Latest Cases

European Union – Customs and excise. In the course of proceedings between the taxpayer company and Greece concerning the refusal by the Director of the Athens Customs Office to refund the taxpayer the registration taxes paid by it following the import of passenger vehicles into Greek territory, the Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling, deciding, among other things, that art 1(3) of Directive (EC) 2008/118 should be interpreted as fulfilling the conditions for producing direct effect allowing individuals to rely on it before a national court in a dispute between them and a member state. 

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. 

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. 

Extradition – Extradition order. The Administrative Court dismissed the appellant's appeal against orders for his extradition to Austria to stand trial for counterfeiting. The appellant's challenges based on dual criminality, forum, proportionality and art 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights were rejected. 

Practice – Pre-trial or post-judgment relief. The Queen's Bench Division granted the claimant an injunction to restrain the use of documents to which Legal Professional Privliege had applied and which contained confidential information in a libel trial. 

Immigration – Removal. The Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) refused the claimant permission to seek judicial review of the defendant Secretary of State's decision to remove him from the United Kingdom on the ground of deception. It held that the claimant had not established the fundamental prerequisite to a substantive legitimate expectation, namely, a clear and unambiguous promise, or representation, devoid of any ambiguity, conveyed directly or indirectly to him. Further, his case was defeated by the application of the alternative remedy principle. 

Contract – Repudiation. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, allowed a ship charterers' appeal regarding the measure of damages to be assessed following the charterers' repudiatory breach of contract, following which the owners sold the vessel for a higher price than would have been obtained had it been sold at the anticipated expiry of the charterparty. The court held that if a claimant adopted by way of mitigation a measure which arose out of the consequences of the breach and was in the ordinary course of business and such measure benefited the claimant, that benefit was normally to be brought into account in assessing the claimant's loss unless the measure was wholly independent of the relationship of the claimant and defendant. 

Injunction – Interim injunction. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, dismissed an appeal against the discharge of an anti-enforcement injunction regarding judgments that had been delivered by the courts in Togo and Cote d'Ivoire. In circumstances where the bank had delayed in seeking an injunction, issues of prejudice and comity had meant that the judge had been correct to discharge the injunction despite a valid arbitration clause in the agreement between the parties that had provided for arbitration in London. 

Trust and trustee – Creation of trust. The Chancery Division dismissed the claimants' application for a declaration that they, among four named trustees, held a property in equal shares. The court held that, on the evidence, the property was held in equal shares by each of the nine children of the purchaser.