Three Rivers DC v Governor of the Bank of England

Three Rivers DC v Governor of the Bank of England [2001 UKHL 16] [1] is a UK banking law and EU law case concerning government liability for the protection of depositors and the preliminary ruling procedure in the European Union.

Three Rivers DC v Governor of the Bank of England
CourtHouse of Lords
Full case nameThree Rivers District Council v Governor and Company of The Bank of England
Citation(s)[2000] 3 CMLR 205
Transcript(s)Full text of decision from BAILII.org
Court membership
Judge(s) sittingLord Steyn
Lord Hope of Craighead
Lord Hutton
Lord Hobhouse of Wood-borough
Lord Millett
Keywords

Facts

Depositors in the UK branch of Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) sought damages from the Bank of England for failing in its supervisory duties. The Bank had granted BCCI authorisation in a way that breached the First Banking Directive 77/780. The government argued that the Directive was not intended to give rights to individual depositors.

Clarke J dismissed the action, and the Court of Appeal by a majority (Hirst and Robert Walker LJJ, Auld LJ dissenting) dismissed the appeal.

Judgment

The House of Lords held that the Directive was only a first step toward mutual recognition of authorisations of member states to credit institutions, and individual depositor protection was not an objective of the Directive. There was no need to refer to the ECJ. The delays and costs of making a reference were great, given the very small likelihood that they would have made a wrong interpretation.

Lord Hope said the Directive did not define a depositor and so did not define the class of persons who might have rights. Article 3(1) obliged member states to require credit institutions to have authority to operate, but BCCI had commenced before the Directive. Articles 6 and 7 did not impose any duty of supervision on national authorities.

See also

Notes

This case essentially establishes that a Hansard can be used as an external aid to statutory interpretation.

References
  1. House of Lords, Three Rivers District Council v. Governor and Company of The Bank of England [2001 UKHL 16; [2001] 2 All ER 513 (22nd March, 2001)
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.