Latest Cases

Negligence – Duty to take care. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, dismissed the claimant's appeal against the dismissal of his claim for damages for personal injury. Among other things, it rejected his submission that the social utility factor could be taken into account only if the measures required to reduce the risk of harm would make it impossible to carry on the activity in question, as that put the matter too high. 

Costs – Order for costs. The Chancery Division, following an earlier judgment dismissing the appellants' appeal against the decision of a deputy master that he did not have power to make an order for disclosure under CPR 31.16, held that the appellants had to pay the respondents £16,000 in costs. Those costs took account of the appellants' costs in the respondents' unsuccessful application for permission to cross-appeal. 

European Union – Public procurement. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling, deciding that arts 47(2) and 48(3) of Directive (EC) 2004/18 should be interpreted as meaning that they precluded a contracting authority, in the tender specifications relating to the award of a public contract, from imposing on a tenderer which relied on the capacities of other entities the obligation, before the contract was awarded, to conclude a co-operation agreement with those entities or to form a partnership with them. 

European Union – Trade marks. The General Court of the European Union dismissed the action brought by The Cookware Company against a decision of the Second Board of Appeal of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) relating to opposition proceedings between Fissler GmbH and TCC concerning the application by the latter for registration of a figurative sign 'VITA+VERDE' as a Community trade mark. 

European Union – Value added tax. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling concerning the interpretation of arts 2(1) and 10(2) of Sixth Council Directive (EEC) 77/388, as amended by Council Directive (EC) 1999/59, then by Council Directive (EC) 2001/115. The requests had been made in proceedings between Air France-KLM, formerly Air France, and Hop!-Brit Air SAS, formerly Brit Air, on the one hand, and the Ministère des Finances et des Comptes publics, on the other hand, concerning the liability to VAT of an unused transport ticket and of sums paid by an airline company to an undertaking carrying on the same type of business in consideration for the sale of unused transport tickets. 

Extradition – Extradition order. The Administrative Court dismissed the appellant's appeal against orders for his extradition to Poland to serve a sentence of eight months' imprisonment, originally suspended for three years, imposed for theft of railings from an historic railway bridge in 2005. There was a fine balance, particularly given the passage of time, but extradition had to be ordered. 

Family proceedings – Care proceedings. The Family Division, in a case of alleged sexual abuse of two step children by the step father, made findings of fact. The findings made were such that the threshold conditions for intervention in the case of the second step child and the younger three children had overwhelmingly been met, where the eldest step child had already left the family home. 

Immigration – Asylum seeker. The Administrative Court allowed the claimant Sri Lankan national's claim for judicial review of the defendant Secretary of State's decision, finding that his further representations did not constitute a fresh claim for asylum. It was irrational for the Secretary of State to have concluded that there had not been a realistic prospect that an immigration judge would find that the claimant's risk of suicide could not be reasonably managed in Sri Lanka. 

Patent – Petition for revocation. The Patent's Court held in favour of the claimant company that the defendant company, medac's patent, which protected its syringe and pen products used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, was invalid for obviousness over a letter published earlier in a journal. The patent was accordingly ordered to be revoked. 

European Union – Freedom of movement. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling, deciding, among other things, that Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 should be interpreted as not precluding a national measure, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, which imposed a minimum price per unit of alcohol for the retail selling of wines, provided that that measure was in fact an appropriate means of securing the objective of the protection of human life and health and that, taking into consideration the objectives of the common agricultural policy and the proper functioning of the CMO, it did not go beyond what was necessary to attain that objective of the protection of human life and health.