Latest Cases

Environment – Waste. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, allowed the claimant quarry operator's appeal against a decision of the Secretary of State's planning inspector that had resulted in the refusal of a standard rules environmental permit in relation to the restoration of a quarry site where the claimant had wished to use inert waste as the backfill material. The backfill operation ought properly to have been classified as a recovery operation within para R10 of Annex II to Parliament and Council Directive (EC) 2008/98 and the inspector's decision was quashed. 

European Union – Family proceedings. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling, deciding that art 23(a) of the Council Regulation (EC) No 2201/2003 should be interpreted as meaning that, in the absence of a manifest breach, having regard to the best interests of the child, of a rule of law regarded as essential in the legal order of a member state or of a right recognised as being fundamental within that legal order, that provision did not allow a court of that member state which considered that it had jurisdiction to rule on the custody of a child to refuse to recognise a judgment of a court of another member state which had ruled on the custody of that child. 

Company – Administrator. The Chancery Division ruled that an individual, as the holder of a properly executed and authorised qualifying floating charge, had had power to appoint administrators and that the appointments, and all ensuing acts, had been valid. A debenture, amounting to the qualifying floating charge, had both been signed, although not then dated, when one of the two signatories had still been a director of the company and, notwithstanding that it had been given a later date, s 44 of the Companies Act 2006, requiring 'two authorised signatories', had been complied with. The later delivery of the loan agreement and debenture as a deed did not require any form of execution but merely required board authority, which had been evidenced from the minutes of a board meeting. 

European Union – Freedom of movement. The Court of Justice of the European Union made a preliminary ruling concerning the interpretation of art 21 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The request had been made in proceedings between the Swedish Tax Board and Ms Hirvonen concerning the refusal by the Tax Board to grant her tax advantages on her income tax for 2005. 

European Union – Copyright. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling concerning the interpretation of art 5(2)(a) and (b) of Directive (EC) 2001/29. The request had been made in proceedings between Hewlett-Packard Belgium SPRL (Hewlett-Packard) and Reprobel SCRL (Reprobel) concerning the recovery by Reprobel from Hewlett-Packard of sums corresponding to the fair compensation owed under exceptions to the reproduction right. 

Practice – Pre-trial or post-judgment relief. The Queen's Bench Division held that there had been non-compliance with a court order both in the past and continuing into the present and that as a result of that non-compliance the defendant would be committed for contempt of court despite residing in a foreign jurisdiction. 

Deed – Trust deed. The Chancery Division set aside a deed purporting to place property into trust for the first respondent's wife, with the result that the claimant loan company was not able to commence possession proceedings against the first respondent. The court made an order restoring the position to what it would have been if the deed had not been made. 

European Union – Copyright. The Court of Justice of the European Union made a preliminary ruling concerning the interpretation of art 3(1) of Directive (EC) 2001/29. That application had been presented in proceedings between SBS Belgium NV and the Belgian society for authors, composers and editors, regarding the obligation to pay a fair amount for the transmission of programmes via the technique of direct injection. 

Building contract – Extension of time. The Technology and Construction Court considered claims arising out of a venture to lay oil pipelines in the Shetland Islands. The court made rulings as to the various heads of liability. 

Sentence – Appeal. The Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, held, on an appeal referred to it by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, that a defendant was entitled to a reduction of three months in his sentence of 33 months' imprisonment for offences of dishonesty on the basis of fresh evidence that he had provided evidence which had led to the conviction of a defendant in an unrelated attempted rape case.