Latest Cases

Action of multiplepoinding – Competing proprietorial claims to library. Sheriff Court: In an action of multiplepoinding in which the pursuer, a volunteer librarian, and the second defender, an unincorporated political association, advanced competing claims to ownership of a library, the court rejected the pursuer's claim to ownership based on the library's alleged abandonment by its former owner, an alleged voluntary transfer of ownership to her and the contention that she could rely on the doctrine of reputed ownership, and it also concluded that the second defender had failed to establish ownership, that the evidence led did not allow it to reach a definitive conclusion on the identity of the rightful owner, and that while the pursuer had failed to prove ownership, she had established a lesser right as depositary to exercise sole care, control and custody of the library. 

Prisoner – Detention for public protection – Rehabilitation. Court of Session: In judicial review proceedings by a prisoner, the punishment part of whose sentence of life imprisonment expired in March 2005 and who complained he had not been given a reasonable opportunity to progress through the prison estate and demonstrate his safety for release, alleging failings by the Scottish Ministers (the second respondents to the petition) and a local authority (the first respondents), the court refused the petition as against the local authority, holding that the case against them was irrelevant as they did not owe any relevant duty to the petitioner under art 5 of European Convention on Human Rights. 

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. 

Employment and labour law – Part-time workers – Discrimination – Less favourable treatment. Court of Session: Allowing an appeal by the Advocate General, the court dismissed a claim by a former part-time clerk to the General Commissioners of Income Tax, who was not granted a pension on retiral and contended that, contrary to his part-time worker's rights, he received less favourable treatment than another former clerk who was granted a pension, holding that on a proper interpretation of s 3(3) of the Taxes Management Act 1970 the respondent was not entitled to pass the threshold in stage one of a Ministry of Justice policy regarding determination of the pension for a clerk to the General Commissioners, and he was not entitled to rely on the other clerk as a 'comparable full-time worker' for the purposes of the Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000. 

European Union – Equality of treatment of men and women. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling, deciding that art 18 of Directive (EC) 2006/54 should be interpreted as meaning that, in order for the loss and damage sustained as a result of discrimination on grounds of sex to be the subject of genuine and effective compensation or reparation in a way which was dissuasive and proportionate, that article required member states which chose the financial form of compensation to introduce in their national legal systems, in accordance with detailed arrangements which they determined, measures providing for payment to the person injured of compensation which covered in full the loss and damage sustained. 

European Union – Jurisdiction. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling, deciding that the first paragraph of art 22(1) of Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 should be interpreted as meaning that an action for the termination of co-ownership in undivided shares of immovable property by way of sale, by an appointed agent, fell within the category of proceedings 'which have as their object rights in rem in immovable property' within the meaning of that provision. 

European Union – Jurisdiction. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling concerning the interpretation of art 19(1) of Regulation (EC) No 805/2004. The request had been made in proceedings between Imtech Marine Belgium NV, established in Belgium, and Radio Hellenic SA, established in Greece, concerning the former's application for certification, as a European Enforcement Order within the meaning of that Regulation, a judgment delivered in absentia in relation to a claim accompanied by a penalty payment and late payment interest. 

Contempt of Court – Sentence. The Commercial Court imposed a sentence of 18 months' imprisonment on a defendant who had been found guilty of contempt of court for failing to comply with disclosure provisions in a freezing order. 

European Union – Freedom of establishment. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling concerning the interpretation of art 56 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The request had been made in proceedings between X-Steuerberatungsgesellschaft (X) and the Hannover-Nord Tax Office; concerning the latter's refusal to accept X as the authorised representative of a company within the context of a turnover tax assessment procedure.