Latest Cases

Family proceedings – Orders in family proceedings. The Family Division held that the mother had failed to establish that the father had acquiesced to having the child removed from the Ukraine to the United Kingdom. She had also failed to established a risk of physical or psychological harm and the child would therefore be returned to the Ukraine. 

Town and country planning – Development. The Planning Court granted the claimant declaratory relief following the defendant local authority's admitted failure to enter a certificate under s 192 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 on its planning register. It further severed parts of the grant of a certificate under s 26H of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, which confirmed the continuing validity of a 2008 listed building consent, which had not formed part of the second interested parties' application. 

Negligence – Causation. The Queen's Bench Division dismissed the claimant's claim for breach of duty against the defendant hospital in respect of a failure to give corticosteroid drugs to the claimant's mother, H, before her delivery by emergency Caesarean section. It found that the failure to give the drugs did not cause or materially contribute to her developing post-natal Respiratory Distress Syndrome (RDS) as a result of which she required mechanical ventilation. 

Patent – Infringement. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, dismissed the claimant's appeal against revocation of its patent entitled 'Interactive special events video signal navigation system' concerning the ability of a television viewer to interact with his television set so as to cause it to display information. The judge had not taken too broad an approach in his construction of the claim. 

Copyright – Infringement. The Chancery Division considered a dispute about the exploitation of recordings of musicals. The court held that copyright in the recordings vested in the second defendant company, and that the first defendant company had known that it had been infringing copyright at the time of releasing certain recordings. 

Contract – Termination. The Commercial Court dismissed the claimant company's claim in respect of the cancellation of a contract and the failure to deliver certain bonds. It held that, among other things, owing to a disclaimer on a trade ticket used by the second defendant company, the second defendant had been entitled to cancel the contract. 

Local authority – Statutory powers. The Administrative Court, in allowing the appellant local authority's appeal by way of case stated, held that the correct approach to the statutory test on an appeal against a decision to change street names was whether, according the local authority appropriate respect for its reasoning and conclusions, that decision could properly be said to be wrong. In the circumstances, the judge not been entitled to make the decision he had. 

Practice – Summary judgment. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, dismissed the defendants' appeal against an order by which the judge granted summary judgment against the first defendant in the sum of £366,999 for goods ordered and supplied, but stayed enforcement of the judgment for any sums in excess of £300,000 pending the trial of the first defendant's counterclaim for damages based on the alleged late delivery and defective condition of the goods. 

European Union – Trade marks. The General Court of the European Union dismissed the action brought by Jaguar Land Rover Ltd (Jaguar) against the decision of the Second Board of Appeal of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market, concerning the application by Jaguar for registration of a three-dimensional sign in the shape of a car as a Community trade mark. 

Costs – Order for costs. Following the giving of the main judgment in the case (see [2015] All ER (D) 117 (Nov)), the Chancery Division considered that it was inappropriate for the court to give an indication that it would have been willing to order an increase in the defendant's budget had such an application been made. An interim payment on account of costs would be directed of about 80% of 70% of the defendant's approved budget.