Reading a Case Exercise 2

Questions

Read Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain v Boots Cash Chemists (Southern) Ltd [1952] 2 All ER 456 and consider the following questions:

1. Identify the LEGAL problem faced by the court.
   
   
2. What are the MATERIAL FACTS of the case (i.e. the facts the court considers relevant to the decision)?
   
   
3. What did the court DECIDE?
   
   
4. For what REASONS did the court arrive at the decision it did?
   
   
5. In light of your answers to the above what do you think is the ratio decidendi of the case?
   
   (Professor Cross describes the ratio decidendi of the case as “any rule of law expressly or impliedly treated by the judge as a necessary step in reaching his conclusion, having regard to the line of reasoning adopted by him, or a necessary part of his direction to the jury”).
   
   
6. In which court was the judgment given?
   
   (Once you have discovered the ratio of a case it is necessary to assess its importance. Always note the court giving the decision. If the ratio is that of the House of Lords then all courts beneath it will be bound by the ratio; if the decision is that of the High Court only the County Courts and Magistrates’ Courts will be bound by applicable precedents. Note a decision of a High Court judge does not bind later High Court Judges).