By 1916 more cases dealt with facts which had arisen during war-time, including enemy ships taken as prize, and maritime law problems arising from the declaration of war while a cargo was in transit to Germany, how to treat a company with alien enemy shareholders (Daimler), the legal consequences of a merchant ship being sunk by enemy action, whether a sailor who had been imprisoned in Germany because his (merchant) ship was in a German port at the outbreak of war was entitled to wages during his imprisonment (Horlick v Beal [1916] 1 AC 486], and issues of nationality and internment (Ex parte Weber [1916] 1 AC 421). ‘Normal’ issues continued to dominate, however, including disputes about tax, local government, highway maintenance, labour law and land law. More diverting subject matter included the trade mark of a cat on gin, and whether it was infringed by a ‘puss in boots’ picture on another brand of gin (Boord v Bagotts, Hutton and Co. [1916] 1 AC 382. And there was time in Jones v Jones [1916] 2 AC 481 to decide that imputations of adultery to a schoolmaster, unless connected to his calling, did not amount to slander, unless special damage was shown. This case is notable for a thorough discussion of the history of defamation at common law, and, perhaps, for the judges’ inability to understand just how seriously an imputation of adultery would be taken in the decidedly un-metropolitan North Welsh location of the dispute.

To be continued …