Latest Cases

Mental health – Court of Protection. The Court of Protection refused to make an authorisation in regard to deprivation of liberty in relation to the accommodation of the patient provided by the local authority as part of a care package. 

Immigration – Leave to remain. The Supreme Court considered the appellant's appeal against a decision by the defendant Secretary of State, by which his application for leave to remain in the United Kingdom had been dismissed, on the ground that the applicant had only provided bank statements covering 22 of the required 28 days. The court held that the refusal of the appellant's application had been unlawful because, properly interpreted, the process instruction by which such applications were covered had obliged the UK Border Agency first to repair the deficit in his evidence before rejecting it. 

Prison – Prisoner. The appellant had been convicted of a notorious racially-aggravated abduction and murder of a 15 year old boy. He had spent 56 months in solitary confinement in prison in Scotland. The Supreme Court, reversing the decision of the Extra Division of the Inner House, ruled that the appellant had been segregated without lawful authority between certain periods of his detention and that the circumstances of the segregation had violated his rights under art 8 the European Convention on Human Rights. 

European Union – Public procurement. The General Court of the European Union allowed the application by Intrasoft International SA (Intrasoft) for annulment of the decision by the European Commission not to award the consortium to which Intrasoft belonged a public service contract. The General Court decided that the risk of a conflict of interests had not been objectively established and the rejection of the bid of the consortium of which the applicant had been part had not been justified and contrary to the provisions of art 94 of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002. 

Deed – Construction. The Chancery Division dismissed the claimant's application to strike out the defendants' defences and for summary judgment in their favour, in proceedings concerning the purchase of a golf club. Unless the claimants successfully applied to amend their particulars of claim, the proceedings against the seventh defendant would be struck out. 

Company – Merger. The Companies Court considered an application under Regulation 16 of the Companies (Cross-Border Mergers) Regulations 2007to approve a merger between two companies. It approved the merger, but suggested that the process by which the court had considered whether a merger should be approved, in the case of Diamond Resorts (Europe) Ltd, Re ([2012] EWHC 3576 (Ch)) might have gone beyond that which was required by the relevant European Union legislation. 

Immigration – Appeal. The appellants had been refused permission to seek judicial review of the certification of their human rights claims under s 94B of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, allowed their appeals, but dismissed the substantive judicial review applications. The court gave guidance on the interpretation of s 94B and its interplay with art 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. 

Negligence – Duty of care – Local roads authority – Street lighting. Court of Session: In an action in which the pursuer, who suffered a broken ankle after losing his footing and falling when making his way home in the early morning, averred that the local roads authority knew or ought to have known that their failure to provide appropriate street lighting would cause him and others to be at risk of injury, and contended that lighting was on all night before his accident, no one had told him it was to be turned off and he was unaware of the defenders' change in lighting policy, the court concluded that the lights were not on all night prior to the accident and that in particular that they were off at 0115 at the latest, and it followed that neither the defender's policy itself nor its implementation could have caused any accident after 0200, whether there was a lack of consultation and notice or not. 

Coroner – Inquest. The claimant applied for judicial review, seeking the quashing of an inquest's conclusion that her son had taken his own life while in custody. The Divisional Court, in dismissing the application, held that the inquest had been complaint with art 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the defendant coroner's directions to the jury had not been wrong. 

Parent and child – International child abduction. Court of Session: Refusing a father's petition for an order for the return to Australia of his two daughters, aged six and eight, who had been wrongfully removed to Scotland by their mother, the court held that the father had acquiesced in the wrongful removal of the children, that evidence of what occurred during mediation held in Scotland was admissible, and that it would not be appropriate to return the children from Scotland to Australia.