Bradford Corporation v Pickles AC 587 is a leading English tort law case on the role of malice in determining liability. It established that a lawful act does not become unlawful purely because it is done so with malicious intent. Specifically, one may exercise their statutory property rights however they see fit, even if done so with malicious intent.
The claimants, the Corporation of Bradford, alleged that Pickles had deliberately interfered with the groundwater supply on his land that fed into the local authority's waterworks, seeking to force the claimants to purchase his land. On appeal, the House of Lords dismissed the case and awarded costs to Pickles.
Facts The respondent, Edward Pickles, was the owner of an area of land bordering and percolating groundwater to Many Wells, a spring west of Bradford, Yorkshire. Water from the spring supplied the town's waterworks, and had done so for some 40 years. Pickles decided in the 1890s to install shafts and drain the water from the strata under his land, thus depriving the town of its water source. The Corporation alleged that, in doing so, Pickles sought to force it to buy the land at an above-market price.
The Corporation's defence relied primarily on the local act that governed the waterworks and its access to water, specifically section 49:
The Corporation also argued that, in attempting to force the purchase of his land, Pickles was acting "maliciously".: "I am not certain that I can understand or give any intelligible construction to the word ["maliciously"] so used. Upon the supposition on which I am now arguing, it comes to an allegation that the defendant did maliciously something that he had a right to do."
Judgement On being appealed to the House of Lords, the case came before Lords Halsbury, LC, Watson, Ashbourne, and Macnaghten. They unanimously ruled that the appeal should be dismissed, with costs. It was agreed that the motive of an act does not determine its legality, even if malicious. It was further agreed that doing so with intention to force purchase of the land was similarly acceptable.
Notes
References
External links