Latest Cases

Firearms – Prohibited weapons. The Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, held that the Firearms Act 1982, of itself, had not created any offence. It had widened the scope of the Firearms Act 1968 so as to cover imitation firearms which were readily convertible into firearms to which s 1 of the 1968 Act applied. Accordingly, in the particular circumstances, the defendant's appeal against a conviction for possessing a prohibited firearm, contrary to s 5(1)(aba) of the 1968 Act, would be dismissed. 

Practice – Striking out. The Chancery Division dismissed the defendant banks' application to strike out parts of a claim arising from the extension of a loan facility to a company that managed business parks, which had entered administration. The court allowed in part an application by the claimants to amend the claim, in that it was necessary to refine the proposed amended pleading in order to refer solely to the named individuals who had been employed by the banks at the time of the alleged conspiracy, for whom it was vicariously liable. 

Immigration – Leave to remain. The Administrative Court allowed the claimant's application for interim relief, namely, for an order that the defendant Secretary of State should grant or reinstate his indefinite leave to remain (ILR) in the United Kingdom pending the resolution of his claim for judicial review and anticipated appeal. The removal of the claimant's ILR had been an automatic consequence of the Secretary of State's erroneous decision to deport him. 

Contempt of court – Committal. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, dismissed an appeal against a finding that the appellant had been in breach of a freezing order and, therefore, in contempt of court. The judge had been entitled to reach the conclusion that he had on the evidence that had been before him and it was impossible to say that the penalty imposed (a suspended sentence of imprisonment) had been excessive. 

Elections – Local government. The Queen's Bench Division allowed the claimant's application for urgent interim relief to lift his suspension from holding office in, or representing the Labour Party. The suspension had gone on too long and there was a good arguable case that it had reached the point that the delay had amounted to unfairness, such that the balance of convenience and justice came down firmly in favour of the grant of relief. 

Local authority – Statutory powers. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, allowed a local authority's appeal against the dismissal by Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) of its application for the respondent to undergo three examinations and assessments related to his judicial review of the authority's age assessment of him, otherwise his application should be struck out or stayed. The judge had erred in distinguishing past authority on the basis that it applied to private, and not public, law proceedings. The examination and assessments sought by the authority had been reasonably necessary to have enabled it to defend the challenge to its age assessment and it had been unreasonable for the respondent to have refused to give his consent. 

European Union – Common foreign and security policy. The Court of Justice of the European Union, Fifth Chamber, dismissed the Council of the European Union's appeal against the annulment of Council Decisions to include the applicant Iranian bank on a list of persons or entities regarded as being involved in nuclear proliferation in Annex II to Council Decision 2010/413 and repealing and Implementing Regulation No 668/2010, and other Decisions, in so far as those acts concerned the applicant. 

Family proceedings – Orders in family proceedings. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, in dismissing the appellant local authority's appeal against an order designating it as the authority responsible for an eight-month-old baby, held that, given that the test for ordinary residence was one of fact and should not be made into an overly complicated exercise, there was no basis for concluding that the judge's decision was perverse. It had been reasoned and clear and, in all the circumstances, unassailable. 

Companies – Shareholders – Unfair prejudice. Sheriff Court: In an unfair prejudice petition under s 994 of the Companies Act 2006, in which the petitioner moved the court to allow the petition to be amended and thereafter to grant warrant for diligence by arrestment on the dependence of the action under s 15A of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987, the court was satisfied that the petitioner's minute of amendment should be allowed and the petition amended in terms thereof, and that it was competent in principle to grant arrestment on the dependence in the action; however the petitioner's motion for warrant to arrest on the dependence was refused as she had failed to satisfy the court that the statutory grounds for granting the order sought had been made out. 

Criminal evidence and procedure – Evidence of child witnesses – Disclosure/ inspection. High Court of Justiciary: Refusing an appeal by the Crown against a judge's decision, at a preliminary hearing, ordering disclosure by delivering copies of disc recordings of police and social work Joint Investigative Interviews (JIIs) of the complainers to the agents for the respondents, who faced charges of sexual abuse involving two younger boys, the court held that recordings of the JIIs were label productions in the case and at this stage the accused was entitled to see the labels, not as a result of the disclosure regime but in terms of the statute relative to the lists of productions: given that the labels were to be used as evidence in chief it was difficult to conceive of a situation in which the court would refuse an application to borrow them for a specified purpose (including copying), albeit perhaps subject to conditions, and the court had effectively granted that application