Latest Cases

European Union – Jurisdiction. The Family Division allowed an application by the Czech Republic seeking a transfer request in respect of care proceedings initiated regarding three children from the Czech Republic who had been living in the United Kingdom since 2009 in circumstances where the grounds for making such a request were made out. 

Minor – Abduction. A judge had ordered the return of a child, against her wishes, to Lithuania, finding that art 13b of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction 1980 did not, in the circumstances, operate to prevent such return. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, dismissed the mother's appeal. She had been entitled to treat the CAFCASS officer's evidence with caution and it had been correct for her to have considered the influence exerted by the mother and half-siblings on the child's views where that had not led to her having left those views completely out of account. Finally, it had been for the mother to have substantiated the exception under art 13b and she had failed to do so. 

Divorce – Financial provision. The Family Division in a financial remedies hearing assessed the sum payable to both the husband and wife having regard to the fact that significant value in the shareholding in a company was attributable to the husband's post-separation endeavour, and that the award to the wife had in fairness to reflect that. 

Family proceedings – Orders in family proceedings. On the mother's application, it was ordered that all contact between the father and his daughter was suspended indefinitely and an order was made, under s 91(14) of the Children Act 1989, prohibiting the father from making an application for contact or any order under s 8 of the Act in respect of his daughter, without the leave of the court, until December 2019. Those orders had been made in the absence of the father. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, allowed the father's appeal and remitted the case for rehearing. 

Solicitor – Disciplinary proceedings. The appellant solicitor appealed against the decision of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (the SDT) that she should be struck off the roll of solicitors. The Administrative Court, in allowing the appeal in part, held that a reasonable reader of the SDT's judgment would conclude that it had considered the issue of dishonesty, which had not been pleaded. Accordingly, the SDT's judgment would be quashed insofar as it referred to dishonesty or made findings which were suggestive of dishonesty. However, there were no conceivable grounds on which the findings of lack of integrity could be said to be undermined by that error. 

Shipping – Carriage by sea. In a claim for personal injury brought against the appellant, the appellant sought a contribution from the respondent. The respondent successfully obtained summary judgment dismissing the claim on the basis that the right on which the personal injury claim had been brought had been extinguished through art 16 of the Convention Relating to the Carriage of Passengers and their Luggage by Sea (the Athens Convention). The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, allowed the appeal. It held that the claim for a contribution had not been one to which the Athens Convention had applied. Further, the language of art 16 of the Athens Convention was not such as to extinguish the right on which the claim was based. 

Public procurement – Public contracts. The Technology and Construction Court considered a procurement dispute arising out of a tender process undertaken by the defendant Milton Keynes local authority for the award of a framework agreement for asbestos removal. 

Bankruptcy – Trustee in bankruptcy. The claimant former bankrupts brought a claim alleging that the defendant trustees had failed to do his job properly and that he had mismanaged their estates, thereby causing them loss and damage. The Chancery Division, in dismissing the claim, held that a surplus in the bankrupt's estate did not give rise to a duty in the tort of negligence on the trustee's part to the bankrupt. A trustee did not owe a bankrupt a duty at common law outside of s 304 of the Insolvency Act 1996 and, further, it was not part of the trustee's role to review the legitimacy of a judgment affecting a bankrupt, which directly or indirectly had been subject to appeals which had been rejected. 

Statute – Construction. In a case where a without notice injunction was granted in respect of a respondent who was suspected of being a gang member under the Policing and Crime Act 2009, the Queen's Bench Division refused an appeal against a decision of a judge not to continue that injunction on the basis that it was not sufficient for the police to contend that they had identified links if those links had not amounted to a signifier or characteristic of gang membership that had resulted in others responding to the street identity. Accordingly, the judge had been right to conclude, as he had done. 

European Union – Trade marks. The General Court of the European Union allowed the action brought by TVR Automotive Ltd (TVR) against the decision of the Second Board of Appeal of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) concerning opposition proceedings between TVR's predecessor, Muadib Beteiligung GmbH, and TVR Italia Srl relating to the application by the latter for registration of a figurative sign depicting the words 'TVR ITALIA' as a Community trade mark.