Latest Cases

Claim form – Service. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, dismissed an appeal against the refusal to validate service of a claim form under CPR 6.15. There had been no error in law in the judge's approach in circumstances where there had not been a good reason not to have correctly effected service on the defendant within time. 

Practice – Settlement. The Commercial Court held that the claimant company's application for summary judgment with regard to a threshold issue in its claim against the defendant solicitors' firm would be dismissed. The court held that the claim advanced by the claimant would be 'caught' by an earlier settlement agreement and the defendant was entitled to a declaration to that effect. 

Costs – Order for costs. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, held that the judge had been justified to have held that the appellant should not have his costs after 29 May 2014, which was the date on which an offer to settle lapsed, but, in the circumstances, the judge had been neither entitled nor obliged to have gone further and ordered the appellant to pay the respondents' costs thereafter. The appeal would be allowed to the extent that there would be 'no order as to costs' after 29 May. 

Education – Discrimination – Age and/or disability. Court of Session: In an appeal by a local education authority, which had refused a request to continue funding the school fees of the pursuer, who suffered from a disability (autism), for further year after he attained the age of 18, and also refused to grant him funding by way of a bursary, the court allowed the appeal in part, holding that while the sheriff was entitled to find that the local authority did discriminate against the pursuer and an award in respect of anxiety and upset should be affirmed, it was not open to the sheriff to make an award based on a finding of liability to pay the school fees for a further year. 

Minor – Custody. The Family Division held that the father's defences under arts 12 and 13 of the Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction 1980 had not been made out and the two children retained by him in the United Kingdom had to be returned to Spain where their mother resided and where they had been habitually resident. 

Public procurement – Tender process. Court of Session: Pronouncing decree of absolvitor in action in which the unsuccessful bidders in a competition for the award by the defenders of a contract for the provision of ferry services sought damages, contending that the defenders breached the duty of transparency imposed by reg 4(3) of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 in two respects, the court rejected contentions that the defenders had failed to define the subject matter of the contract with the clarity required by law and that their evaluation of the freight proposals in the bids which had been submitted had been carried out without reference to any objective criteria. 

Parent and child – Specific issue order – Relocation. Sheriff Court: In a case in which the mother of two young boys, aged 10 and 4, sought a specific issue order permitting her to relocate with them to Exeter, the court refused to make the order sought as it was not satisfied that the proposed relocation was in the children's best interests or that it was better that such an order be made than no order be made at all. 

Capital gains tax – Assessment. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, dismissed a taxpayer's appeal against a finding that there was no right to a separate preliminary hearing to determine whether, under s 29 of the Taxes Management Act 1970, the Revenue and Customs Commissioners had validly made a discovery assessment. 

Insolvency – Liquidation – Summary remedy against delinquent directors. Sheriff Court: Refusing an appeal in proceedings brought by the liquidator of a company under s 212 of the Insolvency Act 1986, seeking a summary remedy against the company's sole director, in which the sheriff found that the defender had misapplied certain sums which should have been paid to the company and ordained him to contribute to its assets a sum equal to the total of those sums by way of compensation, the court, after repelling an objection to the competency of note of the appeal, held that although procedural in nature s 212 did provide a summary remedy and that there was no requirement that the court have regard only to actual loss to the company. 

Immigration – Leave to remain – Right to family life. Court of Session: Refusing an appeal by a Pakistani national against a decision of the Upper Tribunal adhering to a decision of the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) upholding the respondent's decision to refuse his application for leave to remain in the UK as the spouse of a British citizen, the court held that the FTT was entitled to conclude that the appellant's case did not amount to a disproportionate interference with his or his wife's rights under art 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights: there were no weighty or exceptional factors which could have justified granting leave outwith the Immigration Rules on the basis of art 8 proportionality.