attorney general v blake judgement

Although the order is strictly only interlocutory in character ('until further order'), the basis on which the court has made the order is that Blake will never receive any of the unpaid royalties. Further, these specific remedies are discretionary. 1073. The same principle is applied to the wrongful detention of goods. Cas. A local authority had sold surplus land to a developer and obtained a covenant that the developer would develop the land in accordance with an existing planning permission. Thus in the case of a continuing wrong, such as maintaining overhanging eaves and gutters, damages were limited to the loss suffered up to the commencement of the action: see Battishill v. Reed (1856) 18 C.B. Recent examples are Bracewell v. Appleby [1975] Ch. The "just response" visualised in the present case is, however it is formulated, that Blake should be punished and deprived of any fruits of conduct connected with his former criminal and reprehensible conduct. An English spy, George Blake, was a Russian double agent. An instance is the much cited decision of the Court of Appeal in Strand Electric and Engineering Co. Ltd. v. Brisford Entertainments Ltd. [1952] 2 Q.B. The Court of Appeal, comprising Lord Woolf M.R., Millett and Mummery L.JJ., allowed the appeal: see [1998] Ch, 439. If a shopkeeper supplies inferior and cheaper goods than those ordered and paid for, he has to refund the difference in price. Mrs. Sonia Bertram-Linton. These proceedings concern this unpaid money. My Lords, Mr Clayton was right to say that the exceptional facts of this case have been critical to its decision. But in a minority of cases the error does matter and cases of the breach of negative promises typically illustrate this category. The trial took place before Sir Richard Scott V.- C. Blake was not represented at the trial. 39. 102, 105, and Ministry of Defence v. Thompson [1993] 2 E.G.L.R. 130 of 2000 the question of jurisdiction of the Lands Tribunal cropped up again. observed in Halifax Building Society v. Thomas [1996] Ch 217, 229, the corollary is not so obviously persuasive. Exceptions to the general principle that there is no remedy for disgorgement of profits against a contract breaker are best hammered out on the anvil of concrete cases. In view of these conclusions the judgment of the Court of Appeal on the granting of the injunction may appear to be less important. An indispensable statutory requirement is a conviction for the relevant offence: see Webb v. Chief Constable of Merseyside Police [2000] 1 All ER, 209. The question under discussion is whether the court will award substantial damages for an infringement when no financial loss flows from the infringement and, moreover, in a suitable case will assess the damages by reference to the defendant's profit obtained from the infringement. 7. This analysis is correct. This Act has been repealed but the jurisdiction remains. A person whose goods were wrongfully converted by another had a choice of two remedies against the wrongdoer. PER CURIAM. Interact directly with CaseMine users looking for advocates in your area of specialization. This is an example of compensatory damages. Considered as a matter of principle, it is difficult to see why equity required the wrongdoer to account for all his profits in these cases, whereas the common law's response was to require a wrongdoer merely to pay a reasonable fee for use of another's land or goods. 84. ... R v Blake [1995] 2 Qd R 167; [1994] QCA 77, considered: R v Gilbert ... Yeo v Attorney-General for the State of Queensland (2007) 170 A Crim R 213; [2007] QCA 32 259G-260H, upheld the claim. The innocent party could suppose that the wrongful sale had been made with his consent and bring an action for money 'had and received to his use': see Lamine v. Dorrell (1701) 2 Ld. In Tito v. Waddell (No. The Crown appealed. 273, sending suitors across London to the common law courts at Westminster Hall. 1, No. But the plaintiff was entitled to a deeper pool. Even if recovered they would bear no relation to either the government's irreparable loss or Snepp's unjust gain. In all these cases rights of property were infringed. Earl of Halsbury L.C. That would have been enforceable. The Crown have made no secret of this. These rights give rise to restitutionary remedies including the remedy of account which, depending on the circumstances, could also derive from a common law relationship such as agency. The Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the Vice-Chancellor, Sir Richard Scott, that Blake is not liable to account for his profits as a fiduciary: Attorney-General v. Blake [1998] Ch. It is not just the amount (if any) by which his property has a lower market value than that it would have had if the contract had been performed. Photo Production Ltd. v Securicor Transport Ltd. 217, 229, the corollary is not so obviously persuasive. The present case The present case is exceptional. Assistant Attorney General, Daytona Beach, for Appellant. Parts did relate to his activities as a secret service officer but by 1989 none of the information was any longer confidential nor was it alleged that it would damage the public interest. . . This is the judgment of the Court to which all the members of the Court have contributed. It will be only in exceptional cases, where those remedies are inadequate, that any question of accounting for profits will arise. famously asked in The Mediana [1900] A.C. 113,117, that if a person took away a chair from his room and kept it for 12 months, could anybody say you had a right to diminish the damages by showing