Dennis (A. R) & Company Ltd v Campbell
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | THE MASTER OF THE ROLLS,LORD JUSTICE GEOFFREY LANE,LORD JUSTICE EVELEIGH |
| Judgment Date | 19 October 1977 |
| Judgment citation (vLex) | [1977] EWCA Civ J1019-3 |
| Date | 19 October 1977 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
| Docket Number | K 1973 A. No. 1848 |
[1977] EWCA Civ J1019-3
In The Supreme Court of Judicature
Court of Appeal
On Appeal from the High Court of Justice Queen's Bench Division
(Mr. Justice Wien)
The Master of the Rolls
(Lord Denning)
Lord Justice Geoffrey Lane and
Lord Justice Eveleigh
MR. C. ROSS MUNRO, Q.C. and MR. D. SEROTA (instructed by Messrs. Howard, Kennedy & Rossi, Solicitors, London) appeared on behalf of the Plaintiffs (Respondents).
MR. M. STUART SMITH. Q.C. and MR. GLOSSOP (instructed by Messrs. Moeran, Oughtred & Co., Solicitors. Edgware) appeared on behalf of the Defendant (Appellant).
There is a betting shop at 9 Chigwell Place, Ealing. It is owned by a company called A.R. Dennis & Co. Ltd. The manager in the years 1972 and 1973 was a Mr. Brendan Campbell. In all betting shops, there is a rule that all betting is done by cash and not by credit. People have to pay their money down in order to make a bet. Neither the manager nor anyone else is authorised to give credit or accept cheques or take any other consideration for bets except cash. That is well known. It is operated in the Ealing betting shop as well as others.
There happened to be a good customer of that betting shop, Mr. Bruce Reynolds. A customer on "the grand scale". He used to bet in large sums amounting to £5,000 or £6,000 a week. You may be able to guess where he got that money from: He has since been convicted of armed bank robberies, and is serving a considerable sentence. In addition he had built up a very considerable balance with a building society. He had some £12,000 in the building society. No doubt from the same activities.
In February 1977 Mr. Reynolds went to the betting shop. He wanted to place a bet on a horse-race. He had no money with him, So he wanted to make it on credit. The manager Mr. Erendan Campbell refused him. So Mr. Reynolds did not make the bet. But, as luck would have it, his horse would have won. He would have succeeded if only the manager had given him credit. This, annoyed Mr. Reynolds excessively. So he hit Mr. Brendan Campbell in a public house. After that incident Mr. Bruce Reynolds went along to the betting shop and saw Mr. Brendan Campbell. He said: "I am prepared to produce a building society cheque". He pulled out his building society pass book spying that he had about £12,000 there. Mr. Brendan Campbell rung up the head office. They agreed to let him pay by means of a building society cheque. There were four orfive occasions on which a transaction of that sort went through. So here was Mr. Bruce Reynolds getting his bets through by means of building society cheques.
Then a fortnight later, on the 16th February, 1975 Mr. Bruce Reynolds went along to make a bet. He saw the assistant, a Miss McKenna. She asked him for the money. He had not got any with him. He said: "I'll go and ask the manager". He went and soon came back. He said: "It's okay". Thereupon Miss McKenna assumed that the manager had agreed to let him have the bet. She accepted one bet for a £100 and another for £200 without any money passing at all. During that day he laid four or five bets without paying any money or handing over any building society cheques. The total came to £1,000.
There it was. He lost on the bets. No money had been paid. When the accounts were made up, it was found that they were £1,000 short. It was entered as "cash received" on those bets, but it had not been received. There were attempts to cover it up in the accounts, but these did not succeed. In consequence Mr. Campbell was dismissed. £1,000 ought to have been there and it was not there. So he was dsimissed.
Now A.R. Dennis & Co. Ltd. sue him for the £1,000. They put in a statement of claim in which they allege that Mr. Brendan Campbell well knew that the granting of credit facilities was not the custom of betting shops and the acceptance of bets on credit could lead to those bets not being paid for. So they sue him for the £1,000.
The first answer made on behalf of Mr. Brendan Campbell is that, for the last 130 years, by the statute, the Gaming Act 1845, these gaming contracts were null and void. Section 18 is divided into two parts. The first limb says: "All contracts or agreements,whether by parole or in writing, by way of gaming or wagering, shall be null and void". So the contracts made by Mr. Bruce Reynolds with the betting shop were null and void. That appears on the face of the statement of claim. In paragraph 5 it says: "Notwithstanding that the said Reynolds placed bets in the total sum of £1,000 as aforesaid he has failed to pay the sum of £1,000 or any part thereof to the Plaintiffs and the Plaintiffs are unable to claim the said sum from Reynolds as it arose from wagering transactions". The plaintiffs say they are unable to recover it from Reynolds because it is a void transaction, and so they claim it against Mr. Campbell. The answer is that they simply cannot. Section 18 goes on to say as the second limb: "… no suit shall be brought or maintained in any court of law and equity for recovering any sum of money or valuable thing alleged to be won upon any wager". At one time that limb was thought to be mere procedure and to add nothing to the first limb, but the House of Lords in Hill v. William Hill (Park Lane) Ltd. (1949) Appeal Cases 530 held that that second limb was a perfectly good limb...
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