Law reports: Case Summaries: 23 march 1998

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

Aggravated trespass

Capon & ors v DPP; QBD (Div Ct)(Lord Bingham of Cornhill CJ, Dyson J) 5 March 1998.

Where a police officer had a genuine belief that an obstruction of lawful activity would occur if suspected persons remained on land in question, his direction under s 69 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 was lawful even if no actual offence of aggravated trespass had been committed, since the prerequisite for a direction was a reasonable belief on the part of the officer, not the actual commission of the offence.

Kier Starmer (Legal Department, Liberty) for the applicants; Richard Sones (CPS, Newcastle upon Tyne) for the prosecution.

Landlord and tenant

Rainbow Estates Ltd v Tokenhold & anor; Ch D (Lawrence Collins QC sitting as a dputy High Court judge) 4 March 1998.

Although the court had power to grant an order for specific performance of a tenant's repairing covenant, not only was there a need for great caution in granting the remedy against a tenant, but it would also be a rare case in which it would be appropriate.

Mark Warwick (Philippsohn Crawfords Benvald) for the plaintiff; Helen Soffa (Turners) for the defendants.

VAT

Malik v Customs and Excise Commrs; QBD (Crown Office List) (Keene J) 10 March 1998.

Freshly cooked food delivered to customers in hot boxes was not within the zero-rating provisions for food in Sched 8, Group1, item 1 of the Value Added Tax Act 1994, which by note (3) excluded supplies "in the course of catering". Catering included hot food which had been heated. The cooking process, which necessarily involved heating, was within the definition of hot food if the food was delivered to the customer to be eaten while it was still hot.

Julian Ghosh (Tweedie & Prideaux) for Mrs Malik; Phillipa Whiplle (C&E Solicitor) for the Crown.