that I did not usually sit in that chair, or that there were plenty of other chairs in the room? If convicted, the Crown could seek a confiscation order under Part VI of the Criminal Justice Act 1988, as amended by the Proceeds of Crime Act 1995. Your Lordships consider that this policy can be given effect to without a departure from principle. Blake is merely restrained from receiving payment of the royalties 'until further order'. Recent examples are Bracewell v. Appleby [1975] Ch. The power to give damages in lieu of an injunction imported the power to give an equivalent for what was lost by the refusal of an injunction: see Leeds Industrial Co-operative Society Ltd. v. Slack [1924] A.C. 851, 859, per Viscount Finlay L.C. In British Motor Trade Association v. Gilbert [1951] 2 All E.R. I must also mention the jurisdiction to award damages under section 2 of the Chancery Amendment Act 1858, commonly known as Lord Cairns' Act. The defendant had contracted to build for the plaintiff a swimming pool of a specified depth. The present case fell into the latter category: Blake earned his profit by doing the very thing he had promised not to do. In the ordinary course of commercial dealings the disclosure of non-confidential information might be regarded as venial. Holt C.J. National Recovery Limited v Attorney General of Jamaica: The Hon. In practice, these specific remedies go a long way towards providing suitable protection for innocent parties who will suffer loss from breaches of contract which are not adequately remediable by an award of damages. I do not believe that such is the intention of your Lordships but if others are tempted to try to extend the decision of the present exceptional case to commercial situations so as to introduce restitutionary rights beyond those presently recognised by the law of restitution, such a step will require very careful consideration before it is acceded to. Exceptional though this case is, courts hereafter will have to consider its relevance to the decisions of other cases which will surely come before them. Most writers have favoured the view that in some circumstances the innocent party to a breach of contract should be able to compel the defendant to disgorge the profits he obtained from his breach of contract. LORD HOBHOUSE OF WOODBOROUGH My Lords, When he opened this appeal, Mr Clayton, to whose pro bono services on behalf of the appellant George Blake I too would wish to pay tribute, warned your Lordships against being drawn into making bad law in order to enable an intuitively just decision to be given against a traitor. An account of profits will be appropriate only in exceptional circumstances. Negotiating damages for breach of contract The Crown had and has a legitimate interest in preventing Blake profiting from the disclosure of official information, whether classified or not, while a member of the service and thereafter. Then, again, there are the rights now grouped under the heading of the law of restitution or unjust enrichment. On this appeal to your Lordships' House the Attorney General has not sought to challenge that decision. This does not alter the principles which are applicable nor does it provide the Crown with a remedy in the present case; but it is relevant to the understanding of the authorities. It is accepted that, by delivering the manuscript to Jonathan Cape, Blake committed an offence under the 1911 Act (or its successor, the 1958 Act) and broke the contractual undertaking which he had given in 1944. Courts of equity went further than the common law courts. 104, 119. House of Lords The Court of Appeal held that Blake was in breach of the contract he signed when he joined the Security and Intelligence Services. So I turn to established, basic principles. himself noted, at p. 1364, that had the covenant been worded differently, there could have been provision for payment of an increased price if a further planning permission were forthcoming. In the present case, by 1989, Blake's undertaking had no remaining value to the Crown. 696. Damages under Lord Cairns' Act I must also mention the jurisdiction to award damages under section 2 of the Chancery Amendment Act 1858, commonly known as Lord Cairns' Act. In this type of case the damages recoverable will be, in short, the price a reasonable person would pay for the right of user: see Whitwam v. Westminster Brymbo Coal Co. [1892] 2 Ch. But this analysis takes the matter now under discussion no further forward. Against this background I turn to consider the remedies available for breaches of contract. The Crown appealed. In Beswick v. Beswick [1968] A.C. 58 the court made an order for the specific performance of a contract to make payments of money to a third party. I agree with it and for the reasons which he gives I would dismiss this appeal but vary the order of the Court of Appeal to declare that the Attorney-General is entitled to be paid a sum equal to whatever amount is due and owing to Blake from Jonathan Cape under the publishing agreement of 4 May 1989. The court's refusal to grant an injunction means that in practice the defendant is thereby permitted to perpetuate the wrongful state of affairs he has brought about. In the Court of Appeal in Surrey County Council v. Bredero Homes Ltd. [1993] 1 WLR 1361 I discussed some of the difficulties inherent in creating a general remedy for the recovery of restitutionary damages for breach of contract. relating to security or intelligence which is or has been in his possession by virtue of his position as a member of any of those services . 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