Latest Cases

Town and country planning – Permission for development. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, on an appeal against the dismissal of a challenge to the grant of planning permission for two wind turbines, held, among other things, that the present was one of those rare cases in which cross-examination had been necessary for justice both to be done and to be seen to be done. The judge had approached the question of cross-examination in a way that had been wrong in principle. The appeal would be allowed to the extent indicated and the case would be remitted to the Administrative Court. 

Nationality – British nationality. The Administrative Court quashed the defendant Secretary of State's refusal of the claimants' application for naturalisation. The Secretary of State's exercise of her statutory discretion, under s 6(1) of the British Nationality Act 1981, to refuse the claimants' naturalisation because she wanted to deter potential extremists from their activities through knowing that family members would not be naturalised in consequence was beyond its scope and purpose. 

Pension – Pension scheme. The Chancery Division considered the appropriate construction of the BCA occupational pension scheme (the plan). It held that additional wording would be interpreted into cl 22.1 of the rules of the plan to clarify the terms of the annual pension increase and that that decision would be publicised by means of a circular sent to members of the plan. 

Practice – Strike out. The Chancery Division dismissed the claimants' appeal against an order striking out their claim for professional negligence against the defendant firm of solicitors and declining to grant the claimants a retrospective extension of time for filing an allocation questionnaire. It held, among other things, that the master had been within his discretion to order that the claim be struck out. 

Town and country planning – Permission for development. The Administrative Court allowed the claimant's application for judicial review of the defendant local planning authority's decision declining to determine his application for planning permission for the construction of a detached double garage. As the authority conceded, it had erred in having stated it had not been possible to validate an application that sought permission to amend a building which was itself unlawful and that it had been irrelevant. 

Coroner – Inquest. The Administrative Court, in allowing the claimant's judicial review proceedings, ordered the inquest into her mother's death to be held with a jury, as there was reason to suspect that the death had resulted from a police officer's omission in the purported exercise of the officer's duty while the deceased was attending a police station as a visitor. Further, in all cases where the issue of art 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights was raised for consideration, the coroner should respond with clarity, giving brief reasons if necessary. 

Immigration – Deportation. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, dismissed the Secretary of State's appeal against the setting aside of deportation orders she had made in respect of two EEA nationals with a permanent right of residence in the United Kingdom. The court explained the difference between the circumstances for deportation of non-EEA foreign national offenders and EEA offenders and the requirements for the deportation of the latter. 

Costs – Taxation. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, ruled on two appeals concerning the 'one fifth rule' under sub-s 70(9) of the Solicitors Act 1974 and the interpretation of 'special circumstances' under sub-s 70(10) of that Act in the resolution of costs assessments regarding the fees charged by solicitors in their bills to clients. 

Landlord and tenant – Rent. The Supreme Court dismissed Marks and Spencer's appeal in which it had sought to recover an apportionment of rent paid quarterly in advance, in circumstances where it had exercised a break clause that had led to determination of the lease during that quarter. Save in a very clear case, it would be wrong to attribute to a landlord and a tenant, particularly when they had entered into a full and professionally drafted lease, an intention that the tenant should receive an apportioned part of the rent payable and paid in advance, when the non-apportionability of such rent had been so long and clearly established. Therefore, the court refused to imply a term allowing Marks and Spencer to recover the sums paid. 

Practice – Pre-trial or post-judgment relief. The Queen's Bench Division, in applications following on from the substantive judgment in which it held that the defendant solicitors had been in breach of duty, held that the claimants had been entitled to summary judgment in regard to the issue of causation.