Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Hurst v. Picture Theatres, Limited case brief

Hurst v. Picture Theatres, Limited
[1915] 1 KB 1
FACTS
-P went to the the theater due to being attracted there by advertisement. He bought a ticket at the pay window, entitling him to an unreserved seat. He gave up his ticket at the door, shown to a seat by a young woman.
-After performance went on for a while, a girl came up and asked him if he came in with a ticket, another girl later came up and asked him to speak to manager, P refused, then a man came up asking the same, P refused. Then manager; refused again. “We shall have to compel you”.
-Porter came out, returned with policeman, police said porter should remove him, porter took hold of P, removed him from seat without unnecessary violence, P walked quietly out.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY
Jury returns verdict that Pl. had paid for his seat, assessed damages at L150. Def. Appealed, appeal fails.

RULES

[Wood v Leadbitter]
Affirmed a mere license is revocable.
(says Wood v. Leadbitter is not good law at this date, but discusses it as if it was.)
License granted him: right to go on premises, right to see.
“Here there was a license coupled with a grant...A license coupled with a grant is not revocable.”

[Jones v. Earl of Tankerville]

“An injunction restraining the revocation of the license, when it is revocable at law, may in a sense be called relief by way of specific performance, but it is not specific performance in the sense of compelling the vendor to do anything. It merely prevents him from breaking his contract, and protects a right in equity which but for the absence of a seal would be a right at law, and since the Judicature Act it may well be doubted whether the absence of a seal in such a case can be relied on in any court.

APPLICATION

-If there be a license with an agreement not to revoke the license, that, if given for value, is an enforceable right.
-The license was a license to enter the building and see the spectacle from its commencement until its termination, then there was included in that contract a contract not to revoke the license until the play had run to its termination. (It was a breach of contract to revoke the obligation not to revoke the license.)

HOLDING

-The license was not revocable. They had no entitlement to remove him from the theater.

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