Latest Cases

Civil procedure – Decree in foro – Reduction of decree. Court of Session: Dismissing an action in which the pursuer, who sought reduction of two sheriff court decrees his ex-wife held against him, alleged that his ex-wife made a false statement in minute proceedings in the sheriff court and would never have obtained decree against him if the sheriff had known of the misrepresentation, the court concluded that since all that was argued before the sheriff was whether the minute was competent and the sheriff found it to be incompetent, whether the wife was dishonest was irrelevant because that had never been investigated and could having nothing to do with competency. 

Personal Injury: Quantum Case. Road traffic accident. PSLA of £4,300 with total damages of £5,151 awarded. The claimant suffered whiplash, soft tissue injuries to the neck, shoulder, lower back and left knee, plus travel anxiety and headaches. The medical expert expected a full recovery of all accident-related symptoms by 13–15 months post accident. 

Patent – Practice. The Intellectual Property Enterprise Court ruled on a number of applications made in respect of a claim concerning a patent for a snap-in insert which was used in display panels for shops. Among other things, it held that the English courts had jurisdiction over the dispute; granted the claimants' application for an order, under CPR 6.15(1) and (2) that good service was deemed to have been achieved by delivery to the defendants of a copy of an unsigned claim form; and dismissed a claim against one of the defendants where there were no arguable pleaded grounds on which the claimants could allege that that defendants had infringed the patent. 

Trade mark – Licence. The Chancery Division granted an order for an expedited trial of a dispute concerning intellectual property rights in industrial machines and parts and an exclusive licence in respect of the assembly and sale of whole machines. However, it held that it was not appropriate to grant the defendant company, which claimed to have the exclusive licence, interim injunctive relief against the claimant where the damage to the claimant if an injunction was granted was far more credible and far more likely to be uncompensatable in money terms than any possible damage to the defendant if an injunction was not granted. 

Adoption – Order. The Family Division, on an application for an adoption order in respect of a three-year-old child by a couple with whom she had been with since she was about eight months old, held that adoption was not only in the child's best interests, but that it was the only possible outcome that met her needs and that was capable of promoting her welfare throughout her life. The mother's consent to the making of an adoption order would be dispensed with, on the statutory ground that the welfare of the child required the order to be made. 

Divorce – Financial provision. The Family Division held in the wife's case for financial remedy that an award of £8.8m was fair having regard to all the relevant factors. In so deciding, it refused to give effect to the wife's submission that she was in fact entitled to an award of £29m. 

Personal Injury: Personal Injury: Quantum Case. Road traffic accident. PSLA and total damages of £5,500. 

Family proceedings – Orders in family proceedings. The Family Division made rulings concerning twins born to the applicant, X, who was in a same-sex relationship with the first respondent, Y. Owing to IVF treatment, X was the biological mother, and Y the gestational mother, of the twins. Owing to an error on the part of the clinic that had provided the treatment, X was not registered as the parent. The court held that an order would be made that X was the parent of the twins. 

Immigration – Detention. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, dismissed the claimant Somali national's appeal against the dismissal of his claim for judicial review, seeking a declaration and damages in the tort of false imprisonment and for breach of art 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights on the basis that he had been unlawfully detained by the defendant Secretary of State. Among things, it held that each of the conclusions reached by the deputy judge that had underpinned his conclusion that the period of the claimant's detention had been reasonable in all the circumstances had been material conclusions he had been fully entitled to have reached on the evidence available to him. 

Practice – Family proceedings. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, allowed a mother's appeal against orders made by a judge in connection with a local authority's appeal, including that the mother would give oral evidence at the appeal hearing. It held that the process adopted by the judge on the authority's appeal to him had not been appropriate or fair to the mother, even though he had embarked upon it with the best of intentions.