Latest Cases

Public procurement – Public contracts. The Administrative Court dismissed the claimant local authority's challenge to the defendant Secretary of State's decision to issue an invitation to tender for the East Anglia Franchise which contained a train service requirement without a minimum requirement that the bidder had to initially provide a service of two, and then four, trains per hour for a station. 

Family proceedings – Orders in family proceedings. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, ruled on a father's appeal against child arrangements orders and an order made pursuant to s 91(14) of the Children Act 1989. It held, among other things, that, in respect of the s 91(14) order alone, it was clear that the father had not had sufficient notice of the application that had been made and the manner in which it had been made had not complied with case law or proper procedure. On that one issue, the appeal would be allowed. 

Family proceedings – Orders in family proceedings. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, ruled on an appeal against the refusal of permission to a mother of two boys, then aged 16 and 14, to take them from London to live in New York. To the extent that the appeal was allowed in the case of the eldest son and, to a limited extent, the younger son, it was on a basis not argued below, namely, in consequence of the 'no order' principle the court should not have been making or continuing orders about young persons over 16, other than in exceptional circumstances. 

Mortgage – Sale. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, held that, where a mortgagee sold the mortgaged property, the mortgagee's duty to act in good faith and for proper purposes, and to take reasonable care to obtain a proper price, arose in equity and was owed only to those with a recognised interest in the equity of redemption of the mortgaged property. A mortgagee of seven aircraft, in carrying out a sale of six of the aircraft, owed no such duty to the ultimate recipient of the balance of the proceeds of sale of three other aircraft the equity of which had been cross-collateralised against the debt in respect of the seven mortgaged aircraft, where the ultimate recipient had no recognised interest in the equity of redemption in the seven aircraft. 

Criminal evidence – Disclosure. The Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, in a case likely to encompass allegations of very substantial fraud, lifted the statutory reporting restrictions, in part, to enable publication of extracts of the judgment, in order to give guidance on the proper approach to disclosure and abuse of process. In particular, it considered how the prosecution was to comply with its initial disclosure obligation, under s 3 of the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996, if it had not read, and could not be expected to read, all the material it had seized. 

Town and country planning – Development. The Queen's Bench Division refused the claimant local planning authority the grant of an injunction under s 187B of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, as in all the circumstances of the case, the grant of injunctive relief under any of the headings put forward by the claimant was not proportionate. 

Indemnity – Construction of indemnity clause. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, held that the obtaining and receiving of advice after a mistake had been made, even if the mistake could be easily rectified, could not mean that an obligation to correct one's mistake or negligence continued to accrue and give a fresh cause of action every day after the mistake had been made. 

Employment – Wrongful dismissal. The Queen's Bench Division held that as the claimant had, on the facts, committed repeated breaches of his contract of employment in disclosing confidential information and therefore, the defendant football club employer had been entitled to dismiss him for gross misconduct. 

Reparation – Delict – Wrongful interdict – Causation – Damages. Court of Session: In an action in which the only issue remaining was whether the pursuers' wrongful obtaining of interim interdict against the first defender caused him any loss, and if so the quantum thereof, the court held that the first defender had established a causal link between the losses established and the wrong, there was loss injury and damage under each of the heads of damages claimed (stress and anxiety, inconvenience and damage to reputation) and an appropriate award would be £8,000 

Landlord and tenant – Commercial lease – Tenant's repairing obligations. Court of Session: Allowing a reclaiming motion in an action by landlords against the former tenants of a commercial building in which the landlords averred that at termination of the lease the subjects were not in good and substantial repair, the court held that the Lord Ordinary had erred in concluding both that the claim, so far as based on an obligation at termination to put the premises into a condition better than they were in at commencement, was not relevantly stated, and that the relevant clause of the lease did not preclude the defender from offering to prove that the claim should be quantified by reference to diminution in capital value rather than the cost of repair.