Statutory Interpretation Cases Flashcards
Person A’s husband was piling points on a track when he was hit by a train and killed. His widow tried to sue LNER for not providing a lookout but the literal words of the law said a lookout must be provided when relaying and repairing, not maintaining.
LNER V Berriman
Used for literal rule
Defendant was masturbating in a public toilet. Two policeman had received reports and caught him in the act. The law said it was illegal to do it in a street caught by passengers. It was defined to be a street. He was found not guilty as the police officers were not passengers in 1847 Oxford dictionary
DPP V Cheeseman
Used for literal rule
Defendant got married while he was already married to another woman. When he was accused of bigamy he argued that the second marriage was illegitimate as you can’t be married twice legally at the same time. The judge ruled that the definition of going through a ceremony was enough to count as parliament wouldn’t make a law impossible to break
R V Allen
Used for golden rule
Shows that a certain rule gives judges the ability to choose between multiple definitions of the words used in the law
Jones V DPP
Used for definition of the golden rule
Defendant was in broadmoor hospital for killing his mother and he requested to be given her estate as he was her next of kin. The court decided that they would not allow the killer to take the estate of the person he killed
RE Sigsworth
Used for the golden rule
Said that judges shall “make such construction as to suppress the mischief”
And what are two questions of this case?
Heydons case
Used for mischief rule gives
What was the remedy Parliament created to cure the mischief?
What was the reason behind the remedy?
The street offences act 1959 states that it is illegal to loiter in a street or public place for the purpose of prostitution. They stood in windows or on balconies to get around this but it was ruled that the mischief the law was trying to prevent was the harassment from prostitutes and they were still guilty
Smith V Hughes
Used for the mischief rule
Nurses are not registered practitioners so they were technically not allowed to do abortions. They did them anyway and were taken to court. The rule was used and it was interpreted that parliament were trying to stop back alley abortions, not nurses doing them!
Royal College of Nursing V DHSS
Used for mischief rule gives judges
Lord Denning and Lord Simmons disagree if ____ is good
Magor + ST Mellons v Newport Corporation
Purposive approach
Victim suffered racial and physical abuse on racial grounds while at work. The race relations act says that this abuse from employees should be treated as if it was done by the employer. The employer argued that because they weren’t working while doing the abuse they weren’t at work and therefore it’s both to do with them. Race relations act 1965 show the employee doing it is equal to the employer doing it so he was found guilty.
Jones V Tower Boot Company
Used for the Purposive Approach
Defendant applied for a copy of his birth certificate to find his mother, which he is entitled to do. However, he was in broadmoor hospital for the murder of the last woman he found that he thought was his mother. He was denied on the grounds that it was to keep his birth mother safe.
R V Registrar General Ex Parte Smith
Used for the purposive approach
