Latest Cases

Disclosure and inspection of documents – Confidential documents. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, allowed appeals against case management and other orders in proceedings brought by 565 claimant companies against British Airways arising out of an alleged unlawful cartel. It held that the unredacted version of a European Commission decision should not be disclosed to members of a confidentiality ring and economic tort claims should be struck out, as the judge had erred in his approach to the issue of intent. 

Sentencing – Sexual Offences Act 2003 – Notification requirements. High Court of Justiciary: Refusing an appeal by an appellant who pled guilty to an offence of threatening or abusive behaviour involving obtaining clandestine access to an intimate photograph on the complainer's mobile showing her naked private parts and transmitting it electronically to a third party, the court held that the sheriff was entitled to find that there was a 'significant sexual aspect' to the offence, which meant that the appellant became subject to the notification requirements in the Sexual Offences Act 2003. 

Personal injury – Provisional damages – Tender and acceptance. Court of Session: In a personal injury action by a pursuer who had developed pleural plaques as a result of his exposure to asbestos, in which the pursuer accepted the defenders' tender of £7,000 provisional damages and enrolled a motion for decree in terms of the minute of tender and minute of acceptance, the court concluded that it should pronounce decree in terms of those minutes and make an order that the pursuer could apply for further damages if he developed either mesothelioma or bronchial carcinoma, rather than the wider order he sought reserving to him the right to apply for further award of damages if he developed 'an asbestos-related condition other than pleural plaques'. 

Patent – Infringement. The Patents Court considered a patent relating to the use of anti-PD-1 antibodies in the treatment of cancer. The court rejected a number of objections to the validity of the patent, including lack of novelty, obviousness and entitlement to the first priority date. 

Bankruptcy – Sequestration – Disposition of heritable property. Court of Session: In an action which concerned the proper construction of s 44(4)(c) of the Conveyancing (Scotland) Act 1924, in which the trustee on a debtor's sequestrated estate challenged dispositions of five heritable properties by the debtor in favour of the defender, the court held that the dispositions the pursuer challenged were voidable and fell to be reduced (with the possible exception of the disposition of a property which might qualify as the debtor's family home). 

Damages – Personal injury. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, in allowing the defendants' appeal, held that the judge had erred in concluding that the cost of all of the claimant's care and physiotherapy needs should be met by the defendants as their negligence had made the claimant's position materially and significantly worse. The same applied to his decision in relation to accommodation, equipment, transport and holidays. The case was remitted to the judge for him to assess damages in respect of the claimant's heads of loss in the light of the court's judgment. 

McDougall v HM Advocate 

European Union – Value added tax. The Court of justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling, deciding, among other things, that art 2(1)(c) of Council Directive (EC) 2006/112 had to be interpreted as meaning that transactions which consisted of the exchange of traditional currency for units of the 'bitcoin' virtual currency and vice versa, in return for payment of a sum equal to the difference between, on the one hand, the price paid by the operator to purchase the currency and, on the other hand, the price at which he sold that currency to his clients, constituted the supply of services for consideration within the meaning of that article. 

European Union – Trade marks. The General Court of the European Union dismissed the action brought by H&M Hennes & Mauritz BV & Co. KG (H&M) against the decision of the Third Board of Appeal of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) concerning invalidity proceedings between H&M and Yves Saint Laurent SAS regarding the application by the latter for registration of a Community design intended to apply to 'handbags'. 

European Union – Employment. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling, deciding that the Decision on the BFA Group restructuring and arts 107 and 108 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which formed the basis for that decision, did not preclude the application, in proceedings relating to a collective redundancy that fell within the scope of that decision, of national legislation under which the compensation payable to an employee whose dismissal was held to be unfair was set at an amount higher than the legal minimum.