Cases - Dover District Council v Sherred
Record details
- Name
- Dover District Council v Sherred
- Date
- [1997]; [1997]
- Citation
- Times Law Reports 11 Feb, CA; 29 HLR 864
- Legislation
- Keywords
- Expert witness - Housing Act 1985
- Summary
-
In an appeal by the council against a notice of repair of its housing under the Housing Act 1985, the council argued that the judge had substituted his own opinion for that of the expert witnesses on the question of fitness for human habitation.
The court dismissed the appeal and set out the relationship between the expert evidence and the judge's decision, approving Patel v Mehtab.
The court
'... would prefer to stick to the general rule that issues of fact are for the judge to decide in accordance with the evidence given before him. Where expert evidence is admissible in order to enable the judge to reach a properly informed decision on a technical matter, then he cannot set his own "lay" opinion against the expert evidence that he has heard. But he is not bound to accept the evidence even of an expert witness, if there is a proper basis for rejecting it in the other evidence that he has heard, or the expert evidence is such that he does not believe it or for whatever reason is not convinced by it'.