Latest Cases

Construction contract – Arbitration. The Technology and Construction Court dismissed the claimant company's appeal seeking variation or remission of a partial award made by an arbitrator in proceedings concerning a construction contract incorporating the JCT Conditions SBCSub/C2005 Rev 1 2007. The arbitrator had not erred in law in respect of his application of the burden of proof, his understanding of the principles set out in Walter Lilly & Co Ltd v Mackay[2012] All ER (D) 213 (Jul), and his finding that the defendant was entitled to statutory interest. 

Family proceedings – Orders in family proceedings. The Family Division refused the applicant father's application in respect of temporary removal of the children to Algeria and another European Destination. It also refused the father's application to have the children circumcised in accordance with the Muslim faith. However it allowed the father an increase in overnight staying contact despite the mother's opposition. 

Negligence – Cause of action. The Queen's Bench Division struck out the claimants' case for negligence on the basis that it would not be fair just and reasonable for the defendant NHS Trust to impose a duty of care in circumstances where the defendant had just been treating the patient and not his wider family and that where the scope of the alleged duty had effectively been to inform a third party of a diagnosis reached in respect of a patient, there was insufficient proximity between the parties for such a duty to be imposed. 

Trade mark – Mark. The Chancery Division dismissed Cadbury's appeal against the decision of the hearing officer to refuse a request to delete a trade mark that included the use of a certain shade of purple in the packaging of goods. The hearing officer had not made a material error of principle in not accepting that the mark in issue was a series mark, and Cadbury's proposal was fundamentally flawed. 

Insolvency – Bankruptcy. The Chancery Division held that, providing the claimant gave certain undertakings, it would grant permission to appeal and allow an appeal and set aside a bankruptcy order made in respect of the claimant on the petition of a local authority. The petition had been based on council tax liability orders, which the claimant disputed. The court held that the judge ought to have adjourned the bankruptcy petition in order to await the outcome of the claimant's appeal to the Valuation Tribunal in respect of the liability orders. 

Personal Injury: Quantum Case. Medical negligence. PSLA of £10,000 with total damages of £17,500. The claimant suffered pain in her teeth, eventually leading to bone loss in the jaw and bone graft implantation surgery, as a result of the defendant's failure to carry out root canal treatment to treat an infection. 

Insurance – Contract of insurance. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, ruled on the true construction of an aggregation clause contained in an insurance policy applicable to all solicitors' indemnity policies, pursuant to the requirement in the Solicitors' Act 1974 for compulsory liability insurance for solicitors and the Minimum Terms and Conditions required to be incorporated into such polices. The true construction of the words 'in a series of matters or transactions' was that the matters or transactions had to have an intrinsic relationship with each other, not an extrinsic relationship with a third factor. 

Children and young persons – Jurisdiction. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, dismissed a mother's appeal against an order of the court that prevented her from naming her two children (who had been taken into care) 'Cyanide' and 'Preacher'. The naming of a child was an act of parental responsibility, the extent of which could be determined by a local authority. There was no restriction in the Children Act 1989 preventing an authority from overruling a parent in relation to a forename, but that was subject to a parent's rights under art 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The judge had erred in finding that the authority could determine the mother's choice of name pursuant to s 33(3)(b) of the 1989 Act, where the proper route was for the matter to be put before the High Court by way of an application to invoke its inherent jurisdiction under s 100 of that Act. 

Industrial training – Levy. The Administrative Court dismissed the claimant company's application for judicial review of the Industrial Training Levy (Construction Industry Training Board) Order 2015, SI 2015/701, in particular, art 7(2) of the Order which, read with art 7(3) and (4) of the Order, set the formula for calculating the amount of levy due in the third of three levy periods. The Order was not ultra vires, unfair or unlawful because it violated classic public law principles. 

Income tax – Capital gains. The Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) allowed the appeal by the Revenue and Customs Commissioners against a decision of the First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber), following a joint reference to it by the taxpayer and the Revenue, that corporate bonds purchased by the taxpayer and subsequently realised in whole or in part were qualifying corporate bonds within s 117 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 and thereby qualified for the exemption from capital gains tax contained in s 115 of that Act.