Latest Cases

Family proceedings – Jurisdiction. The Supreme Court allowed an appeal by the Children's Guardian and the local authority against an order stating that the Hungarian court was better placed to hear a case regarding two children and that transferring the case to Hungary would be in the children's best interests. The children were Hungarian nationals born in the United Kingdom to Hungarian parents. The transfer request would be set aside and the case would be returned to the Family Division. 

Immigration – Leave to remain. The Administrative Court rejected the claimant Albanian national's challenges to the decision that she had not been trafficked, and to the defendant Secretary of State's decisions to certify her asylum claim on safe third-country grounds prior to a consideration of the trafficking claim and to detain her on her arrival in the United Kingdom. 

Counsel – Duty. The Administrative Court upheld the defendant Legal Ombudsman's determination, criticising the claimant barrister's handling of the interested party's formal complaint letter in his own letter. However, it quashed the remainder of the determination, including the decision to award the interested party the equivalent of her costs in the claimant's county court action against her for unpaid fees. 

European Union – Trade marks. The General Court of the European Union dismissed the action brought by Auyantepui Corp., SA, (Auyantepui) against the decision of the Second Board of Appeal of the European Union Intellectual Property Office relating to opposition proceedings between Magda Rose GmbH & Co. KG and Auyantepui regarding the application by the latter for registration of a figurative sign 'Mr Jones' as a Community trade mark. 

Arbitration – Award. The Commercial Court ruled on preliminary issues concerning the claimant's applications under ss 67 and 68 of the Arbitration Act 1996 to appeal/set aside an award. It held that: (i) English law governed the question of separability, such that the arbitrators had had jurisdiction to decide the issue of validity; (ii) the arbitrators had been right to have dismissed the claimant's challenge to their jurisdiction with regard to their conclusion that the assignment of the relevant contract from the first defendant to the second defendant had been valid, and that the second defendant had been a party to the arbitration; and (iii) there was no prospect of success for the claimant's application under s 68 of the Act by reference to s 68(2)(g), and it would be struck out as unarguable. 

Personal Injury: Quantum Case. Road traffic accident. PSLA of £3,800. The claimant sustained a soft tissue injury to the neck and upper back, and a soft tissue injury to the middle back area and right wrist. The judge awarded £3,400 for the spinal injuries and £400 for the wrist injury. 

Profit à prendre – Prescription. The Supreme Court allowed in part an appeal regarding the geographical extent of a prescriptive right of a several fishery. If a right over land, the identity of which shifted, could be the subject of an express grant, then it followed that there was no reason why that should not apply equally to a right over land obtained by prescription. The seaward boundary of the area subject to the right was the lowest astronomical tide mark from time to time. The area did not include sandbanks that had become attached to the foreshore within living memory either because the right applied to the foreshore as constituted from time to time or through the doctrine of accretion. 

Environment – Protection-Broads. The Administrative Court dismissed the claimant's application for judicial review of the defendant Broads Authority's decision that the brand 'Broads National Park' should be adopted for marketing-related purposes, although it was not a statutorily designated National Park. The Authority's decision had not been unlawful as outside the Authority's statutory powers and duties, irrational or procedurally unfair, and the Authority had not had regard to an immaterial consideration. 

Sentence – Variation of sentence. The Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, held that, pursuant to s 155 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000, the sentencing judge had erred in concluding that, on review, the discount of one-third, which had been given for the defendant's guilty pleas for three counts of rape and one count of aiding and abetting rape, would be reduced to 25%. Accordingly, the sentences of 18 years' imprisonment for those offences would be quashed and reimposed with terms of 16 years' imprisonment. 

Trade mark – Opposition. The Chancery Division allowed Gap's appeal against a decision dismissing its opposition, under s 5(2)(b) of the Trade Marks Act 1994, to an application by British American Group Ltd (BAGL) to register 'The GapTravelGuide' as a trade mark in respect of the services of magazine publishing in Class 41. The hearing officer had erred in concluding that the average customer would generally be a business and there had been inconsistency in his reasoning in certain paragraphs of his decision. There was a risk of likelihood of confusion between the 'GAP' trade mark and the mark which BAGL sought to register.