Latest Cases

Director – Duty. The Chancery Division held that the defendant, A, had acted in breach of fiduciary duty in causing the claimant companies to grant security over various properties held by them to support a facility obtained by another company owned by a discretionary trust of which A was a beneficiary. On the facts, there was no limitation issue in relation to the breaches. 

European Union – Trade marks. The General Court of the European Union dismissed the action brought by Advance Magazine Publishers ,Inc., (Advance) against the decision of the Fourth Board of Appeal of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) relating to opposition proceedings between Selecciones Americanas, SA and Advance regarding the application by the latter for registration of the word sign 'VOGUE CAFE' as a Community trade mark. 

Extradition – Extradition order. The Administrative Court dismissed the appellant's appeal against orders for his extradition to Germany to face trial for two offences of fraud. The evidence had shown that the prosecutor had decided that he was to be charged and tried, and that the sole reason for the lack of any formal decision to charge and try was that the appellant was not in Germany. 

Immigration – Deportation. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, dismissed the Secretary of State's appeal against a decision by the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber), and upheld by the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber), that the respondent, despite his conviction for serious offences, could not be deported to Zambia. Both tribunals had correctly applied paras 398 to 399A of the Immigration Rules, had taken account of the respondent's rights under the European Convention on Human Rights through the lens of the Immigration Rules, and had been entitled to conclude that exceptional circumstances existed which outweighed the public interest in deportation. 

Electricity – Supply. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, dismissed the claimant companies appeal against the dismissal of their judicial review challenge against the premature closure, subject to certain grace periods, of a statutory scheme that supported the generation of electricity from renewable sources. The claimants failed on all of its submissions regarding breach of a legitimate expectation, violation of pre-legislative assurances and unfairness due to retrospectivity and that the decision had been ultra vires. 

Damages – Tort. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, allowed an appeal against a judge's refusal to grant a 10% uplift on an award of damages for pain, suffering and loss of amenity in the context of a clinical negligence claim. There was no discretion for a trial judge to introduce exceptions to the uplift as otherwise some legally aided claimants would not receive the uplift while others would, and there would be potentially complete uncertainty and inconsistency in awards of the courts. 

Family proceedings – Orders in family proceedings. The Family Division made rulings concerning, among other things, the mother's application to increase periodical payments for her son and the father's cross-application to strike out a number of claims made by the mother relating to providing for their son, C, who was seven years old. The court held that, with the exception of points relating to the trustee of and upkeep of the house where the mother lived, the issues in the application were not justiciable and would be dismissed. 

Criminal law – Immigration offences. The Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, dismissed appeals by the defendant foreign nationals, which had been referred to it by the Criminal Cases Review Commission on the basis that there had been clear injustice in that both defendants could have relied on the statutory defences of which they had been unaware and not appropriately advised. The court held that, on the evidence, it could not conclude that the relevant defence had not been considered by those then representing the defendants, and, even if the defence had been launched, it could not be concluded that it would have been successful in respect of one defendant, and it could not conclude that that would negate an unequivocal guilty plea by the other defendant. 

European Union – Rules on competition. The General Court of the European Union dismissed the action brought by EGL, Inc., and other companies, active in the sector of international air freight forwarding services, for annulment of Commission Decision C(2012) 1959 final of 28 March 2012 relating to a proceeding under art 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and art 53 of the European Economic Area Agreement (Case COMP/39462 — Freight forwarding), in so far as it concerned the applicants or, in the alternative, for variation of the fines imposed on them in that decision. 

Practice – Transfer of proceedings. The Companies Court granted the defendant Royal Bank of Scotland's application for an order to transfer proceedings brought by the claimant, Property Alliance Group Ltd, to the Financial List, notwithstanding that the claim was for less than £50m and that the transfer would result in a change of judge. It held that the allegations concerning, among other things, the alleged mis-selling of four interest rate swaps and, the alleged improper conduct of RBS in relation to the fixing of LIBOR rates involved important issues of general market significance and that a transfer into the Financial List satisfied the requirements of CPR 30.5, Practice Direction 63AA and the overriding objective. The court considered the applicable principles in deciding whether to accede to a contested application to transfer existing proceedings into the Financial List, where those proceedings satisfied the definition of 'Financial List claim' in CPR 63A.1(2).