Latest Cases

Elections – Parliamentary. The Queen's Bench Division held that due to an admitted breach by the thee elected candidates of r 6 of the Local Elections (Parishes and Communities) England and Wales Rules 2006, SI 3305/06 the election was void and it would be necessary to rerun it. 

Libel and slander – Pleading. The Queen's Bench Division, in a libel action, allowed the claimant's application to strike out parts of the defence and, bar one exception, refused the defendants' cross-application to amend their defence. 

Immigration – Leave to enter. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, dismissed the appellant Nepalese national's appeal concerning the respondent Entry Clearance Officer's (ECO) refusal of his application for entry clearance to settle in the United Kingdom. It considered whether the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) had erred in law in having assessed his claim under art 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights as at 2013, rather than as at the date of the ECO's original decision some three years earlier. 

Divorce – Financial provision. The Family Division held in the wife's case for financial remedy that an award of £8.8m was fair having regard to all the relevant factors. In so deciding, it refused to give effect to the wife's submission that she was in fact entitled to an award of £29m. 

Data protection – Subject access request. The Queen's Bench Division allowed an application by the claimants under CPR Pt 8, and held that the defendant had failed to comply with its subject access request duties pursuant to s 7 of the Data Protection Act 1998, where neither the crime exemption nor legal privilege exemption applied, and refused to exercise its discretion in the defendant's favour. 

Water and watercourses – Flow of water. The Technology and Construction Court dismissed the claimants' claim regarding the collapse of a slope on their property. The court held that the defendant water authority's expert evidence was to be preferred over the claimants'. Further, applying the appropriate test, there had been no material contribution to the presence of fluid. The claimants had failed to establish causation. 

Practice – Family proceedings. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, allowed a mother's appeal against orders made by a judge in connection with a local authority's appeal, including that the mother would give oral evidence at the appeal hearing. It held that the process adopted by the judge on the authority's appeal to him had not been appropriate or fair to the mother, even though he had embarked upon it with the best of intentions. 

Practice – Pre-trial or post-judgment relief. The Queen's Bench Division refused the defendant banks' application to strike out the claimant's second set of proceedings which included defamation claims, on the basis that they were an abuse of process. The court found that although the claimant could have applied at various points to bring earlier publications into the first proceedings, he could not be criticised for not making a claim in respect of any cause of action which had not by then arisen. 

Trade mark – Licence. The Chancery Division granted an order for an expedited trial of a dispute concerning intellectual property rights in industrial machines and parts and an exclusive licence in respect of the assembly and sale of whole machines. However, it held that it was not appropriate to grant the defendant company, which claimed to have the exclusive licence, interim injunctive relief against the claimant where the damage to the claimant if an injunction was granted was far more credible and far more likely to be uncompensatable in money terms than any possible damage to the defendant if an injunction was not granted. 

European Union – Social security. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling, deciding, among other things, that art 67(3) of Regulation (EEC) 1408/71 had be interpreted as not precluding a member state from refusing to aggregate periods of employment necessary to qualify for unemployment benefit to supplement income from part-time employment, where that employment had not been preceded by any period of insurance or of employment in that member state.