Drugs “For the Services of the Crown”
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1965.tb01078.x |
| Published date | 01 May 1965 |
| Date | 01 May 1965 |
MAY
1966
NOTES
OF
CASES
355
This highly particularised approach to the implication of natural
justice can, however, be of little help
in
other cases.
It
would, for
instance, be
a
grave disservice to justice
if,
by linking the implica-
tion
of
natural justice to the existence
of
an appeal, it is ever to be
supposed that the court intended to suggest that without an appeal
the case for implying natural justice was weakened. The same
is
true in the case
of
exclusion of the implication on the ground of
inconsistency with the rules. The Post Office Workers’ Union has
virtually
no
special national rules governing disciplinary procedure
but it is not to be supposed that
a
union which has expressly
provided for notice
or
a
hearing below the standard required of
natural justice has thereby excluded the implication of the higher
standard
on
grounds of inconsistency. The court was deliberately
putting the matter at its lowest because that was all that was
necessary
on
the facts.
It
is submitted that even in the absence of
a
closed shop the
award
of
an interim injunction to restore the membership rights
of
active trade unionists was entirely justified. After the summary
dismissal in
Stratford
v.
Lindley
lo
of the somewhat intangible, but
nonetheless real, damage the union would suffer by being prevented
from immediately continuing to prosecute its dispute in that case
it
is most welcome to observe the full and real appreciation of the
union’s difficulties made by Ungoed-Thomas
J.
Unions have much
to
learn from cases such as this and it is to be hoped that the sympa-
thetic attitude of the court displayed here will encourage them to
apply themselves to the task.
R.
W.
RIDEOUT.
DRUGS
“
FOR
THE
SERVICES
OF
THE
CROWN
”
SOME
years ago, a considerable trade grew up in importing drugs
(from Italy, especially) and selling them to Hospital Management
Committees at prices well below those current in this country. The
drugs mainly concerned were covered by patents in this couptry,
but were made in countries which do not grant patents for pharma-
ceutical materials. Since successful patented drugs, as made by
established manufacturers, carry
a
heavy loading of research,
development and promotion costs, the saving to the hospitals was
large. After
a
period of uncertainty, both commercially and in
relation
to
patent law, the Ministry of Health
(on
whose behalf
this country’s hospitals are run) acted to regularise the situation,
stopping such purchases but itself inviting tenders for four drugs on
what were substantially the standard terms of Government provision
contracts
:
that is, imposing the customary term requiring the
supplier to disregard all patent rights-so leaving any patentee
concerned with a statutory claim for compensation against the
16
[1964]
3
All
E.R.
102.
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