Latest Cases

Personal Injury: Quantum Case. Public liability. PSLA of £8,250 awarded. 

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. 

European Union – Immigration. The Administrative Court awarded the claimant Brazilian national damages of £136,048 for false imprisonment and breach of European Union law. The defendant Secretary of State had acted unlawfully in failing to issue him with a European Economic Area residence card on the basis of his marriage to a European Union citizen. 

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. 

Pension – Pension scheme. The Chancery Division allowed the defendant company's application to strike out a claim against it where, on the true construction of the relationship between the parties, certain investment arrangements were to be treated as forming part of a bespoke self-invested pension plan. The investments did not fall within the exemption provided by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Collective Investment Schemes) Order 2001 (SI 2001/1062). The paragraphs identified by the defendant would be struck out. 

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. 

Personal Injury: Personal Injury: Quantum Case. Road traffic accident. PSLA and total damages of £5,500. 

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. 

Human rights – Right to a fair hearing. The European Court of Human Rights dismissed the applicant's contention that his right to a fair trial had been violated by the admission of hearsay evidence at his murder trial. Having regard to the existence of other incriminating evidence and of procedural safeguards, it could not be said that the criminal proceedings had been rendered unfair.