Colin Blackburn
Encyclopedia
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
.
Colin Blackburn was born in Selkirkshire
Selkirkshire
Selkirkshire or the County of Selkirk is a registration county of Scotland. It borders Peeblesshire to the west, Midlothian to the north, Berwickshire to the north-east, Roxburghshire to the east, and Dumfriesshire to the south...
, and educated at Edinburgh Academy
Edinburgh Academy
The Edinburgh Academy is an independent school which was opened in 1824. The original building, in Henderson Row on the northern fringe of the New Town of Edinburgh, Scotland, is now part of the Senior School...
, Eton
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
and at Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
, taking high mathematical honours in 1835. His younger brother was the mathematician Hugh Blackburn
Hugh Blackburn
Bailie Hugh Blackburn was a Scottish mathematician. A lifelong friend of William Thomson , and the husband of illustrator Jemima Blackburn, he was professor of mathematics at the University of Glasgow from 1849 to 1879...
.
He was called to the bar in 1838, and went the northern circuit. His progress was at first slow, and he employed himself in reporting and editing, with T.F. Ellis, eight volumes of the highly-esteemed Ellis and Blackburn reports. His deficiency in all the more brilliant qualities of the advocate almost confined his practice to commercial cases, in which he obtained considerable employment in his circuit; but he continued to belong to the outside bar, and was so little known to the legal world that his promotion to a puisne judgeship
Puisne Justice
A Puisne Justice or Puisne Judge is the title for a regular member of a Court. This is distinguished from the head of the Court who is known as the Chief Justice or Chief Judge. The term is used almost exclusively in common law jurisdictions such as England, Australia, Kenya, Canada, Sri Lanka,...
in the court of queen's bench in 1859 was at first ascribed to Lord Campbell
John Campbell, 1st Baron Campbell
John Campbell, 1st Baron Campbell PC, KC was a British Liberal politician, lawyer, and man of letters.-Background and education:...
's partiality for his countrymen, but Lord Lyndhurst
John Copley, 1st Baron Lyndhurst
John Singleton Copley, 1st Baron Lyndhurst PC KS FRS , was a British lawyer and politician. He was three times Lord Chancellor of Great Britain.-Background and education:...
, Lord Wensleydale
James Parke, 1st Baron Wensleydale
James Parke, 1st Baron Wensleydale PC was a British barrister and judge. After an education at The King's School, Macclesfield and Trinity College, Cambridge he studied under a special pleader, before being called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1813...
and Lord Cranworth
Robert Rolfe, 1st Baron Cranworth
Robert Monsey Rolfe, 1st Baron Cranworth PC was a British lawyer and Liberal politician. He twice served as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain.-Background and education:...
came forward to defend the appointment. Blackburn himself is said to have thought that a county court judgeship was about to be offered him, which he had resolved to decline.
He soon proved himself one of the soundest lawyers on the bench, and when he was promoted to the Court of Appeal
Court of Appeal of England and Wales
The Court of Appeal of England and Wales is the second most senior court in the English legal system, with only the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom above it...
in 1876 was considered the highest authority on common law
Common law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...
. In 1876 he was made a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary
Lord of Appeal in Ordinary
Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, commonly known as Law Lords, were appointed under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 to the House of Lords of the United Kingdom in order to exercise its judicial functions, which included acting as the highest court of appeal for most domestic matters...
and a life peer
Life peer
In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the Peerage whose titles cannot be inherited. Nowadays life peerages, always of baronial rank, are created under the Life Peerages Act 1958 and entitle the holders to seats in the House of Lords, presuming they meet qualifications such as...
as Baron Blackburn, of Killearn in the County of Stirlingshire
Stirlingshire
Stirlingshire or the County of Stirling is a registration county of Scotland, based around Stirling, the former county town. It borders Perthshire to the north, Clackmannanshire and West Lothian to the east, Lanarkshire to the south, and Dunbartonshire to the south-west.Until 1975 it was a county...
