14.17R v Cumbria CC ex p Professional Care Ltd (2000) 3 CCLR 79, QBD
In judicial review proceedings, commercial operators must raise issues of law and not seek to engage in commercial litigation by other means
Facts: the applicant was an association of proprietors of private sector care homes. It brought an application for a judicial review of decisions by Cumbria (i) not to purchase respite care from them (except on a spot purchase basis, whereas it made block bookings with its own care homes); (ii) unfairly to advantage its ‘in house’ homes and (ii) to fail to discharge its statutory duty to provide suitable and sufficient accommodation for those in need of residential accommodation, thereby depriving its members of potential residents.
Judgment: Turner J held that Cumbria had not acted in breach of statutory duty or unlawfully in any way; the applicant had raised a plethora of factual matters, which on examination had proven incorrect:
I would not wish to leave this case without stating that it is regrettable that scarce resources have been employed by the respondents in having to meet the claims of the applicants which I have held to be clearly inadmissible. Inappropriately these proceedings at times took on the appearance of a fiercely contested private law action.