Foul water, equality act and more
The Supreme Court has confirmed which cases its justices will be hearing during their trip to Manchester next week.
The London-based court has previously sat in Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff but this will be its first time in the north of England. Hearings, which are open to the public, are scheduled to take place between 6 and 9 March 2023 in the Manchester Civil Justice Centre (pictured).
The justices will preside over three big cases, the details of which can be found below.
First up is Manchester Ship Company Ltd v United Utilities Water Ltd, a two-day appeal about whether Manchester Ship Canal Company Limited can bring a private law claim in nuisance and/or trespass against United Utilities Water Limited (UU) in respect of unauthorised discharges of untreated foul water by UU into the canal.
The case will be heard by Lord Reed, Lord Hodge, Lord Lloyd-Jones, Lord Burrows, Lord Stephens, Lady Rose and Lord Richards.
The next case is R (on the application of Palmer) v Northern Derbyshire Magistrates Court and anor. This will ask if an administrator appointed under Part II of the Insolvency Act 1986 is a “director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate” so as to fall within s194(3) of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.
The case concerns a company which went into administration and whose employees were informed in writing that they were at risk of redundancy 15 minutes before being handed a further letter detailing their dismissal. The company’s owner and administrator both pled not guilty to failure to give notice of the redundancies and neglect via failure to give notice.
Next weeks appeal will try to establish whether the administrator is an ‘officer’ and therefore falls within s194(3) of the above mentioned act. It will be heard by Lord Reed, Lord Hodge, Lord Burrows, Lady Rose and Lord Richards.
Finally, the court will hear R (on the application of Toraane and anor) v Secretary of State for the Home Department. This will seek to establish the territorial scope of the public sector equality duty in section 149(1) of the Equality Act 2010 (the “EA 2010”), which requires public authorities to have due regard to equality issues.
The case will be heard by Lord Reed, Lord Hodge, Lord Burrows, Lady Rose, and Lord Richards. It concerns the home office’s vulnerable persons resettlement programme, which is accused of discriminating against Palestinian refugees from Syria who are excluded from the scheme.
