Latest Cases

Medical practitioner – Appeal against determination of disciplinary committee. The appellant registered midwife appealed against the decision of the Conduct and Competence Committee (the Committee) of the respondent Nursing and Midwifery Council, finding allegations proved and making a caution order for 12 months. The Administrative Court, in allowing the appeal, held that there had been a serious irregularity in the Committee having considered the investigation and report of the supervisor of midwives. The Committee should have treated those findings and decision as completely irrelevant and excluded from its consideration. 

Contract – Construction. The Technology and Construction Court made declarations as to the interpretation of an agreement between the parties, where a dispute had arisen as to the awarding of 'service points' regarding the work carried out by the defendant company on the claimant local authority's highways. 

Advocate – Complaint – Inadequate professional services. Court of Session: Allowing an advocate's appeal against a decision of the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission upholding a complaint against him, the court held that the Commission had made at least one fundamental error, over and above the accepted inadequacy of the reasons given for the decision; that there was no good reason to remit the matter to the Commission for a fresh adjudication; and that it should substitute its own decision for that of the Commission, namely that the advocate did not provide an inadequate professional service. 

Town and country planning – Permission for development. The claimant parish council applied to quash the decision of the inspector appointed by the first defendant Secretary of State to grant planning permission for an affordable housing development on a green field site within its boundary. The Planning Court, in allowing the application, held that the inspector had misinterpreted and misapplied the rural exception site policy, and had failed to give adequate reasons for her decision, including by failing to expressly address the claimant's submissions on the proper interpretation and application of the policy. 

Housing – Local authority houses. The parties had entered into a joint tenancy of a local authority flat prior to the breakdown of their relationship. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, in dismissing the appellant's appeal against an order transferring the tenancy into the sole name of the respondent, held that the judge had had to make a difficult decision on the balance of hardship and there had been no error of law in the way that he had struck the balance. 

Civil aviation – Air accident – Combined voice and flight data recorder (CVFDR) – Disclosure. Court of Session: Granting an application in which the Lord Advocate petitioned the court to order the Secretary of State for Transport to make available to him and Police Scotland the combined voice and flight data recorder (CVFDR) which a helicopter which crashed into sea, killing four passengers, was carrying, the court held that the data contained in the CVFDR were strictly necessary for the purposes of the police investigation into the accident, and that the benefits of disclosure outweighed the adverse domestic and international impact that disclosure might have on the current investigation by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch of the Department for Transport and any future safety investigation. 

Mental health – Court of Protection. The Court of Protection considered several cases before it in the light of guidance from the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal on the subject of deprivation of liberty in the context of Sch 1A of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 which contained a scheme whereby a managing authority of a hospital or care home was allowed to deprive a patient or resident of his or her liberty. 

Practice – Costs. In assessing the costs of a defendant's failed summary judgment application, a master had refused to treat the claimant limited liability partnership of solicitors as a litigant in person, and therefore, to limit its recoverable costs. In dismissing the defendant's appeal, the Chancery Division held that the word 'person' in para (v) of CPR 46.5(6)(b) was to be construed as referring to a natural person only and accordingly, the partnership was not a litigant in person for the purpose of the costs assessment. 

Income tax – Assessment. The Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) upheld the decision of the First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) to reject the taxpayer's argument that his tax liability had, as a matter of law, been concluded by a confiscation order made against him following his conviction for the sale of counterfeit/contraband cigarettes. The tribunal dismissed the taxpayer's appeal against the FTT's decision on the basis that there had been no decision binding the Revenue and Customs Commissioners which had precluded performance of the statutory duty under s 29 of the Taxes Management Act 1970 to assess the taxpayer for non-payment of income tax. 

Arbitration – Award. The Commercial Court held that, in a dispute over an arbitrator's findings in a shipping case, although the arbitrator had been wrong not to recognise his jurisdiction over the dispute, he would in any case have rejected the claimant's contention about it, and so the claimant's application to set the award aside would be dismissed.