Case summaries: 17 November 1997

The following notes of judgments were prepared by the reporters of the All England Law Reports.

Planning

R v Maldon District Council, ex p Pattani; QBD (Crown Office List) (Collins J) 16 Oct 1997.

Planning permission to develop a site as a supermarket carried with it permission to trade in anything which could ordinarily and properly be regarded as obtainable in a supermarket whose primary function was to sell food. Clear and unambiguous conditions should have been imposed if the permission was to exclude pharmaceutical services, and a pharmacy could, accordingly, be provided in the store.

Robin Barratt QC, Clive Lewis (Wollastons, Chelmsford) for the applicant; Duncan Ouseley QC, Jane Oldham (Berwin Leighton) for Tesco; Timothy Corner (Council Solicitor) for the council.

Disclosure

Saunders v Punch Ltd; ChD (Lindsay J) 9 October 1997.

Where an article was published relating to discussions between a client and his former solicitors the court, balancing the conflicting public interests of legal professional confidence and freedom of the press, was not satisfied that disclosure in the interests of justice was so pressing as to require the ban on disclosure to be overidden under s 10 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981.

John Martin QC, Thomas Lowe (D J Freeman) for the plaintiff; David Price (solicitor advocate) (David Price & Co) for the defendant.

Compulsory purchase

Halstead v Manchester City Council; CA (Nourse, Evans, Ward LJJ) 23 Oct 1997.

The statutory right to recover interest under s 11 of the Compulsory Purchase Act 1965 did not arise until the amount on which the interest became due was awarded or agreed, since that was the amount on which interest was payable, and the clear intention of the legislation was that the right to interest would compensate the claimant for non-payment during the intervening period.

Charles George QC, Peter Keenan (Brendan Rainsford, Manchester City Council) for the defendant; Andrew Gilbart QC, Mark Harper (Pannone & Partners, Manchester) for the plaintiff.