“If we never do anything which has not been done before, we shall never get anywhere. The law will stand still whilst the rest of the world goes on: and that will be bad for both”.
So said Lord Denning in Packer v Packer, probably the greatest judge of England and Wales in the twentieth century. And if an example is needed about doing something that has never been done before, look no further than the judgment of the Supreme Court in Bott and Co v Ryanair, in which the majority (Lords Briggs and Burrows, and Lady Arden) outnumbered the minority (Lord Leggatt and Lady Rose) in holding that Bott could assert a solicitors’ equitable lien over compensation payable by the Irish airline, Ryanair, to the firm’s clients where flights had been delayed or cancelled.
