Latest Cases

Value added tax – Supply of goods or services. The Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) ruled on appeals by Bratt Auto Contracts Ltd (BAC), Bratt Auto Services Ltd (BAS) and the Revenue and Customs Commissioners against a decision of the First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) by which it had determined a preliminary issue in related appeals against the rejection by the Revenue of the respective VAT repayment claims of BAC and BAS. 

Practice – Summary judgment. The Commercial Court dismissed applications by the first and second defendants and by the third defendant businessman, Robert Tchenguiz, for summary judgment on claims brought against them. The claim against the first two defendants was for specific performance of obligations under an alleged oral agreement (for the purchase of their interests in groups of companies) and the claim against Tchenguiz was for damages and an injunction restraining him from procuring the first two defendants' breach of the alleged agreement. It ruled that the first two defendants had not demonstrated that the alleged agreement could not in law have amounted to a binding and enforceable contract and the claimants' claim had a realistic prospect of success. Further, the claimants were granted permission to amend their particulars of claim, the benefit of which meant that they would have a realistic prospect of showing that an alleged threat by Tchenguiz could amount to the tort of abuse of process. 

Mental health – Court of Protection. The Court of Protection in response to an application by a NHS Trust held that a patient following an assault by her violent partner lacked capacity to make decisions under ss 1-3 of the Mental Health Act 2005, and it was lawful and in her best interests to undergo termination of her pregnancy by surgical means and in the course of that process to undergo general anaesthetic and ancillary treatment. 

Prison – Prison conditions. The Administrative Court allowed the claimant indeterminate sentence prisoner's application for judicial review. In having a system in which the review date for consideration of the transfer of indeterminate sentence prisoners to open conditions and the actual transfers had been so delayed, the defendant Parole Board had been in breach of the common law duty and, as that systemic failure had directly affected the claimant, also in breach of his ancillary right under art 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights. 

European Union – Trade marks. The General Court of the European Union dismissed the action brought the Coca-Cola Company (Coca-Cola) against the decision of the Second Board of Appeal of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) concerning proceedings by Coca-Cola for the registration as a Community trade mark of a three-dimensional sign consisting of the shape of a contour bottle without fluting. 

Town and country planning – Permission for development. The Planning Court dismissed the claimants' challenge to the decision of the inspector appointed by the Secretary of State, dismissing the first claimant's appeal against the second defendant local planning authority's refusal to grant fresh planning permission with new conditions so as to regularise the on-going use of the site by the claimants' families as a gypsy caravan site. In particular, the inspector had not failed to distinguish between availability and suitability of alternative sites. 

Town and country planning – Permission for development. The Administrative Court dismissed the claimant's application for judicial review of the defendant local planning authority's grant of planning permission to the interested party for a crematorium within the Green Belt. There had been no error of law in the decision-making process on the part of the authority. 

Costs – Order for costs. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, dismissed an appeal by insurers against an order that they pay the claimants' costs of the proceedings, which had been made on the basis of, among other things, the exercise of the court's discretion to order costs to be paid by a non-party, pursuant to s 51(3) of the Senior Courts Act 1981. The insurers were unable to demonstrate that the judge's exercise of his discretion had been flawed in any way. On the contrary, there had been ample material to have justified the order which he had made. 

Arbitration – Award. The Commercial Court allowed the claimant's appeal concerning an arbitration which arose out of a contract of affreightment (COA) made between the claimant, as owners and the defendant, as charterers of bulk carriers. The tribunal had erred in law by failing to hold that by being deprived, by the defendant's breach, of its right to receive freight, the claimant had suffered a loss, notwithstanding that the claimant had used two other companies to receive all inward freight earned under the COA and to pay all outgoing freight. The tribunal had not taken into account that, whilst one limb of the right to receive freight had been the right to receive it into one's bank account, another limb of that right had been the right to give it away. 

Damages – Personal injury. In an appeal against the method of calculation of damages made to the appellant following the death of his wife from mesothelioma, the Supreme Court allowed the appellant's appeal against the decision of the trial judge to assess the multiplier from the date of death, as previously decided by the House of Lords, rather than from the date of trial. The Supreme Court decided not to follow those earlier cases on the basis that the correct date as at which to assess the multiplier when fixing damages for future loss in claims under the Fatal Accidents Act 1976 should be the date of trial and not the date of death.