Cambridge Water Co Ltd v Eastern Counties Leather plc

Parliamentary Archives,
HL/PO/JU/18/253

Cambridge Water Company (Respondents)

v.
Eastern Counties Leather plc (Appellants)

JUDGMENT

Die Jovis 9° Decembris 1993

Upon Report from the Appellate Committee to whom was
referred the Cause Cambridge Water Company against Eastern
Counties Leather plc, That the Committee had heard Counsel as
well on Monday the 11th as on Tuesday the 12th, Wednesday the
13th, Thursday the 14th, Monday the 18th and Tuesday the 19th
days of October last upon the Petition and Appeal of Eastern
Counties Leather plc of Langford Arch, London Road, Sawston,
Cambridgeshire, CB2 4EG, praying that the matter of the Order set
forth in the Schedule thereto, namely an Order of Her Majesty's
Court of Appeal of the 19th day of November 1992, might be
reviewed before Her Majesty the Queen in Her Court of Parliament
and that the said Order might be reversed, varied or altered or
that the Petitioners might have such other relief in the premises
as to Her Majesty the Queen in Her Court of Parliament might seem
meet; as upon the case of Cambridge Water Company lodged in
answer to the said Appeal; and due consideration had this day of
what was offered on either side in this Cause:

It is Ordered and Adjudged, by the Lords Spiritual and
Temporal in the Court of Parliament of Her Majesty the Queen
assembled, That the said Order of Her Majesty's Court of Appeal
of the 19th day of November 1992 complained of in the said Appeal
be, and the same is hereby, Set Aside and that the Order of Mr.
Justice Kennedy of the 31st day of July 1991 be, and the same is
hereby, Restored: And it is further Ordered. That the
Respondents do pay or cause to be paid to the said Appellants the
Costs incurred by them in the Court of Appeal and in respect of
the said Appeal to this House, the amount of such last-mentioned
costs to be certified by the Clerk of the Parliaments if not
agreed between the parties: And it is also further Ordered. That
the Cause be, and the same is hereby, remitted back to the
Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice to do therein
as shall be just and consistent with this Judgment.

Cler: Parliamentor:

Judgment: 9 December 1993

HOUSE OF LORDS

CAMBRIDGE WATER COMPANY
(RESPONDENTS)

v.

EASTERN COUNTIES LEATHER PLC.
(APPELLANTS)

Lord Templeman
Lord Goff of Chieveley
Lord Jauncey of Tullichettle
Lord Lowry
Lord Woolf

LORD TEMPLEMAN

My Lords,

For the reasons given in the speech by my noble and learned friend,
Lord Goff of Chieveley I would allow this appeal.

LORD GOFF OF CHIEVELEY

My Lords.

This appeal is concerned with the question whether the appellant
company. Eastern Counties Leather Plc (ECL), is liable to the respondent
company. Cambridge Water Company (CWC), in damages in respect of
damage suffered by reason of the contamination of water available for
abstraction at CWC's borehole at Sawston Mill near Cambridge. The
contamination was caused by a solvent…