets no award under this head. nothing was awarded in wise's case and nothing has been awarded in this case. on the other hand no one doubts that damages must be awarded irrespective of the man's mental condition or the extent of his suffering where there is financial loss. that will cover the cost of treatment or alleviation of his condition just as much as it covers the cost of repairing or renewing his property. and it will cover loss of earning .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : House of Lords
..... i say could be because the ordinary courtesies and exchanges of life would become impossible if it were sought to attach legal obligation to every kindly and friendly act. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : House of Lords
..... of the section, inducement of some other person to break a contract on the one hand, interference with the trade, business or employment of some other person or with the right of some other person to dispose of his capital or his labour as he wishes on the other hand, had alone to be taken into consideration, a result not unlike that reached by section 4 would follow, for whatever the nature of the tort the ground of action would be either the inducement ..... ground only that it induces some other person to break a contract of employment or that it is an interference with the trade, business, or employment of some other person, or with the right of some other person to dispose of his capital or his labour as he wills .nothing in the present case turns upon the first part of the section, since there was here no breach of the appellant's contract procured by the acts of the defendants. ..... it is easy now to see that parliament in 1906 might have felt that the only way of giving labour an equality of bargaining power with capital was to give it special immunities which the common law did not permit. ..... if one man, albeit by lawful means, interferes with another's right to earn his living or dispose of his labour as he wills and does so maliciously, that is, with intent to injure without justification, he is, if there is such a tort, liable in just the same way as he would undoubtedly be liable if he were acting in combination with others. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : House of Lords
..... position of the deceased, who knew that the operation had been unsuccessful, that he had suffered a major injury which would seriously affect his enjoyment of life in the future, would affect his employability on the labour market, if he had any, and would impose substantial burdens on his wife and family in looking after him, if he was minded to make a claim at any time, should and would take advice reasonably promptly .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : House of Lords
..... a case asserting forced labour is less unlikely but, if it arises, would no doubt fall under article 3. ..... authority on the applicability in a foreign case of article 4 of the convention (the right not to be held in slavery or servitude, and not to be required to perform forced or compulsory labour) is scant. ..... (2) no one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : House of Lords
..... the different treatment of husbands and wives could not be justified by the differential impact upon the labour market. 52. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : House of Lords
..... in the seventies and eighties text books cited norton tool as stating the law: rideout, principles of labour law, 1976, 2nd ed, pp 141-147; anderman, the law of unfair dismissal, 1978, pp 212, 217, 221, 222; hepple and o'higgins, employment law, 1979, 3rd ed, p 608; mead, unfair dismissal handbook, 1983, 2nd ed, pp 307- ..... for present purposes the re-enactment of section 116 by schedule 1, para 19, of the trade union and labour relations act 1974, by section 76 of the employment protection act 1975 and by section 74 of the employment protection (consolidation) act 1978 are not material. .....
Tag this Judgment!