Latest Cases

European Union – Regulations. The Court of Justice of the European Union dismissed the appeal by the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) against a judgment of the General Court of the European Union, by which that court had dismissed NIOC's application seeking annulment, first, of Council Decision 2012/635/CFSP (concerning restrictive measures against Iran), and, secondly, of Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 945/2012, implementing Regulation (EU) No 267/2012 (concerning restrictive measures against Iran), in so far as those acts related to NIOC. 

Vicarious liability – Employer and employee. The Supreme Court reversed a decision of the Court of Appeal and held that the 'close connection' test used in establishing vicarious liability was correct and would not be improved by a change in vocabulary. Applying that test to the present case meant that the employee's assault on the claimant customer had brought the claimant's case within the close connection test so as to properly enable a finding of vicarious liability against the defendant employer. 

Family proceedings – Orders in family proceedings. The Family Division made rulings concerning, among other things, the mother's application to increase periodical payments for her son and the father's cross-application to strike out a number of claims made by the mother relating to providing for their son, C, who was seven years old. The court held that, with the exception of points relating to the trustee of and upkeep of the house where the mother lived, the issues in the application were not justiciable and would be dismissed. 

Negligence – Causation. The Queen's Bench Division held, in a personal injury claim by the claimant against two defendant doctors in relation to her allegedly untimely admission to hospital, that neither defendant had breached their duty of care to the claimant and therefore the claim would be dismissed. 

Sentence – Mandatory life sentence. The Administrative Court reduced the offender's tariff for murder, committed when he was aged 14, from a minimum term of 9 years, less 202 days spent on remand to 8 years, less 202 days. The offender had made exceptional progress which had, by no means, been expected to that degree, from when he had committed the offence and had been sentenced for it. 

Child – Protection. The Family Division granted a local authority's application for permission to withdraw its previous application for injunctive orders against a man who had been wrongly identified as a possible perpetrator of a child sexual exploitation of a young girl. It further held that the provisions in the Sexual Offences Act 2003, read with the statutory guidance, made it clear that a magistrates court had the power to make an interim sexual risk order prior to the making or not making of a final order. 

Practice – Pre-trial or post-judgment relief. The Queen's Bench Division held, in assessing whether and to what extent to grant disclosure of certain documents following alleged police brutality in Peru in which it was alleged by the claimants that the defendant copper mine owners had been involved, that certain disclosure would be ordered having regard to the fact that the mining company had adopted the voluntary principles on security and Human Rights. 

Mental health – Court of Protection. The Court of Protection held that although the applicant did not have capacity as defined in s 2 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 to make decisions regarding his treatment, he had not satisfied the best interests requirement. There was a less restrictive option than the continued use of the standard authorisation. On that basis, the standard authorisation would be terminated. 

Minor – Custody. The Family Division, on a mother's application under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction 1980 and Council Regulation (EC) 2201/2003, ordered the summary return to France of her three children. The mother's words in email exchanges had not amounted to 'a clear and unequivocal consent' and, even if they had been, manifestly that consent had been withdrawn before the children had been retained. 

Practice – Transfer of proceedings. The Companies Court granted the defendant Royal Bank of Scotland's application for an order to transfer proceedings brought by the claimant, Property Alliance Group Ltd, to the Financial List, notwithstanding that the claim was for less than £50m and that the transfer would result in a change of judge. It held that the allegations concerning, among other things, the alleged mis-selling of four interest rate swaps and, the alleged improper conduct of RBS in relation to the fixing of LIBOR rates involved important issues of general market significance and that a transfer into the Financial List satisfied the requirements of CPR 30.5, Practice Direction 63AA and the overriding objective. The court considered the applicable principles in deciding whether to accede to a contested application to transfer existing proceedings into the Financial List, where those proceedings satisfied the definition of 'Financial List claim' in CPR 63A.1(2).