Latest Cases

Value added tax – Input tax. The defendant Revenue and Customs Commissioners' (HMRC) decision, upholding its rejection of a claim for repayment of significant amounts of under-recovered VAT input tax made exactly ten years earlier, was so outrageous in its defiance of logic or of accepted moral standards that no sensible person who had applied his mind to the question to be decided could have arrived at it. Accordingly, the Administrative Court quashed the decision and ordered HMRC to pay the claim (to the extent its quantum had been accepted).

Stamp duty – Repayment. The Revenue and Customs Commissioners (HMRC) had correctly decided that the whole of the property owned by the taxpayers was residential property for the purposes of stamp duty land tax (SDLT) and accordingly, that tax had been correctly paid on that basis. The First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) so held in dismissing the taxpayers' appeal against HMRC's decision to reject their claim for refund of SDLT. The FTT took the view that for SDLT purposes, 'residential property' meant a building that was used as a dwelling and land that was or formed part of the garden or grounds of the dwelling including a building on such land. 'Grounds' had, and was intended to have, a wide meaning.

Family proceedings – Orders in family proceedings. The mother's appeal against findings of fact made against her in care proceedings, made on the basis of fresh evidence that suggested that her account of events had been plausible, was dismissed. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, held that the family court had the statutory power under s 31F(6) of the Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act 1984 to review its findings of fact, and it would generally be more appropriate for the significance of the further evidence to be considered by the trial court rather than by way of an appeal.

Stamp duty – Repayment. The Revenue and Customs Commissioners (HMRC) had correctly decided that the whole of the property owned by the taxpayers was residential property for the purposes of stamp duty land tax (SDLT) and accordingly, that tax had been correctly paid on that basis. The First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) so held in dismissing the taxpayers' appeal against HMRC's decision to reject their claim for refund of SDLT. The FTT took the view that for SDLT purposes, 'residential property' meant a building that was used as a dwelling and land that was or formed part of the garden or grounds of the dwelling including a building on such land. 'Grounds' had, and was intended to have, a wide meaning.

Animal – Dog. The claimant's application for judicial review of the Crown Court's decision upholding an order for the destruction of the claimant's pit bull type dog was dismissed. The Divisional Court rejected submissions that the Crown Court's decision on dangerousness had wrongly failed to take into account mandatory conditions of exemption which required particular controls (including neutering and use of muzzle/lead when in public) over a dog of such type, and held that it had applied the right test and had reached its conclusions on all the evidence in a manner that could not be impeached.

Criminal law – Murder. The way in which a jury note had been answered had not been inadequate and the first defendant's murder conviction was not unsafe. The Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, further held that the defendants' sentences of life imprisonment, with a minimum term of 30 years for murder, concurrent to five years and six months for doing an act tending or intended to pervert the course of public justice for attempting to dispose of the body by fire, had not been either wrong in principle or manifestly excessive, in particular, the starting point of 30 years in setting the minimum term for murder.

Trust and Trustee – Gift. The payment of a sum of money by the claimant to the first defendant estate agent for the benefit of a third party, C, was a conditional and incomplete gift. The Queen's Bench Division, held, that, in the absence of further instructions from the claimant, (which there had not been any) a resulting trust of the £42,000 arose upon the transfer of the money into the first defendant's client account, with the first defendant as the trustee and the claimant, as the transferor. The claimant, accordingly, was entitled to the sum of money back at her request.

Criminal law – Murder. The way in which a jury note had been answered had not been inadequate and the first defendant's murder conviction was not unsafe. The Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, further held that the defendants' sentences of life imprisonment, with a minimum term of 30 years for murder, concurrent to five years and six months for doing an act tending or intended to pervert the course of public justice for attempting to dispose of the body by fire, had not been either wrong in principle or manifestly excessive, in particular, the starting point of 30 years in setting the minimum term for murder.

European Union – Copyright. Article 2(c) of Directive (EC) 2001/29 should, in the light of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, be interpreted as meaning that the phonogram producer's exclusive right under that provision to reproduce and distribute his or her phonogram allowed him to prevent another person from taking a sound sample, even if very short, of his or her phonogram for the purposes of including that sample in another phonogram, unless that sample was included in the phonogram in a modified form unrecognisable to the ear. The Court of Justice of the European Union so held, among other things, in a preliminary ruling in proceedings concerning the use, in the recording of the song 'Nur mir', composed by the second and third applicants and produced by the first applicant company, of an approximately 2-second rhythm sequence from a phonogram of the group Kraftwerk, of which the first respondent and another were members.

Employment Tribunal – Procedure. Giving permission for the instant decision to be cited in future case, applications for permission to appeal a decision of the Employment Appeal Tribunal (the EAT), setting aside a decision of the employment tribunal to the effect that an already anonymised judgment should not go on the register, were refused, and the EAT's decision that its judgment and that of the tribunal go on the register were upheld. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, in so deciding, held that, putting aside national security, there was no explicit power in the Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2013, SI 1237/2013, to prohibit publication of a judgment altogether.