Latest Cases

Costs – Order for costs. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, ruled on an appeal and applications concerning the appropriate orders for costs following the respondent Secretary of State's withdrawal of her certification of human rights claims, in the light of the decision of the Supreme Court in EM (Eritrea) v Secretary of State for the Home Department ([2014] 2 All ER 192). 

Value added tax – Exemptions. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, in allowing the appellant taxpayers' appeal, held that there was no hard and fast rule or presumption about inter-player participation in a 'game' for the purposes of the Gaming Act 1968, and the First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) had made no error of law in having concluded that 'Spot the Ball' was a 'game of chance'. 

Medical practitioner – Appeal against determination of disciplinary committee. The Administrative Court dismissed the appellant registered nurse's appeal against the decision of the respondent Conduct and Competence Committee (the CCC) of the Nursing and Midwifery Council, finding her fitness to practise impaired and striking her name off the register. Having reached the findings it had, the CCC's conclusions as to impairment and sanction had been fully and carefully considered, and it had been entitled to reach the conclusion it had. 

Pension scheme – Changes to administration of scheme. Court of Session: In a special case in which a company and the trustees of the company pension scheme, who had been unable to discover sufficient evidence to demonstrate that in 1992 decisions in respect of changes to escalation of benefits and equalisation of pension date were made and recorded in accordance with the requirements of a clause making provision for amendment of the rules of the scheme, invited the court to decide whether it could be inferred that in 1992 the trustees exercised powers under another clause to apply special terms, both in respect of escalation and equalisation, that the company consented thereto and that intimation thereof was made to members in accordance with that clause, the court answered the question in relation to escalation in the affirmative (with a reservation) and the question in relation to equalisation in the negative (with an exception). 

Medical practitioner – Disciplinary proceedings. The Administrative Court, in dismissing the claimant British Medical Association's application for judicial review, held that para 6(b) of the Schedule to the General Medical Council (Legal Assessor and Legally Qualified Persons) Rules Order of Council 2015, SI 2015/1958, which provided that a legally qualified tribunal chair did not need to advise other panel members on any question of law in the presence of the parties after deliberations had begun, was neither contrary to the requirements of art 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights or common law fairness, nor otherwise unlawful. 

Iqbal v Procurator Fiscal, Dumfries 

Practice – Pre-trial or post-judgment relief. The Queen's Bench Division allowed an appeal from a decision of a recorder, refusing to award a fixed-advocacy fee on the basis that the case had settled. It had not strained the language of CPR 45.29C to conclude that the case was one where the claim had been 'disposed of at trial', albeit by way of settlement rather than judgment. 

Contract – Breach. The Privy Council dismissed the appellant's appeal against, among other things, a decision that a clause in a lease of part of a resort, granted by the appellant to the respondent, did not restrict the respondent's right to claim damages for breach of contract. It held that, absent any indication in the wording of the clause in the context of the lease as a whole that the 'penalty fee' was to be in substitution for common law damages for breach of contract, the fee would be construed as an additional charge on the occurrence of an interruption caused by a breach of contract. 

European Union – Environment. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling confirming the validity of art 15(3) of Commission Decision 2011/278/EU determining transitional Union-wide rules for harmonised free allocation of emission allowances pursuant to art 10a of Council Directive (EC) 2003/87 in so far as that provision precluded emissions from electricity generators from being taken into account in the determination of the maximum annual amount of allowances. However, the Court decided that art 4 of, and Annex II to, Commission Decision 2013/448/EU concerning national implementation measures for the transitional free allocation of greenhouse gas emission allowances in accordance with art 11(3) of Directive 2003/87 were invalid. 

Judicial review – Foster carer – Deregistration. Court of Session: Dismissing a judicial review petition by a petitioner who was jointly registered with her husband as a foster carer by the respondent local authority, and who sought reduction of the respondents' decisions to deregister her and her husband following the respondents' own investigation of serious allegations about the husband's conduct made by a child who had been in the petitioner and her husband's care (the police having investigated but taken no further action), the court rejected the petitioner's contentions that reduction of the respondents' decisions should be granted because they had failed to adequately take into account her blameless position and had failed to discuss with her the possibility of a variation of the joint registration.