. Both in this capacity and as judge of the queen's bench he delivered many judgments of the highest importance, and no decisions have been received with greater respect. In 1886 he was appointed a member of the commission charged to prepare a digest of the criminal law, but retired on account of indisposition in the following year. He died at his country residence, Doonholm in Ayrshire
Ayrshire
Ayrshire is a registration county, and former administrative county in south-west Scotland, United Kingdom, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine. The town of Troon on the coast has hosted the British Open Golf Championship twice in the...
, on the 8th of January 1896.
Though greatly respected he does not seem to have been popular; according to a well-known story he informed a colleague that he intended to retire in vacation to avoid the trouble of a retirement dinner- the colleague cheerfully replied that this was quite unnecessary since no-one would have turned up to the dinner anyway.
He was the author of a valuable work on the Law of Sales. See The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, 10 January 1896; E Manson, Builders of our Law (1904).
Cases
The following is a list of some of the cases in which Lord Blackburn gave leading judgments.- Tweddle v Atkinson (1861) 1 B&S 393, 121 ER 762, privity and consideration
- Taylor v Caldwell (1863) 3 B & S 826, frustration
- R v Nelson and Brand (1867)
- Rylands v FletcherRylands v FletcherRylands v Fletcher [1868] was a decision by the House of Lords which established a new area of English tort law. Rylands employed contractors to build a reservoir, playing no active role in its construction. When the contractors discovered a series of old coal shafts improperly filled with debris,...
[1868] UKHL 1, seminal strict liability case - Smith v Hughes (1871) LR 6 QB 597, objective interpretation of conduct in contracts and mistakes
- Harris v Nickerson (1873) LR 8 QB 286, offer and acceptance at auctions
- R v Negus (1873) LR 2 CP 34, definition of control of worker
- Jackson v Union Marine InsuranceJackson v Union Marine InsuranceJackson v Union Marine Insurance 10 Common Pleas 125 is an early English contract law case concerning the right to terminate an agreement.-Facts:...
(1874) 10 Common Pleas 125, contractual termination - Ashbury Railway Carriage and Iron Co Ltd v RicheAshbury Railway Carriage and Iron Co Ltd v RicheAshbury Railway Carriage and Iron Co Ltd v Riche LR 7 HL 653 is a UK company law case, which concerned the objects clause of a company....
(1875) LR 7 HL 653, company objects clauses - Poussard v Spiers and PondPoussard v Spiers and PondPoussard v Spiers and Pond 1 QBD 410 is an English contract law case, concerning the classification of contract terms and wrongful dismissal.-Facts:...
(1876) 1 QBD 410, contractual termination and wrongful dismissal - Brogden v Metropolitan Railway CompanyBrogden v Metropolitan Railway CompanyBrogden v Metropolitan Railway Company L.R. 2 App. Cas. 666 is an English contract law case, which established that a contract can be accepted by the conduct of the parties.-Facts:...
(1876–77) LR 2 App Cas 666 - Hughes v Metropolitan Railway Co (1877) 2 AC 439, promissory estoppel
- Orr-Ewing v Colquhoun (1877)
- Erlanger v New Sombrero Phosphate CoErlanger v New Sombrero Phosphate CoErlanger v New Sombrero Phosphate Co 3 App Cas 1218 is a landmark English contract law, restitution and UK company law case. It concerned rescission for misrepresentation and how the impossibility of counter restitution may be a bar to rescission...
(1878) 3 App Cas 1218 - Pharmaceutical Society v London and Provincial Supply Association (1880)
- Speight v GauntSpeight v GauntSpeight v Gaunt LR 9 App Cas 1 is an English trusts law case, concerning the extent of the duty of care owed by a fiduciary.-Facts:...
(1883-84) LR 9 App Cas 1 - Foakes v Beer (1884) 9 App Cas 605, part payment of debt as consideration