Latest Cases

Solicitor – Negligence. The first claimant engaged the defendant solicitor to draw up an agreement for the transfer of intellectual property rights to the second claimant company for exploitation by a third party through a licence agreement. The claimants brought a claim on the basis that the documents drawn up by the defendant were ineffective and had caused the agreement to fail. The defendant applied for summary judgment and the Queen's Bench Division allowed the application on the basis that the agreements drafted by the defendant had in fact been effective to do what it was required that they should do. 

County court – Costs. The present appeal concerned, among other things, whether the court had power to order a tenant to pay any costs to the landlord under the terms of the lease where the costs had arisen in related Land Valuation Tribunal (LVT) proceedings. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, in dismissing the appellant's appeal, held that the appellant could not show that the judge had not had power to deal with any costs incurred in the LVT proceedings. The LVT had not dealt with an order for payment of those costs and the respondent landlord could not be estopped from claiming them in the county court because the LVT could not have ordered it its costs under the terms of the lease. 

Town and country planning – Permission for development. The claimant challenged the defendant local planning authority's decision to grant planning permission for the erection of a single wind turbine, together with associated infrastructure. The Planning Court, in dismissing the application, held that there had been no error in preventing a substitute councillor to participate and there had been no misreporting to the committee. 

Criminal evidence – Sexual assault on young child – Sufficiency of evidence – Corroboration. High Court of Justiciary: In an appeal by an appellant who was found guilty of a charge of sexual assault on a young child contrary to s 20 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009, the court rejected the appellant's first ground of appeal—that there was insufficient evidence of a sexual assault on a young child contrary to s 20—but it upheld his second ground to the extent of quashing his conviction and substituting a conviction in terms of the amended indictment under deletion of the part of the libel alleging digital penetration of the complainer's anus. 

Personal injury – Provisional damages. Court of Session: In an action of damages for personal injuries arising out of the pursuer having developed an asbestos-related condition, which settled extrajudicially, the pursuer accepting from all three defenders an offer of provisional damages together with a right to apply to the court for further damages if he developed diffuse plural thickening, lung cancer or mesothelioma, the second defenders refused to accept the wording of a draft joint minute as they sought to reserve the right to put the pursuer to proof on liability in the event that he made an application for further damages if he developed any of those three conditions, however the court held that an offer by a defender to make a payment of provisional damages inherently carried with it an admission of liability. 

Criminal evidence – Corroboration – Dangerous dogs. High Court of Justiciary: Refusing an appeal against conviction by an appellant who, after a sheriff repelled her submission of no case to answer, was convicted of a contravention of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, the court held that the sheriff was entitled to conclude that there were grounds for a reasonable apprehension that the dog would injure someone and to repel the no case to answer submission, and in light of the findings in fact she had made the sheriff was entitled to find that there were grounds for a reasonable apprehension that the dog would someone if he were to escape from the appellant's garden and to go on to convict the appellant of the charge. 

Misrepresentation – Fraudulent misrepresentation. The Chancery Division held, in dismissing the claimant company's claim regarding a failed agreement to jointly purchase property, that there had been no fraud on the part of the defendants, either deriving from a side letter, or otherwise. 

Practice – Pre-trial or post-judgment relief. In an appeal against a decision to grant summary judgment in respect of enforcing of a default judgment made in the United States in favour of the claimant, the Queen's Bench Division held that the issues on the summary judgment application were arguable and therefore the appeal would be allowed. 

Practice – Pre-trial or post-judgment relief. The Queen's Bench Division granted an injunction to the claimant local authority to restrain the defendant from pursuing a course of conduct amounting to harassment. In so doing the court was sure that the defendant would fail to establish one of the statutory defences, under by s 1(3)(a) and (c) of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, as he could not satisfy the rationality test in making out his avowed purpose of preventing and detecting crime. 

Trust and trustee – Disposal of trust assets. A family dispute had arisen over a trust in a property which was held in beneficial shares and the judge ordered that the first defendant was to have the opportunity to buy the property otherwise it would be put for sale on the open market. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, held that the judge had been correct with regard to the ambit of her jurisdiction under ss 14 and 15 of the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 and had exercised her discretion correctly.