First Real Estates (UK) Ltd v Birmingham City Council, Court of Appeal - Administrative Court, May 01, 2009, [2009] EWHC 817 (Admin)

Reporting Judge: [2009] EWHC 817 (Admin)

President: First Real Estates (UK) Ltd v Birmingham City Council

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Extract

First Real Estates (UK) Ltd v Birmingham City Council, Court of Appeal - Administrative Court, May 01, 2009, [2009] EWHC 817 (Admin)

Neutral Citation Number: [2009] EWHC 817 (Admin)

Case No: CO/6424/2008

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE

QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION

Royal Courts of Justice

Strand, London, WC2A 2LL

Date: 01/05/2009

Before :

THE HONOURABLE MR JUSTICE PLENDER

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Between :

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(Transcript of the Handed Down Judgment of

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Mr Anthony Allston (instructed by The Birmingham Legal Partnership) for the Claimant

Mr Jon Holbrook (instructed by Legal Services Department) for the Defendant

Hearing dates: 3 April, 2009

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Judgment

Mr Justice Plender:

1. CPR 54.1(2) defines a ``claim for judicial review'' as a claim to review the lawfulness of an enactment or of ``a decision, action or failure to act in relation to the exercise of a public function''. However, as Lord Wilberforce pointed out in Davy v Spelthorne Borough Council, [1984] AC 262 at 276, the expressions ``public law'' and ``private law'' are recent immigrants. One of the issues presented by the present case is that of determining whether Birmingham City Council, ``the Council'', was exercising a public function when deciding to terminate what it described as its arrangements with First Real Estates (UK) Limited, ``FRE'', for the provision of temporary accommodation for those whom the Council was obliged to house in accordance with Part VII of the Housing Act 1996.

The Facts

2. FRE was formed on 6 June 2005 with the object of supplying to the Council property to be used as accommodation for homeless people. The managing director of FRE is Mr Iftikhar Hussain. ...

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