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Planning
Outline planning permissions granted
to would-be
developers of and in Kent in 1952 and 1953 were held
by a majority of the House of Lords to have ceased to
subsist because a time condition, attached to almost all
such permissions granted by Kent County Council and
other planning authoritie since about 1950, which pro
vided that the permission "shall cease to have effect"
after three years unless the planning authority within
that period had approved and notified their approval of
detailed plans submitted by the developers, was
intra
vires the Town and County Planning Act, 1947 and the
General Development Order 1950, and did not cut down
the developers' right of appeal to the Minister if they
acted reasonably and were refused approval within the
three-year period or such extensions of it as the planning
authority granted.
House of Lords 16/12/69 Kent County Council v.
Kingsway Investments (Kent) Ltd. Same v. Kenworthy.
Privilege
No civil action for damages, however framed, can be
brought against a witness for anything said in the wit
ness box in the course of judicial proceedings, for public
policy requires that a witness shall be immune from civil
action. When, therefore, a silicitor acting for an accused
person in criminal proceedings., having failed to serve a
witness summons on a doctor whose evidence was desired
at the trial, instructed council during the trial to apply
to the judge for a bench warrant for the doctor's arrest
and then stated in the witness box that the doctor had
wilfully evaded service of the summons—which the doc
tor denied—the Court held that the proposed action by
the doctor for damages for injuries suffered by reason of
the solicitor's instructions and evidence, and his. cinse-
quent arrest and detention was not maintainable.
Ct. of Appeal 15/7/69 Roy v. Prior.
Shipping
By the maritime law of England and of the world,
where a salvor has done much good in saving a vessel
in distress but in course of the alvage operation has
done her damage by his negligence, the damage is. taken
into account in two ways: first, the salvage reward is
calculated on the salved value and is therefore less on
account of the damage; and, secondly, the damage may
be further reduced by deductig part, or even the whole
if it from the reward. But the salvor is not liable to a
counter-clair for damages.
Ct. of Appeal 31/10/69 The Tojo Maru.
Solicitors
A solicitor acting on behalf of the lesee of premises
under a lease within the protection of the Leasehold
Property (Repairs) Act, 1938, acted improperly when,
on his client's instructions, he refused to disclose the
lessee's name and address, to the landlords when they
were seeking to bring an action for forfeiture and dama
ges for breach of the repairing covenants in the lease, for
there is no privilege entitling a solicitor to refuse to give
a client's name to the court or to interest parties.
Ct. of Appeal Pascall and Another v. Galinski and
Others.
Tax Law
"
A claim by a dance musician to deduct the expenses
of an operation to his little finger in computing his tax
able profits was rejected because he played the guitar as
a hobby as well as a part-time profession.
Ch.D. 26/10/69 Prince v. Mapp (Inspector of Taxes).
The "relevant profits" on which a United Kingdom
company can obtain relief from double taxation on divi
dends paid to it by a foreign resident subsidiary company
were held to be the profits shown in the subsidiary com
pany's accounts and not the profits computed for the
purposes of foreign tax.
House of Lords 16/7/69 Bowater Paper Corporation
Ltd. v. Murgatroyd Bowater, &c., v. I.R.C.
Where property valued at £150,000 was conveyed to
a trading company for less than its value, the figure to
be brought into the company's trading account was the
price actually paid, £72,000. No other figure could be
substituted unless the contract of sale and the price were
colourable or derisory.
Ch.D. 15/7/69 Jacgilden (Weston Hall) Ltd. v. Castle
(Inspector of Taxes)
The only income of a child for the purposes of
restricting child allowances to which his parent would
otherwise be entitled is that which is chargable to tax,
and therefore a child's income from an overseas em
ployment, which is not remitted to this country and thus
is not chargeable to tax, is not "income" for the purposes
of section 212 of the Income Tax Act, 1952.
House of Lords 25/7/69 Mapp (Inspector of Taxes) v.
Oram.
Ex gratia payments received by a firm of chartered
accountants as compensation for the loss of six auditor-
ships were held not to be taxable as part of their profes
sional receipts.
Ch.D. 25/11/69 Walker (Inspector of Taxes) v. Carnaby
Harrower Barham & Pykett.
Mr. Michael Bucks, a partner in N.M. Rothchilds
& Sons, failed in his claim for earned income relief on
that part of his share of the partnership income repre
sented by dividends and interest received by the firm
in the course of its trade as merchant bankers, but on
which tax had been deducted under Cases III, IV and
V of Schedule D.
The other partners were four members of the Rotchs-
child family, two other individuals and two companies,
Rothschilds Continuation Ltd., and Second Continuation
Ltd.
Ch.D. 12/12069 Bucks v. Bowers (Inspector or Taxes).
Purchase tax is payable by publishers of diaries which
are supplied free of charge to a minister of a church for
distribution among members.
Ct. of Appeal 18/11/69 Warwickshire Publishing Co.
Ltd. v. Commissioners of Customs and Excise.
Takeover negotiations in progress, even though un
known to the public and to the Stock Exchanges, were
held to be special circumstances in consequence of which
prices of shares or securities quoted on the London
Stock Exchange were by
themselves not a proper
measure of market value for the purposes of assessing
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