Latest Cases

Town and country planning – Permission for development. The Planning Court allowed the claimant local planning authority's challenge to the decision of the inspector appointed by the first defendant Secretary of State, granting outline planning permission to the second defendant developer to build up to 85 dwellings and associated works. Because of the harm to designated heritage assets, limb 2 of para 14 of the National Planning Policy Framework fell to be considered first and the inspector had only undertaken the weighted exercise in limb 1. 

Pleading – Amendment. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, dismissed the Unitech parties' appeal against the refusal to allow amendments to their pleadings in relation to five intended defences and allowed the lenders' cross-appeal against the refusal to order a payment into court or an interim payment. In respect of the latter, it was appropriate in the circumstances to make an order in line with the lenders' preference for a requirement for a payment into court. 

European Union – Treaty provisions. The Court of Justice of the European Union dismissed the action brought by the European Commission against Malta, by which the Commission had sought a declaration that by deducting the value of civil-service old-age pensions received under pension schemes from other member states from Maltese old-age pensions, Malta had failed to fulfil its obligations under art 46b of Council Regulation (EEC) 1408/71 and under art 54 of Regulation (EC) No 883/2004, as amended by Regulation (EU) No 465/2012. 

European Union – Trade marks. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling concerning the interpretation of art 5(1) of Directive (EC) 2008/95. The request had been made in proceedings between Daimler AG and Együd Garage Gépjárműjavító és Értékesítő Kft., (Együd Garage)concerning the continued appearance on the internet of advertisements naming the latter as an 'authorised Mercedes-Benz dealer' following the termination of the contract which had given it the entitlement to use that trade mark. 

Director – Duty. The Chancery Division held that the defendant, A, had acted in breach of fiduciary duty in causing the claimant companies to grant security over various properties held by them to support a facility obtained by another company owned by a discretionary trust of which A was a beneficiary. On the facts, there was no limitation issue in relation to the breaches. 

Patent – Revocation. The Patents Court, among other things, held that it had jurisdiction to grant a declaration sought by the claimant company that its products, which were biosimilar to the antibody 'adalimumab' used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and/or psoriasis, would have been obvious at the priority dates of the defendant's patents. Section 74 of the Patents Act 1977 did not prohibit a declaration relating to a published application. 

Local authority – Charging for care accommodation. Sheriff Court: In an action in which a local authority sought to recover £42,750 from the defender in respect of care accommodation provided to a third party, contending that the defender had received a gratuitous alienation of an asset by the third party, made knowingly and with the intention of avoiding charges for the accommodation, the court repelled the pursuer's preliminary plea that the defence was irrelevant because the pursuer's determination that heritable property had been disposed of in order to avoid or decrease the amount the third party might be liable to pay for her accommodation could be challenged only by judicial review in Court of Session, and it allowed parties a proof of their respective averments. 

Arbitration – Award. The Commercial Court dismissed the claimant's appeal against awards made in an arbitration for apparent bias based on alleged conflict of interest on the part of the arbitrator. On the evidence, and on the application of the 2014 International Bar Association Guidelines on Conflicts of Interest in International Arbitration, the fair minded and informed observer would not have concluded that there had been a real possibility that the tribunal had been biased, or had lacked independence or impartiality. 

European Union – Trade marks. The General Court of the European Union dismissed the action brought by 1&1 Internet AG (1&1) against the decision of the Fifth Board of Appeal of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) relating to opposition proceedings between Unoe Bank, SA and 1&1 concerning the application by the latter for registration of the word sign '1e1' as a Community trade mark. 

Risk of sexual harm order (RSHO) – Interim order. Sheriff Court: Allowing an appeal against a sheriff's decision refusing a motion for an interim RSHO, the court held that the basis for the sheriff's conclusion that it was not just to make an interim RSHO was flawed: he ought to have given due weight to the more general risk the respondent posed rather than to certain, particular circumstances in which the risk might have happened to manifest itself.