YL was an 84-year old woman suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, who was entitled to free accommodation provided by the Birmingham City Council under s 21 of the National Assistance Act 1948 (the 1948 Act). The council, with the power given to it by s 26 of the same Act, contracted a private health service provider …Read more

Plaintiff, a 61-year old woman afflicted with colon cancer, filed a counterclaim to her husband’s divorce petition, seeking compensation. The Trial judge had considered compensation for divorce a matter of welfare and had thus provided for a very small amount of reparation damages, taking into consideration only the plaintiff’s immediate needs and the defendant’s economic …Read more

The Petitioner, an elderly woman with diabetes, filed an action of amparo against the I.N.S.S.J.P, a public entity devoted to the provision of public health insurance to retired people. She requested the judiciary to order the Respondent to provide her 100U of human insulin, reactive tape and disposable syringes, as well as the medicine “Ampliactil” …Read more

M, the first defendant in a civil suit, sought an order by way of interlocutory application that the oral evidence of the third defendant, P, and her daughter, J,  be given by video link from Taipei, Taiwan, rather than by travelling to Samoa. P’s evidence was crucial to the determination as to who was the …Read more

The Health (Amendment) (No.2) Bill of 2004 was referred to the Supreme Court for review. Primarily the Supreme Court was asked to analyse the constitutional validity of the bill. Amendment to Section 53 of the Act imposed certain charges mostly on elderly people with limited means for in-patient treatment by public health services. Further, the …Read more

Petitioners, leaders of the Yakye Axa indigenous community of the Enxet-Lengua people, filed suit against the Republic of Paraguay alleging violations articles 4 (right to life) and 25 (right to judicial Protection) of the American Convention on Human Rights (the Convention). They further alleged that Paraguay ignored article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil …Read more

The indigenous community of Yakye Axa, a traditional society of hunter-gatherers, was resettled as part of a development program in Paraguay started in 1979. They were displaced to lands with a natural environment and resources that were different from the Yakye Axa’s traditional territory and incompatible with their traditional means of subsistence.  They also faced …Read more

The National Commission on Benefits of the National Health Treasury (CNS) provided free medical insurance for the elderly. Alejandro Cuba Plaza, a beneficiary of CNS, was diagnosed with “terminal chronic kidney failure” and treated with ongoing hemodialysis at Obrero Hospital. After 52 weeks of treatment, CNS ordered the Director of Obrero Hospital to transfer Plaza …Read more

A local authority decided that an elderly woman, G, who had lived happily in residential care accommodation since 1996, should be moved to a nursing home. G applied to get the decision quashed, but this was refused. This case concerned her appeal of the refusal to quash the local authority’s decision. When G was moved …Read more

Mrs. Porter, a 62 year old Romany gypsy, lived in a mobile home on a plot of land that she purchased in 1985. Her occupation of the site was unauthorized from the beginning. The home provided the appearance of a “permanent dwelling” but was in violation of the local Council’s planning control that did not …Read more