Latest Cases

Housing – Local authority. The Administrative Court dismissed the claimant severely autistic children's application for judicial review of the defendant local authority's failure to afford them a transfer to other accommodation was unlawful, alleging that their present accommodation was unsafe for them. There was no doubt that the system in operation to deal with accommodation to meet needs complied with the indirect application of s 27 of the Children Act 1989 and its application to each claimant was lawful. 

Legal aid – Legal fees. The Queen's Bench Division held that the claimant was entitled to recover payment on account made to the defendant solicitors firm in accordance with Legal Services Commission v Loomba and s 3(1) of the Access to Justice Act 1999. 

Patent – Infringement. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, allowed an appeal against the quantification of an account of profits following an earlier finding that the defendant had infringed the claimants' patent for a snap-in insert that attached to shop display panels. The judge had erred in his approach to apportionment of the overall profit made by the defendant and had further erred in his assessment of the deduction of general overheads. 

Insolvency – Trust deed for creditors. Court of Session: In an action in which the issue was whether or not the trust comprised in a trust deed for creditors granted by the second pursuer came to an end on the trustee making what he described as a 'first and final' distribution of 22.41 pence in the pound to creditors, the court held that the meaning in cl (11) of the words 'the final distribution of my Estate . . . by my Trustee in accordance with this Trust Deed' to be preferred as being more consistent with business common sense was the meaning the pursuers contended for, and accordingly when the trustee made a payment of what he deemed to be a final dividend on 5 November 2010 the trust terminated at that time. 

Value added tax – Supply of goods and services. The Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) allowed the appeal by the Revenue and Customs Commissioners against a decision of the First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) to the effect that Vodafone Group Services Ltd could amend a previous claim for repayment of overpaid output tax, in respect of which an appeal was pending, so that it encompassed subsequent claims on different grounds, limited to the same amount as the previous claim. The tribunal held that, in the present case, the later claims had not been subsumed within the previous claim, as claimed by Vodafone. 

Immigration – Judicial review – Application for permission. Court of Session: In one of the first applications for permission to proceed with a petition for judicial review under the new Rules in Chapter 58 of the Rules of the Court of Session, in which a Nigerian citizen challenged the Home Secretary's decision to curtail his leave to remain for breach of one of its conditions, the court made observations on the test for permission and held that the petitioner had demonstrated a case with a real prospect of success and granted permission. 

Creditor – Partnership. The Chancery Division dismissed appeals made by Z against orders made by a district judge in the course of his attempts to challenge an individual voluntary agreement made in relation to K, against whom he had commenced proceedings. The district judge had not erred in her findings or proceeded on an incorrect basis. 

Prison – Prison conditions. The Administrative Court allowed the claimant indeterminate sentence prisoner's application for judicial review. In having a system in which the review date for consideration of the transfer of indeterminate sentence prisoners to open conditions and the actual transfers had been so delayed, the defendant Parole Board had been in breach of the common law duty and, as that systemic failure had directly affected the claimant, also in breach of his ancillary right under art 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights. 

Shipping – Bill of lading. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, in dismissing the appeal, held that any case, in which a bill of lading was issued in 2008 incorporating the Hague Rules as enacted in the country of shipment and in which the country of shipment had (as in the present case) enacted the Hague-Visby Rules, should be regarded as a case which was subject to the Hague-Visby Rules, rather than the (old) Hague Rules. 

Mental health – Court of Protection. The Court of Protection in response to an application by a NHS Trust held that a patient following an assault by her violent partner lacked capacity to make decisions under ss 1-3 of the Mental Health Act 2005, and it was lawful and in her best interests to undergo termination of her pregnancy by surgical means and in the course of that process to undergo general anaesthetic and ancillary treatment.