In Lumley Brooke LJ at [54] Brooke LJ restated the Mohammed principle and it’s application:
“...in his use of the expression “the merits of the case” Latham J must be taken to have meant “the merits of the applicant's case that the council's original decision was flawed”, and I recommend that in any restatement of his guidelines this amendment should be made. In Mrs Mohammed's case he was satisfied that the council's original decision was flawed because it did not comply with its duty, as explained by Simon Brown J in ex p Winchester, to give her an opportunity to explain matters which it was minded to regard as weighing substantially against her. In Mr Lumley's case the council's original decision was even more seriously flawed because it did not pursue proactively any inquiries of its own into his medical condition after being told by Mr Lumley's GP that he suffered from a severe depressive reaction, and did not give him the opportunity of responding to such adverse medical evidence as it did obtain, in the form of Dr Sohail's tick on the tick-box form.”