''Constantine v Imperial Hotels Ltd''

944 Year 944 (Roman numerals, CMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Arab–Byzantine wars, Arab–Byzantine War: Byzantine forces are de ...

KB 693 is an

English tort law English tort law concerns the compensation for harm to people's rights to health and safety, a clean environment, property, their economic interests, or their reputations. A "tort" is a wrong in civil, rather than criminal law, that usually requ ...

and

contract A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tr ...

case, concerning the implied duty of an innkeeper to offer accommodation to a guest unless for just cause.

Facts

Londoners' Protest Meeting Against Racial Discrimination (leaflet)̠1943̠Warwick Modern Records Centre

In 1943,

Learie Constantine Learie Nicholas Constantine, Baron Constantine, (21 September 19011 July 1971) was a West Indian cricketer, lawyer and politician who served as Trinidad and Tobago's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and became the UK's first black pee ...

, a black

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

ian professional cricketer who had played for the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

but lived in the UK, travelled to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

to play for the Dominions team against England at Lord's. He and his family had a reservation to stay at the

Imperial Hotel, London The Imperial Hotel is a hotel on the east side of Russell Square, a branch of Imperial London Hotels. Former building (1911-1966) The original building was designed by Charles Fitzroy Doll and built between 1905 and 1911. The height of the bui ...

Russell Square Russell Square is a large garden square in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden, built predominantly by the firm of James Burton. It is near the University of London's main buildings and the British Museum. Almost exactly square, to the ...

; he had been assured that he and his family would be welcomed and treated with the utmost respect. When they arrived at the hotel however, they were informed they could stay only one night on account of complaints about their presence made by white American military servicemen who were also staying at the hotel. According to a newspaper report, the receptionist said "we won't have niggers in this hotel". They were treated as outcasts, and Constantine was outraged. He claimed the hotel was in breach of contract. In Britain there was no statute that expressly outlawed racial discrimination. Constantine claimed that the hotel committed a

tort A tort is a civil wrong that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act. Tort law can be contrasted with criminal law, which deals with criminal wrongs that are punishable ...

, deriving from the common law principle that innkeepers must not refuse accommodation to guests without just cause.

Judgment

Mr Justice Birkett held that a

right Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical ...

of Constantine had been violated. It was accepted that an innkeeper had a duty to provide reasonable accommodation and rejected the contention that when the hotel offered to lodge Constantine elsewhere, it was fulfilling that duty. Furthermore, even though Constantine suffered no pecuniary damage, the violation of the right was in principle capable of justifying a remedy. He was awarded the small sum of five guineas in damages.

Significance

The ruling did not end the colour bar in some British hotels and other public establishments. Constantine later wrote ''Colour Bar'' (1954). The book dealt with racial prejudice in Britain. In 1947, Constantine was appointed as a Member of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

. The Hotel Proprietors Act 1956 extended the law against discrimination in statute to all hotels, also those offering food and drink. But it was not until after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in the USA that the Labour Party committed to a general statute against

racial discrimination Racial discrimination is any discrimination against any individual on the basis of their skin color, race or ethnic origin.Individuals can discriminate by refusing to do business with, socialize with, or share resources with people of a certain g ...

with the passage of the

Race Relations Act 1965 The Race Relations Act 1965 was the first legislation in the United Kingdom to address racial discrimination. The Act outlawed discrimination on the "grounds of colour, race, or ethnic or national origins" in public places in Great Britain. It ...

. This was further extended to all public services and employment by the

Race Relations Act 1976 The Race Relations Act 1976 was established by the Parliament of the United Kingdom to prevent discrimination on the grounds of race. The scope of the legislation included discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, nationality, ethnic and n ...

. The law is now found in the

Equality Act 2010 The Equality Act 2010 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom passed during the Brown ministry with the primary purpose of consolidating, updating and supplementing the numerous prior Acts and Regulations, that formed the basis of anti-d ...

. Cartoonist David Low drew one of his more famous cartoons attacking the hotel's treatment of Learie Constantine.

References

{{Reflist, 33em United Kingdom labour case law English tort case law English contract case law 1944 in British law 1944 in case law Hotels in London Civil rights case law

Facts

Judgment

Significance

See also

References