Latest Cases

Local authority – Child protection – Failure to perform statutory duty. Court of Session: Refusing a judicial review petition brought by a father against decisions a local authority had taken in respect of his two sons, the court rejected allegations that the respondents had failed to perform their statutory duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of the two boys, and that the petitioner and his sons' rights not to be subjected to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment had been breached, and it also held that the petitioner did not have standing to present the petition and that the respondents' plea of mora was well founded. 

Medical treatment – Withdrawal of medical treatment. The proceedings concerned a twelve-year-old girl, AA, who had been born with a serious brain malformation, which meant that, throughout her short life, she had suffered from multiple, untreatable, medical and developmental difficulties. The Family Division, in granting the declaration sought by the NHS Trust, that it was lawful and in AA's best interests for artificial hydration to be withdrawn, held that to seek to prolong AA's life at the time of the present proceedings was contrary to her best interests. 

European Union – Rules on competition. The applicant companies sought the annulment of the respondent European Commission's decision that they had been involved in a cartel and the annulment or reduction of the fines imposed on them. The General Court of the European Union dismissed the challenge to the finding of cartel involvement, but reduced the fines, as the Commission had departed from the 2006 Guidelines on the method of setting fines imposed as to the requirement to take an undertaking's best available figures of the value of sales. 

European Union – Jurisdiction. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling concerning the interpretation of arts 1(2) and 49 of Council Regulation (EC) 44/2001, and of art 47(1) of Council Regulation (EC) 2201/2003, deciding that, among other things, art 1 of Regulation 44/2001 had to be interpreted as meaning that that regulation did not apply to the enforcement in a member state of a penalty payment which was imposed in a judgment, given in another member state, concerning rights of custody and rights of access in order to ensure that the holder of the rights of custody complied with those rights of access. 

Mental health – Judicial review – Human rights. Court of Session: Refusing a judicial review petition by a petitioner who had been detained in the State Hospital since pleading guilty to a charge of culpable homicide on the basis of diminished responsibility and being made subject to compulsion and restriction orders, who contended there was no treatment for his dissocial personality disorder that could not equally be provided in prison but whose request to be transferred to prison was refused by the Scottish Ministers who said they had no power to do so, the court rejected contentions that the petitioner's continued detention in the State Hospital was in breach of arts 3 and/or 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights and that the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 was non-convention compliant because of the absence of any provision allowing transfer of persons from the State Hospital to prison. 

European Union – Trade marks. The General Court of the European Union dismissed the action brought by Gold Crest LLC against the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs), concerning an application for registration of the word sign 'MIGHTY BRIGHT' as a Community trade mark. 

European Union – Employment. The applicant former employees of a company brought proceedings after they had been subjected to collective redundancy. The proceedings were stayed and the Court of Justice gave a preliminary ruling on the interpretation of art 1(1) of Council Directive (EC) 2001/23, which concerned the laws of member states relating to the safeguarding of employees' rights in the event of transfers of undertakings, businesses or parts of undertakings or businesses. 

Costs – Order for costs. The Chancery Division ruled that the fact that the claimant local authority had unsuccessfully advanced legal argument based on certain material did not mean that it should be deprived of some part of the costs where that material had, nonetheless, been relevant to the issue on which it had won its claim. The general rule that costs should follow the event applied and the claimant was entitled to its costs. 

European Union – Community institutions. The Court of Justice of the European Union, in dismissing Spain's application for annulment of art 19 of Parliament and Council Regulation (EU) 1052/2013, rejected Spain's single plea of law alleging breach of art 4 in conjunction with art 5 of Protocol (No 19) on the Schengen acquis integrated into the framework of the European Union. The Court ruled that art 19 of the Regulation could not be regarded as having given the member states the option of concluding agreements which allowed Ireland or the United Kingdom to take part in the provisions in force of the Schengen acquis in the area of the crossing of the external borders. 

Lending and security – Standard security – Enforcement. Sheriff Court: In an action in which the pursuer sought the court's authority to enter into possession to sell residential property, and a warrant for ejection, the defender having granted a standard security over the property in security of its obligation to repay a loan to the pursuer, which it had failed to repay and the pursuer having called up the loan, the court held that the protective regime introduced by the Home Owner and Debtor Protection (Scotland) Act 2010 was not engaged, and in any event the pursuer had complied with the pre-action requirements, that while the remedy of ejection could competently be granted against a legal (juridical) person the crave was not justified on the evidence led, but it would not be unreasonable to grant decree of possession.