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Civil wrongdoings with consequent financial and other loss or damage to employers, employees and third parties may result in the course of various trade union activities. These day to day trade union activities take a variety of forms. The most common ones are inducement of breach of contract, conspiracy, trespass, nuisance, and intimidation. Each of these activities constitutes a tort which, unless the statutory immunities apply, would normally give rise at common law to an action for damages or, as is more frequent, enable the aggrieved party to obtain an injunction.

In order to succeed in an action under the Equal Pay Act 1970, should the woman and the man be employed by the same employer on like work at the same time or would the woman still be covered by the Act if she were employed on like work in succession to the man? This is the question which had to be solved in Macarthys Ltd v. Smith. Unfortunately it was not. Their Lordships interpreted the relevant section in different ways and since Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome was also subject to different interpretations, the case has been referred to the European Court of Justice.

The law of passing‐off concerns itself primarily with the protection of a trader's goodwill — his customer connection. It has proved itself an expansive tort action, being used to combat a diverse variety of commercial dishonesty and unfair competition. In the leading case of ERVEN WARNINK BV v J. TOWNEND & SONS (HULL) (‘the Advocaat case’) [1980] RPC 31, Lord Diplock observed:

Business contracts are formed through negotiations, where the parties agree on some terms, disagree on others and keep yet others undecided. Over a period of time, they see themselves as having moved from being negotiating parties to contracting parties, settling on most of the terms. The law, however, states that a contract is formed when a person makes an offer and the other accepts it. The principle arose from the rudimentary trade practices in the past. The principles coming from the prior centuries and the modern business practices may not be in consonance. The Gibson v. Manchester City Council Case, a judgement of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom, reviewed attempts to modernize the law.

November 21, 1973 Negligence — Master and servant — Explosive substance — Scrap metal factory — Old safe purchased for scrap — Opened with oxy‐acetylene burner — High explosive in it ignited — “Plant, tank or vessel” — Statutory duty — Factories Act, 1961 (9 & 10 Eliz. II, c.34) s.31 (4).

May 10, 1967 Insurance — Employer's liability — Breach by brokers of contract to obtain employer's liability insurance — Damage flowing — Condition precedent in form of policy envisaged that employers should take reasonable precautions to prevent accidents — Accident to employee — Negligence and breach of statutory duty to fence dangerous machine established against employers — Risk not appreciated by employers — Whether employers would have been indemnified by insurers — “Reasonable precautions” — Whether necessary to establish their legal liability to do so — Whether probability of payment as matter of business policy sufficient.

December 13, 1968 National Insurance — Industrial Injuries benefit — Disablement benefit — Industrial accident — Medical authorities finding heart condition not relevant to accident — Burden of proof — Distinction between loss of faculty and disablement — When onus of proof on applicant — National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Act, 1965 (c.52),s.12(1),Sch.4.

Following the recent publication of the Collected correspondence of the Royal Society of Literature, that well known Old Firm, book packagers to HM Stationery Office, Diplock, Denning and Devlin is/are preparing an œuvre drawn from the files of various Copyright Offices. An advanced dummy has fallen into our hands at the Frankfurter Bookfest…