Latest Cases

Parent and child – Child protection – 'Wilful' ill-treatment. Court of Session: Refusing an appeal by a father from a sheriff's decision finding grounds of referral established in respect of his children, the court held that the sheriff did not err in law in holding that it was unnecessary to prove awareness of, or recklessness as to, the likelihood of causing suffering to a child in order to find established an offence of wilful ill-treatment under s 12 of the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act 1937, and the sheriff had been correct to find grounds based on lack of parental care established in terms of s 67(2)(a) of the Children's Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011. 

European Union – Freedom of movement. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling, deciding that art 9(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1889/2005 (on controls of cash entering or leaving the Community) should be interpreted as precluding national legislation, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, which, in order to penalise a failure to comply with the obligation to declare laid down in art 3 of that regulation, imposed payment of an administrative fine, the amount of which corresponded to 60% of the amount of undeclared cash, where that sum was more than €50,000. 

Competition – Competition Appeal Tribunal. The Competition Appeal Tribunal (the tribunal) dismissed the application under s 120 of the Enterprise Act 2002 by Ryanair Holdings plc (Ryanair) for a review of the final report by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) into Ryanair's minority stake in Aer Lingus Group plc. That report had concluded that Ryanair's stake had resulted in a substantial lessening of competition and, as remedial action, had required Ryanair to reduce its stake in Aer Lingus. The tribunal upheld the CMA's decision that there had been no material change in circumstances such as to require the CMA to consider remedial action different from that set out in its final report. 

Divorce – Financial provision. In a claim for financial provision the Family Division determined the husband's needs in light of a pre-nuptial agreement and other surrounding factors, in circumstances where the wife had significant inherited wealth. 

Sale of goods – Contract. The Commercial Court dismissed the claimants' appeal against the preliminary rulings of arbitrators in a contractual dispute. The court held, among other things, that the contract in issue was not one to which the Sale of Goods Act 1979 applied. 

Practice – Stay of proceedings. The appellants had issued proceedings in the First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) against their assessment to landfill tax. They were then permitted to bring judicial review proceedings founded on their legitimate expectations arising out of negotiations for repayments of overpaid landfill tax. The Revenue's application for a stay of the judicial review proceedings was dismissed. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, dismissed the Revenue and Customs Commissioners' appeal as the taxpayers were entitled to pursue either or both remedies and, it was not clear what the Revenue's case would be in the judicial review, so it was uncertain whether there was any overlap of fact in the two sets of proceedings. 

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. 

Data protection – Processing of information. The Divisional Court, in allowing the claimants' application for judicial review, declared that s 1 of the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014 was incompatible with the requirements of European Union law insofar as it: (i) did not lay down clear and precise rules on access to, and use of, retained communications data to be strictly restricted to the purpose of preventing and detecting precisely defined serious offences or of conducting criminal prosecutions; and (ii) access to the data was not made dependent on a prior review by a court or an independent administrative body. 

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. 

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.