Ebele Muorah v Secretary of State for Housing Communities and Local Government & Anor
[2023] EWHC 285 (Admin)
TayTime Limited v Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities & Ors
7 May 2024
[2024] EWHC 1053 (Admin)
High Court
A company's planning appeal was dismissed after it went bankrupt. Another company tried to take over the appeal. A judge said the appeal should not have been dismissed without checking if the bankrupt company wanted to continue it. But the judge agreed that the other company couldn't simply take over the appeal.
Key Facts
- •Taytime Limited applied to quash an Inspector's decision dismissing a planning appeal.
- •The appeal was initially made by Monk Lakes Limited (MLL), which subsequently went into liquidation.
- •Taytime, a creditor of MLL and owner of the land, claimed to have been appointed to continue the appeal.
- •The Inspector dismissed the appeal, finding Taytime was pursuing it as the appellant, not as MLL's agent.
- •The key legal question was whether Taytime was acting as MLL's agent or attempting an unlawful substitution.
Legal Principles
Decisions of the Secretary of State and inspectors are construed flexibly; reasons must be intelligible and adequate.
Bloor Homes East Midlands Limited v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government [2014] EWHC 754 (Admin)
An Inspector's decision letter must be read fairly, in good faith, and as a whole.
South Lakeland v Secretary of State for the Environment [1992] 2 AC 141
A section 288 TCPA 1990 application is not a merits review; the claimant must show misdirection in law, irrationality, or procedural impropriety.
Seddon Properties v Secretary of the State for the Environment (1978) 42 P & CR 26
Agency is a fiduciary relationship where one acts on another's behalf; authority can be express or implied.
Bowstead & Reynolds on Agency (2nd ed.)
Insolvency law restricts a company's business activities after liquidation; liquidators have specific statutory powers.
IA 1986, sections 87(1), 103, 165, Schedule 4
Only the applicant for planning permission may appeal under section 78 TCPA 1990; there is no power to assign this right of appeal.
TCPA 1990, section 78(1)
In statutory review, new points may be raised, but only if it wouldn't require further evidence or factual findings.
Trustees of Barker Mill Estates v Test Valley BC [2016] EWHC 3028 (Admin)
Outcomes
Ground 2(i) succeeded (except for the assignment argument).
The Inspector prematurely dismissed the appeal without exploring whether MLL, through its liquidators, wished to proceed. The Inspector erred in conflating the issues of whether the appeal was validly made and whether it could be lawfully pursued.
Ground 2(ii) failed.
The Inspector rationally concluded Taytime was not acting as MLL's agent but was pursuing the appeal on its own behalf, based on the evidence before him. The Liquidators' letter indicated a transfer of “full responsibility”, inconsistent with an agency relationship. The Inspector's reasons were adequate.
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