Facts: SQ had a long history of contact with psychiatric services. He lived in the Wiltshire area until 1995 and then was made subject to a hospital order with a restriction order under sections 37 and 41 of the Mental Health Act 1983. He was conditionally discharged in 2009, one of the conditions being that he resided at a hostel in Hertfordshire. He was recalled in 2011 under section 42(3) of the MHA 1983 and detained in a hospital in Hertfordshire and then conditionally discharged again in February 2014 to the same address in Hertfordshire as before. Wiltshire and Hertfordshire disputed which of them was responsible under section 117 of the MHA 1983.

Judgment: the Court of Appeal (Moses and Kitchin LJJ, Bean J) held that Wiltshire was responsible in that SQ had continued throughout to be liable to be detained or recalled so that he had to be treated as remaining ordinarily resident in the area where he was ordinarily resident before the original hospital order. 