Latest Cases

Contract – Construction of contract. The Financial List considered issues concerning the rights attaching to the Class X note in a commercial mortgage-backed securitisation structure called 'Windermere VII', which had been arranged by Lehman Brothers International (Europe) in 2006. It rejected the claimant note holder's contention that the terms of an intercreditor agreement disclosed a mistake, which could be corrected by construction or by implication of words. It held, among other things, that there had not been an underpayment of the Class X interest amount for the January 2015 or October 2015 payment dates for loans made under the CMBS structure and no event of default had occurred as a consequence. 

Criminal law – Trial. In an appeal against an order imposed under s 4(2) of the Contempt of Court Act 1981, the case, for the first time, raised the question of how critical fair trial protections could be extended to prevent or control communications on social media. In the circumstances, the Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, revoked the s 4(2) order and ordered the various media organisations not to place any report of the criminal trial on their Facebook page(s), and, to disable the ability for users to post comments on their respective news websites on any published reports of the criminal trial. 

Sentence – Variation of sentence. The Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, held that, pursuant to s 155 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000, the sentencing judge had erred in concluding that, on review, the discount of one-third, which had been given for the defendant's guilty pleas for three counts of rape and one count of aiding and abetting rape, would be reduced to 25%. Accordingly, the sentences of 18 years' imprisonment for those offences would be quashed and reimposed with terms of 16 years' imprisonment. 

European Union – Public procurement. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling concerning the interpretation of arts 2, 44 and 48(3) of Directive (EC) 2004/18. The request had been made in proceedings between Partner Apelski Dariusz (Partner) and the Warsaw municipal cleansing authority concerning Partner's exclusion from the procedure for the award of a public contract for the comprehensive mechanical cleansing of roadways of the city of Warsaw (Poland) in the years from 2014 to 2017. 

Land registration – Title. The Chancery Division held that the claimant and the first defendant, who was his wife, were entitled to an order setting aside a transfer and a settlement and transfer of property on the grounds of mistake, where they had believed that the steps they had taken would not result in an immediate charge to tax nor a ten-year anniversary charge. The equitable rules applied to the situation. In the circumstances, it was appropriate to set aside all of the relevant transactions. 

Criminal law – Robbery. On a reference by the Attorney General, the Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, held that a sentence of four years' imprisonment for the robbery of a man in his home, had been unduly lenient. In the circumstances, the offender's sentence would be quashed and, in its place, a term of nine years' imprisonment would be imposed. 

Personal Injury: Quantum Case. Employer's liability. PSLA of £70,500 with total damages of £662,358.02. The claimant was injured when he slipped and fell on ice at work. He experienced chronic regional pain syndrome, with poor prognosis and a 25% chance of future amputation of the foot. He also developed related depression. 

Negligence – Vehicles. The Queen's Bench Division allowed a claim for damages for personal injury and consequential loss following a vehicular collision which, through the events that followed, had resulted in the claimant's leg being amputated. The defendant was liable for the entirety of the incident which had flowed directly from his negligent act in reversing into the claimant without having kept a proper look out. The damages would be reduced by 60% to reflect the claimant's contributory negligence in having left his car's ignition on and the car in neutral, when he had gone to stand behind the car to inspect the damage. 

Immigration – Leave to remain. The Administrative Court rejected the claimant Albanian national's challenges to the decision that she had not been trafficked, and to the defendant Secretary of State's decisions to certify her asylum claim on safe third-country grounds prior to a consideration of the trafficking claim and to detain her on her arrival in the United Kingdom. 

Arbitration – Award. The Commercial Court ruled on preliminary issues concerning the claimant's applications under ss 67 and 68 of the Arbitration Act 1996 to appeal/set aside an award. It held that: (i) English law governed the question of separability, such that the arbitrators had had jurisdiction to decide the issue of validity; (ii) the arbitrators had been right to have dismissed the claimant's challenge to their jurisdiction with regard to their conclusion that the assignment of the relevant contract from the first defendant to the second defendant had been valid, and that the second defendant had been a party to the arbitration; and (iii) there was no prospect of success for the claimant's application under s 68 of the Act by reference to s 68(2)(g), and it would be struck out as unarguable.