Latest Cases

Practice – Striking out. The Chancery Division dismissed the defendant banks' application to strike out parts of a claim arising from the extension of a loan facility to a company that managed business parks, which had entered administration. The court allowed in part an application by the claimants to amend the claim, in that it was necessary to refine the proposed amended pleading in order to refer solely to the named individuals who had been employed by the banks at the time of the alleged conspiracy, for whom it was vicariously liable. 

Civil procedure – Assignation – Purported assignation of damages claim. Sheriff Court: In an action in which the pursuer claimed to be the assignee of a company's claim for damages against the defender, who was the arbiter in arbitration proceedings involving the company and another company, the party minuter, the court held that the pursuer had no title to pursue the company's rights and, accordingly, he had no title to sue in the proceedings, the action was incompetent, any right of action which the pursuer might have had to claim damages had now been extinguished by prescription, and the action as a whole was irrelevant. 

Contract – Construction. The Court of Appeal, Civil, Division, allowed the first defendant's appeal against the judge's finding that it had been in breach of an exclusive supply agreement, under which it agreed to purchase from the first claimant all its requirements of certain electric motors and leadframe assemblies identified or covered by it, by purchasing 'Gen 2' motors from another firm. On the principal issue, it held that it had not been open to the judge to have interpreted the terms of the agreement in the way he had. 

European Union – Trade marks. The General Court of the European Union dismissed the action brought by Franmax UAB (Franmax) against the decision of the Fifth Board of Appeal of the European Union Intellectual Property Office concerning opposition proceedings between Ehrmann AG Oberschönegg im Allgäu and Franmax, regarding the application by the latter for registration of a figurative sign 'Dino', depicting a dinosaur, as a European Union trade mark. 

Companies – Shareholders – Unfair prejudice. Sheriff Court: In an unfair prejudice petition under s 994 of the Companies Act 2006, in which the petitioner moved the court to allow the petition to be amended and thereafter to grant warrant for diligence by arrestment on the dependence of the action under s 15A of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987, the court was satisfied that the petitioner's minute of amendment should be allowed and the petition amended in terms thereof, and that it was competent in principle to grant arrestment on the dependence in the action; however the petitioner's motion for warrant to arrest on the dependence was refused as she had failed to satisfy the court that the statutory grounds for granting the order sought had been made out. 

Criminal law – Costs. The Queen's Bench Division in an application under s 19 of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 and reg 3 of the Costs in Criminal Cases (General) Regulations 1986 SI 1335/86 held that the decision to prosecute an NHS Trust and a doctor or the continuation of the prosecution was not improper. It was based on expert evidence which was put forward with some force and clarity. 

Contempt of court – Committal. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, dismissed an appeal against a finding that the appellant had been in breach of a freezing order and, therefore, in contempt of court. The judge had been entitled to reach the conclusion that he had on the evidence that had been before him and it was impossible to say that the penalty imposed (a suspended sentence of imprisonment) had been excessive. 

Family proceedings – Orders in family proceedings. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, in dismissing the appellant local authority's appeal against an order designating it as the authority responsible for an eight-month-old baby, held that, given that the test for ordinary residence was one of fact and should not be made into an overly complicated exercise, there was no basis for concluding that the judge's decision was perverse. It had been reasoned and clear and, in all the circumstances, unassailable. 

European Union – Common foreign and security policy. The Court of Justice of the European Union, Fifth Chamber, dismissed the Council of the European Union's appeal against the annulment of Council Decisions to include the applicant Iranian bank on a list of persons or entities regarded as being involved in nuclear proliferation in Annex II to Council Decision 2010/413 and repealing and Implementing Regulation No 668/2010, and other Decisions, in so far as those acts concerned the applicant. 

Immigration – Deportation. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, allowed the Secretary of State's appeal against the decision of the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) (the UT) to dismiss her appeal against the First-tier Tribunal's decision to allow the respondent Jamaican national's appeal against deportation, and remitted the matter to the UT. Underlying the appeal was an important policy question as to the public interest in the deportation of foreign criminals, applied in the context of an individual who, although guilty of serious criminal conduct, had lawfully resided in the United Kingdom for over 40 years.