Latest Cases

Practice – Chancery Division. The Chancery Division considered the position of a judge asked to recuse himself in a case against the defendant airline in a situation where it was pointed out by the defendant's representative that for the judge to continue would mean a perception of bias. 

Immigration – Deportation – Exclusion of right of appeal. Court of Session: Refusing a judicial review petition in which the petitioner sought reduction of the Home Secretary's certification excluding a right of appeal and her decision to refuse to revoke a deportation order relating to him, the court held that although the respondent had failed to ask herself whether or not, notwithstanding that the statutory criteria were met, she should exercise her discretion by allowing an appeal to be brought, the petitioner's case was such that it would have been inevitable that, had the respondent properly addressed the discretion, it would have exercised against him. 

Insurance – Contract of insurance. The Commercial Court refused an application to aggregate claims being brought in the Chancery Division on the basis of the application of cl 2.5 of the Minimum Terms and Conditions of Professional Indemnity Insurance for Solicitors and Registered European Lawyers in England and Wales, to the facts of the case 

Prisoner – Rehabilitation – Extended sentence. Court of Session: Refusing an appeal by a prisoner who was serving an extended sentence and who contended that he had not been given certain courses in prison which the Parole Board for Scotland had recommended and that his Convention rights had been breached, the court held that an extended sentence was a determinate sentence and the implied ancillary duty under art 5(1) of the Human Rights Convention to provide a reasonable opportunity to certain prisoners to work towards rehabilitation to facilitate release was confined to cases involving indeterminate sentences. 

Succession law – Lifetime gift. Court of Session: Granting decree of absolvitor in an action in which a grandson sought declarator that his grandmother had gifted him her house and that her executrix nominate was obliged to convey it to him, the court held that a document signed by deceased did not constitute a binding promise, enforceable against the defender as her executrix, to convey the house to him by way of gift. 

Extradition – Defective warrant – Conviction in absence – Right to trial within reasonable time. Sheriff Court: In a case in which the Spanish authorities sought the respondent's extradition to serve a 4-year prison sentence for two serious assaults, the court rejected contentions that the European Arrest Warrant as presented was formally defective, that the respondent was convicted in his absence, and that his return to Spain would not be compatible with his right to a trial within a reasonable time, and it ordered his return to Spain to serve his sentence there. 

Bank – Bank loan. The Chancery Division allowed the claimants' application and made a declaration to the effect that borrowers in a property loan were not liable to pay to the defendant bank any sum in respect of an internal swap. On the true construction of the loan agreement between the parties, the internal swap did not qualify as a 'funding transaction', for which, under the agreement, the borrowers were to indemnify the bank. 

Practice – Pre-trial or post-judgment relief. The Commercial Court declined to order security for costs on the basis that the evidence had shown that the requirements of CPR25.13(2)(c) had not been met. 

Criminal law – Trial. The defendant appealed against his conviction, in his absence, of causing death by dangerous driving on the basis that the he had been unfit to be tried and the trial should not have proceeded in his absence. The Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, in dismissing the appeal, held that the defendant had not been unfit and, as he had decided voluntarily to absent himself from a trial, the judge had been right to continue. There had been no procedural unfairness or irregularity. 

Financial services – Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The present was the first case in which, in addition to seeking an injunction under s 381 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, the claimant Financial Conduct Authority invited the court to impose a penalty for market abuse under s 129 of the Act. The Chancery Division gave guidance on the relevant statutory provisions, and granted injunctions and penalties against the defendants.