Words To Be Given Their Ordinary Meaning

The Court of Appeal confirmed that, where statute does not define a term, it should be given its ordinary meaning.

In the case of Beverly Owens v Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council (2011) an individual was employed as a special needs teacher and counsellor. Although she had a contract of employment describing her as a teacher, her employer determined that she was not in fact a teacher. This meant that she was no longer able to participate in the Teachers Pension Scheme and instead was placed in the less generous Local Government Pension Scheme. The initial High Court decision had agreed with her employer that she was in fact not a teacher but someone who provided services ancillary to teaching i.e. putting children in position where they could reenter education. The Court of Appeal took the view that, as there was no definition of "teacher" in the Teachers Pension Scheme the parties had to look at dictionary definitions. In this particular case the dictionary