Latest Cases

Sentence – Health and safety offence. The defendant would be fined £6,500 following his conviction for an offence contrary to s 7 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, of failing to take reasonable care, as the safety officer, in respect of the arrangements for admission to the Hillsborough Stadium. The Preston Crown Court found that the offence had been at least one of the direct causes of the crush at the turnstiles outside the grounds, but not a direct cause of the crush on the terraces inside the grounds, that had resulted in the death of 96 spectators and injury to many more.

Liquidator – Members' voluntary winding up. The liquidator of the Edgware Constitutional Club Ltd (the club) applied for a declaration as to the legality of certain past and proposed distributions of the club's surplus assets to its members, on a members' voluntary winding up. The defendant Association of Conservative Clubs Ltd (ACCL), which was affiliated to the club, challenged the proposed distributions, contending that ACCL was entitled to the surplus assets. The Companies Court, in granting the liquidator's application, held, among other things, that the club's rules, together with s 107 of the Insolvency Act 1986, indicated that the liquidator was compelled to distribute any surplus in the club's assets to its members. Accordingly, the court sanctioned the past and proposed distributions to the club's members, and the payment of the proper expenses of the liquidation.

Practice – Summary judgment. The defendant company's application for summary judgment succeeded, in a claim concerning foreign exchange transactions entered into by the claimant company. The Commercial Court held that there was no real prospect that a claim that the defendant had been obliged to make a retrospective alteration to the price of certain transactions would succeed in tort, and there was no other compelling reason for a trial.

Pension – Pension scheme. The Pensions Regulator had correctly imposed financial penalties on each of the applicants in their capacity as trustees of an occupational pension scheme in relation to failures by the trustees to complete the necessary triannual valuations for the scheme, as required in accordance with the statutory duty imposed under s 224 of the Pensions Act 2004, Consequently, the Upper Tribunal (Tax Chamber), to which the applicants had referred the matter, dismissed the references.

Trade mark – Validity. The Chancery Division held that the hearing officer had made errors of principle in reaching his decision, in a case concerning the respondent's application for the word mark 'GAP 360' in respect of various services in classes 35, 36, 39 and 41. The application, in all of the classes applied for, was sufficiently similar to the applicant clothing retailer's earlier trade marks, such that there was a likelihood of confusion within the meaning of s 5(2) of the Trade Marks Act 1994.

Contract – Construction. There was a great deal to be said for the view that the words used in a purchase and assumption agreement for the appellant bank's purchase of certain assets and the assumption of certain liabilities of the respondent's former employer had included the bank's liability to the respondent. However, the Privy Council humbly advise Her Majesty that the case had to be remitted to the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal, as there had been no evidence directed towards that issue.

Employment – Equality of treatment. The Court of Appeal of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago had been entitled to find that the experience which ten comparators had gained before the appellant had been assured that temporary appointment to a position would not accelerate them to a permanent position had been sufficient to justify their appointment to the office on a permanent basis before the appellant. Accordingly, the Privy Council dismissed the appellant's appeal.

Prosecution – Director of Public Prosecutions. The defendant Director of Public Prosecution's decision not to prosecute S for manslaughter for the death of the deceased on the basis that the evidential sufficiency test in the Code for Crown Prosecutors was not met had not been wrong in law. Accordingly, the Divisional Court dismissed the claimant mother of the deceased's application for judicial review of the decision not to prosecute.

Coroner – Inquest. The 1966 coroner's inquisition into the death of a 14-year-old girl, finding that S had murdered her, would be quashed and a fresh inquest ordered, as it was necessary and desirable in the interests of justice. The Divisional Court found that fresh evidence might reasonably lead to the conclusion that the substantial truth about how the deceased had met her death had not been revealed and the public interest had not been significantly vitiated by the lapse of 53 years.

Family proceedings – Orders in family proceedings. A reporting restrictions order made by a judge in regard to information already in the public domain was wrong and the wrong arose from procedural irregularities. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, accordingly allowed the journalists' appeal against the order and made a fresh reporting restriction order in accordance with the terms of a draft.