After the High Court, where next with the Charter?
High Court ruling vindicates Society |
The unprecedented legal wrangling over the proposed new Charter is set to continue and looks likely to be unresolved before the first meeting of the new Royal Pharmaceutical Society Council next month.
Last Friday, the Society won a summary dismissal of the High Court case
brought by representatives of the Save Our Society campaign. Mr Justice
Park ruled that the Society behaved lawfully when it petitioned the Queen
for a new Charter (PJ, 13 December 2003, p792). A report of the court
proceedings is on p665.
The SOS campaign immediately announced that it planned to lodge an appeal
against the ruling. At the same time, it
revealed that a letter had been sent to the Privy Council asking it to
keep the Charter decision on hold. The letter was written by new Council
member Graham Phillips on behalf of 13 of the 24 members of the Council,
including all 10 SOS members, plus Gerald Alexander, Martin Astbury and
Hemant Patel. Mr Phillips said he will be recommending at the June Council
meeting that the Privy Council returns the Charter. The Privy Council
said earlier this year that it would put the charter decision on hold
until the outcome of the legal action.
One of the four SOS supporters who launched the High Court action against
the Society and 16 Council members, Mark Koziol, denied the decision
to go to appeal was an attempt to “buy time” before June’s
Council meeting. He told The Journal on 24 May: “Of course this
is not an attempt at
creating a delay. The main reason we have
decided to appeal is that we cannot let this judgment stand. This campaign
has never been about personal gain — it’s about
reclaiming our professional body.”
Mr Phillips added: “Until we meet with our legal team we do not
know the way we will be playing it. The ruling was clearly
disappointing.”
And Michael Williams, another SOS supporter who went to the High Court
last week, added: “We do not accept this ruling and we have spoken
to many members who feel that if this is left unchallenged then it will
leave the individual members of our Society in a truly disadvantageous
situation.”
In a statement after the High Court case the President of the Society
Gill Hawksworth welcomed the ruling. She said: “The judge’s
decision could not be clearer. He has ruled that the Council acted entirely
properly in the way that it has taken forward the petition for a new
Charter.
“While it is gratifying that my colleagues and I have been so thoroughly
vindicated, it saddens me that we have had to spend time, energy and
money on defending this action. I want us all to put this unnecessary
litigation behind us and pull together in the interests of the membership.”
Lawyers representing the SOS campaign were instructed to appeal immediately
after the High Court ruling last Friday. Although the campaigners have
14 days to appeal, the Appeal Court had no record that the appeal had
been lodged as The Journal went to press.
High Court judge Mr Justice Park refused permission for appeal but the
claimants do have the right to appeal direct to the Court of Appeal against
the judgment.
A spokeswoman for the Privy Council said: “As legal proceedings
are on-going it would be inappropriate to comment any
further at this point.” |
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Pharmaceutical Journal
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