The Gazette 1967/71

declaration, and not former directors of the com pany who were directors at the time the material income was received. Section 25 (1) provides that "Where the special commissioners have issued a notice requiring any company to furnish them with particulars of the actual income from all sources of the company as respects any year . . . the directors of the company, if they are of opinion that there has not been and will not be any avoidance" of the payment of sur tax through failure to distribute a reasonable part of that income "may make a statutory declaration to that effect stating the facts and circum stances upon which their opinion is based". [Hanstead Investments Ltd. and others v Inland Revenue Commissioners; Ch. Div.; The Times, 29 June 1970.1 TRADE DESCRIPTIONS The statutory defence under Section 24 (1) of the Trade Descriptions Act, 1968—that the offence of applying a false trade description to goods was due to a mistake—is not available if the mistake was that of anyone other than the person charged. [Birkenhead and District Co-Operative Society Ltd. v Roberts; Q.B.D.; The Times, 9 July 1970.] TRADE UNION Seven electricians were granted injunctions against 158 fellow workers at a power station site at West Pennar, Pembrokeshire. All the plaintiffs and defendants are members of the Electrical, Elec tronic and Telecommunications Union-Plumbing Trades Union. The 158 men were ordered not to do anything, whether in combination or not, by intimidation or otherwise, to procure the dismissal or non-employ ment of the seven by Connaught Contractors (Send) Ltd., subcontractors on the site. It was stated that the seven had complained that they had been punished by their fellow workers for working for Perville Construction Co. Ltd., which, it was alleged, had operated "the lump", a system under which men worked as independent self-employed contractors and ob tained higher wages than ordinary employees. [Hutchinson and others v Aitchison and others; Ch. Div.; Brightman J.; The Times, 9 July 1970.] » TRESPASS Permission given to an inquiry agent by a wife separated from her husband to enter the husband's home is not sufficient to prevent the entry from 103

the purpose of making concrete blocks; the council never asked for further clarification. The grant of permission did not specify the purposes for which the structures were to be used. Therefore, under Section 28 (6) of the 1963 Act, permission must be construed as including permission to use the structure for the purpose for which they were designed, i.e. for producing ready-mix concrete. The implied change in development has been permitted by the planning authority, and there is no question to be referred to the Minister. Pringle J. therefore granted the declaration sought. [Readymix (Eire) Ltd. v Dublin County Coun cil and the Minister for Local Government; High Court; Pringle J.; Unreported; 12 August 1970.] TAX LAW The sale of 26^ acres of turf by a farming com pany was held to be part of its trade of farming and the receipts therefrom taxable under Schedule D, Case I. [Lowe (Inspector of Taxes) v J. W. Ashmore Ltd.; Ch. Div.; 27 July 1970.] The present rule of the Supreme Court which gives the court a discretion to order the joinder in any cause or matter of any person who ought to have been joined as a party and whose presence is necessary to ensure that all matters in dispute "may be effectually and completely determined" is not wide enough to entitle the court to order the Inland Revenue Commissioners to be joined as a party to a dispute between private citizens merely because it would be just and convenient to do so. Where, therefore, the executors of a large estate who had been assessed to surtax on dividends held by the trustees of a family settlement made by the deceased began an action in the High Court against the trustees to determine to whom the dividends belonged and sought to join the revenue to be bound by the court's decision, the House of Lords held that though the Crown consented to be joined and to be bound by the decision, such joinder should not be ordered because the revenue sought no relief, did not seek to be joined, and therefore their presence was not "necessary". [Vandervall Trustees Ltd. v White and others; House of Lords—(1970) 3 AER 16.] The expression "the directors" in Section 25 (1) of the Income Tax Act, 1952, means the directors at the time of making the statutory