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James v Eastleigh BC [1990] IRLR 288

By Oxbridge Law TeamUpdated 07/01/2024 05:36

Judgement for the case James v Eastleigh BC

  • James was charged for entrance to a local pool, whereas his wife of the same age was not, on the grounds that he hadn’t reached the pensionable age (65 for men) whereas she had (60 for women).

  • HL held that this was direct discrimination under s.29 SDA 1975 (discrimination in supply of services / facilities, etc.).

    • Since section 1(1)(a ) was concerned to promote equality of treatment of men and women, the adoption of a gender-based criterion for that purpose was unlawful.

Lord Goff

  • The words ‘on the ground of sex’ does not mean that to find discrimination, the reason for the action/decision under scrutiny needed to be motivated or reasoned by a discriminatory reason or animus towards women.

  • A benign motive is irrelevant. An objective test is used, as implied by s.1(1)(a) SDA 1975:

Would the plaintiff, a man of 61, have received the same treatment as his wife but for his sex?

  • Answer is obviously yes. This is a ‘but for’ (but which Goff says should not be used for indirect discrimination cases).

Lord Griffiths (dissenting)

  • He understood s.1(1)(a) SDA 1975 as meaning that motive was necessary to find discrimination.

  • Consequently he claimed that the motive was to help those likely to be without earned income

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