Latest Cases

Prisoner – Detention for public protection – Rehabilitation. Court of Session: In judicial review proceedings by a prisoner, the punishment part of whose sentence of life imprisonment expired in March 2005 and who complained he had not been given a reasonable opportunity to progress through the prison estate and demonstrate his safety for release, alleging failings by the Scottish Ministers (the second respondents to the petition) and a local authority (the first respondents), the court refused the petition as against the local authority, holding that the case against them was irrelevant as they did not owe any relevant duty to the petitioner under art 5 of European Convention on Human Rights. 

Employment – Employer – Duty of care – Reference. Sheriff Court: Rejecting a claim by a social worker employed by the defenders, a local authority, who applied for and was offered a job by another local authority—an offer that was subsequently withdrawn— that a reference the defenders gave to the other authority was not true, fair and accurate, the court held that the defenders were not in breach of their duty of care to the pursuer in giving the reference as it was legitimate for them to inform the new employer of their outstanding disciplinary investigation concerning the pursuer, and it was the fact of a Scottish Social Services Council investigation concerning her and not the terms of the reference that caused the loss of her new job. 

Employment and labour law – Part-time workers – Discrimination – Less favourable treatment. Court of Session: Allowing an appeal by the Advocate General, the court dismissed a claim by a former part-time clerk to the General Commissioners of Income Tax, who was not granted a pension on retiral and contended that, contrary to his part-time worker's rights, he received less favourable treatment than another former clerk who was granted a pension, holding that on a proper interpretation of s 3(3) of the Taxes Management Act 1970 the respondent was not entitled to pass the threshold in stage one of a Ministry of Justice policy regarding determination of the pension for a clerk to the General Commissioners, and he was not entitled to rely on the other clerk as a 'comparable full-time worker' for the purposes of the Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000. 

Action of multiplepoinding – Competing proprietorial claims to library. Sheriff Court: In an action of multiplepoinding in which the pursuer, a volunteer librarian, and the second defender, an unincorporated political association, advanced competing claims to ownership of a library, the court rejected the pursuer's claim to ownership based on the library's alleged abandonment by its former owner, an alleged voluntary transfer of ownership to her and the contention that she could rely on the doctrine of reputed ownership, and it also concluded that the second defender had failed to establish ownership, that the evidence led did not allow it to reach a definitive conclusion on the identity of the rightful owner, and that while the pursuer had failed to prove ownership, she had established a lesser right as depositary to exercise sole care, control and custody of the library. 

Solemn procedure – Sexual assault – Sheriff's charge – Concert. High Court of Justiciary: Refusing an appeal by an appellant who was 16 at the time and was convicted of a sexual assault on a young child by penetration following an incident in a dormitory at a Sea Cadets training camp in which another boy inserted his finger into the 12-year-old complainer's anus, the court rejected the contention that the sheriff had misdirected the jury when answering a question from them by focusing on causation rather than concert. 

Bankruptcy – Petition. The Bankruptcy Court granted a debtor's application for a second adjournment to the hearing of a petition for him to be adjudged bankrupt where an immediate bankruptcy order would not, on the balance of probabilities, benefit the general unsecured creditors at the present point in time, and in circumstances where a liquidation plan in Spanish proceedings could result in the debtor being able to meet all creditor claims and where it was held that the petitioners had had an ulterior object in pursuing the petition. 

European Union – Equality of treatment of men and women. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling, deciding that art 18 of Directive (EC) 2006/54 should be interpreted as meaning that, in order for the loss and damage sustained as a result of discrimination on grounds of sex to be the subject of genuine and effective compensation or reparation in a way which was dissuasive and proportionate, that article required member states which chose the financial form of compensation to introduce in their national legal systems, in accordance with detailed arrangements which they determined, measures providing for payment to the person injured of compensation which covered in full the loss and damage sustained. 

European Union – Freedom of movement. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling, deciding that art 39 of Council Directive (EC) 2005/85, read in the light of arts 19(2) and 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, should be interpreted as not precluding national legislation which did not confer suspensory effect on an appeal brought against a decision, such as the one at issue in the main proceedings, not to further examine a subsequent application for asylum. 

European Union – Jurisdiction. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling concerning the interpretation of art 19(1) of Regulation (EC) No 805/2004. The request had been made in proceedings between Imtech Marine Belgium NV, established in Belgium, and Radio Hellenic SA, established in Greece, concerning the former's application for certification, as a European Enforcement Order within the meaning of that Regulation, a judgment delivered in absentia in relation to a claim accompanied by a penalty payment and late payment interest. 

European Union – Customs and excise. In the course of proceedings between the taxpayer company and Greece concerning the refusal by the Director of the Athens Customs Office to refund the taxpayer the registration taxes paid by it following the import of passenger vehicles into Greek territory, the Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling, deciding, among other things, that art 1(3) of Directive (EC) 2008/118 should be interpreted as fulfilling the conditions for producing direct effect allowing individuals to rely on it before a national court in a dispute between them and a member state.