Latest Cases

Family proceedings – Orders in family proceedings. The proceedings concerned an appeal by the grandparents of four children against a full care order made in respect of each of the children and the decision to authorise the local authority to place all four of them for adoption. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, in dismissing the appeal, held that none of the grounds of the appeal had sufficient substance to cause concern as to the essential validity of the process undertaken by the judge and the substance of his judgment. 

Contract – Construction. The claimant, Lehman Brothers, brought a claim for the balance of a sum which it contended was due from the defendant arising out of early termination of four option transactions governed by an International Swaps and Derivatives Association agreement, together with interest. The defendant had paid the claimant €1,849,968.99. The Commercial Court held, among other things, that the defendant had breached its contractual obligation to use the agreed market quotation formula to determine the sum due. Using that formula, a payment of €2,963,081.18 should have been made. 

Criminal law – Appeal. The first and second defendants were convicted of conspiracy to supply amphetamine, and the third defendant was convicted of doing an act tending and intended to pervert the course of justice. The Criminal Cases Review Commission referred the case on the basis of fresh evidence as to the principal witness for the prosecution. The Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, in dismissing the appeal, held that the addition to the opprobrium of the witness of one post-trial allegation would not have been of the significance necessary to cast doubt upon the safety of the defendants' convictions. 

Unfair Dismissal – Right not to be unfairly dismissed. The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) allowed the employee's appeal against a decision of the employment tribunal that the employer's letter terminating the employee's employment on the basis that he had reached retirement age had complied with the relevant provisions of the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006, SI 2006/2408. The EAT decided that the letter had not complied with those provisions and that the form for request of extension of employment beyond retirement age which had accompanied that letter had also failed to comply with those provisions. 

Practice – Pre-trial or post-judgment relief. The claimant was a corporate entity which provided services to the United Kingdom and other governments. The defendant was a former employee of the claimant and the author of at least two blogs in which confidential information was published. The claimant sought an order requiring the respondent solicitors for the defendant, to disclose his name. The Queen's Bench Division dismissed the application and held that the disclosure of the client's name would have the practical effect of disclosing confidential communications between lawyer and client. 

Employment tribunal – Procedure. In dismissing an employee's appeal, the Court of Appeal, Civil Division, confirmed that the practice of employment tribunals to consult between themselves after the hearing and for the decision to be written by the employment judge alone, without a draft being provided to the lay members, if properly followed, was a legitimate procedure which satisfied the requirement that the decision and reasons should record the conclusions of all members of the tribunal. 

Medical practitioner – Professional conduct committee. The Fitness to Practise Panel (the panel) of the respondent General Medical Council found that the appellant doctor's fitness to practise was impaired and imposed a sanction of erasure from the medical register. The appellant appealed on the ground that the sanction was disproportionate. The Administrative Court, in dismissing the appeal, held that the panel's determination was unimpeachable. It had come to a conclusion that it had been entitled to on the evidence before it and had provided adequate reasoning for the task which it had had to discharge. 

European Union – Employment. The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that art 7(1) of Directive (EC) 2003/88 of the European Parliament and of the Council (concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time) should be interpreted as precluding national legislation and practice under which a worker whose remuneration consisted of a basic salary and commission, the amount of which was fixed by reference to the contracts entered into by the employer as a result of sales achieved by that worker, was entitled, in respect of his paid annual leave, to remuneration composed exclusively of his basic salary. 

Riot – Damage. In the course of the 2011 London Riots, a gang of youths broke into a warehouse, looted it and burned it down with petrol bombs. The judge held that the gang were 'persons riotously and tumultuously assembled' so that the defendant Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime was liable to compensate anyone who had sustained losses, but that the defendant's liability did not extend to consequential loss. The parties appealed. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division held that the judge had been correct in his findings on liability. However, s 2(1) of the Riot (Damages) Act 1886 included a right to compensation for consequential loss. 

Marriage – Foreign marriage. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, allowed a wife's appeal against a declaration that her marriage by way of Nikah in Pakistan had been valid. On the new evidence presented, the decree absolute that had purported to end her previous marriage had been void as issued less than six weeks after the decree nisi. In any event, the amended date of decree absolute meant that the marriage had not been dissolved for the three month period required by Sharia law before a woman could re-marry. The matter would be remitted to consider whether the fact that her previous marriage had been a nullity due to the husband's bigamy had any impact upon the validity of the parties' marriage.