Associated Provincial Picture Houses Ltd v Wednesbury Corporation [1947] EWCA Civ 1 (10 November 1947)

ASSOCIATED PROVINCIAL PICTURE HOUSES LTD v WEDNESBURY CORPORATION [1947] EWCA Civ 1; [1948] 1 KB 223 Court of Appeal 10 November 1947

Judges: Lord Greene MR, Somervell LJ, Singleton J

Facts

Wednesbury Corporation granted a cinema licence on condition that no children under 15 were admitted on Sundays. The cinema owners challenged the condition as unreasonable. The trial judge dismissed the claim. The owners appealed.

Held

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal. Lord Greene MR held that a court may interfere with a public authority's decision only if the authority has taken into account irrelevant considerations, failed to take into account relevant considerations, or reached a decision so unreasonable that no reasonable authority could have come to it.

Key Principles

1. Wednesbury unreasonableness: a decision is unlawful if it is so unreasonable that no reasonable authority could have made it.

2. The court does not substitute its own view of what is reasonable; it reviews the legality of the decision.

3. Irrelevant considerations and failure to consider relevant matters are separate grounds of review.

4. The case is the classic statement of the common-law grounds of judicial review.

Why It Matters in Sierra Leone

Wednesbury is persuasive authority in Sierra Leone on judicial review of administrative action. It is cited in challenges to decisions of public authorities, licensing bodies and statutory corporations. The test remains the starting point for unreasonableness, even where later cases have refined it.