Latest Cases

Adoption – Practice. The Family Division considered two cases, which were heard together as they raised common issues, involving babies born to mothers from Eastern Europe, but relinquished at birth for adoption in the United Kingdom. Among other things, the court considered what jurisdiction the court had to have to make orders facilitating such placements and what factors had to be taken into account when making decisions about relinquished babies, the possible outcomes and the procedures that should be followed. 

Misrepresentation – Fraudulent misrepresentation. The Chancery Division dismissed the claimants' claim that the first claimant, S, had been induced to purchase shares in a mining company as a result of misrepresentations made by the defendants. On the evidence, none of the defendants had had actual knowledge of the relevant provisions of the joint venture agreement between the parties and had wilfully misstated the same. Further, the claimants' alternative case founded upon either absence of any honest belief in the truth of the relevant representation or recklessness as to its truth would be rejected. 

Family proceedings – Orders in family proceedings. The Family Division, on the wife's application for financial remedy orders, made an order in the terms of the husband's revised offer, namely that the wife would be allowed to remain in the matrimonial home rent free for life and she would receive a lump sum of £2m in respect of her future income needs. 

Practice – Pre-trial or post-judgment relief. The Queen's Bench Division held that the claim by the claimant customer against the defendant bank would be struck out as the claimant had accepted a settlement offer and received redress of over £420,000 from the defendant. 

Mental health – Court of Protection. The Court of Protection allowed an application by a the husband of the patient to appoint her him as a deputy for property and affairs. That appointment was in the face of opposition by the patient's children on the basis that the husband was illiterate and had a poor grasp of English. 

Criminal evidence and procedure – Admissibility of hearsay evidence – Right to fair trial. Sheriff Appeal Court: Refusing an appeal against conviction for assault by an appellant at whose trial the sheriff admitted the hearsay evidence of a child witness in the form of a police statement after she refused to enter a room where she had been due to give evidence by CCTV, the court concluded that the sheriff was entitled to be satisfied that the witness had refused to be admonished to tell the truth such that the evidence of her statement was admissible under s 259 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, and that the admission of the hearsay did not render the trial unfair in terms of art 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. 

Sentence – Confiscation order. The Administrative Court dismissed the claimant's application for a certificate of inadequacy, pursuant to s 17 of the Drug Trafficking Act 1994, with respect to a confiscation order of £2,340,017.40 against him. The claimant had taken no steps to establish that the realisable property was inadequate to meet the confiscation order and his argument concerning his interests in a French property could not avail him. 

Conflict of laws – Jurisdiction. The Commercial Court refused the claimant owner of a vessel's application for an anti-suit injunction to restrain the defendant purchaser of cargo shipped on the vessel from suing it in Nigeria in respect of losses it allegedly sustained after the vessel became grounded in Nigeria, causing delay in the delivery of the cargo. It held that the relevant time charter had been made between the owner and the charterer and the charterer had not entered into that agreement as an agent of the defendant. Accordingly, the defendant was not bound by the terms of the time charter to submit disputes to the jurisdiction of the English court. Further, there was no free-standing agreement between the owner and the defendant to refer disputes arising out of the carriage of the cargo to the jurisdiction of the English court. 

Immigration – Leave to remain. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, allowed the Secretary of State's appeal regarding the respondent's application to extend his leave to remain as a Tier 4 (general student) migrant. Where a sponsor college's licence was revoked and a student then re-submitted his application for further leave to remain with a new confirmation of acceptance for studies from a new provider, that re-submitted application amounted to a variation of the purpose of his application for leave that fell within para 34E of the Immigration Rules. Therefore, the mandatory requirements of the Immigration Rules had to be met at the time of re-submission. 

Agent – Commercial agent. The Commercial Court awarded the claimant commercial agent damages for breach of contract, the termination of the agency on insufficient notice and compensation under reg 17 of the Commercial Agents (Council Directive) Regulations 1993, SI 1993/3053. The defendant had not accepted the claimant's repudiatory breach as having brought an agency agreement to an end and had affirmed the agreement.