Latest Cases

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. 

Immigration – Removal. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division held, inter alia, that s 3C(4) of the Immigration Act 1971 precluded an application for variation of leave 'while that leave is extended by virtue of this section' and, like s 3C(2), was consistent only with a continuation of the leave that existed before the application. The provision in s 10(8) of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, that the notification 'invalidates any leave … previously given to him', was to make it clear that its effect was that, from the date of the notification, that which had previously been done was undone. It was not implicitly drawing a distinction between leave pursuant to s 3 and leave pursuant to s 3C of the 1971 Act. 

Practice – Hearing. The claimants appealed against the judge's decision that their proceedings were proceedings in which a closed material application might be made to the court, under s 6 of the Justice and Security Act 2013. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, in dismissing the appeal, held that the judge had correctly decided to make a s 6 declaration before having considered the claimants' application, under CPR 3.1(2)(m), for an order requiring the Secretary of State to plead a full defence, rather than a limited defence, which stated that the government would neither confirm nor deny the facts pleaded in their claim. 

Town and country planning – Conservation. The proceedings concerned a challenge to a policy contained in the Wealden District (incorporating part of the South Downs National Park) Core Strategy Local Plan, which provided, inter alia, that, for new development within 7km of Ashdown Forest, suitable alternative natural green space was to be provided. The claimant's claim seeking to quash the core strategy in whole or in part was dismissed. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, in allowing the claimant's appeal, held that the policy, in so far as it related to the 7km zone, had been adopted in breach of the duty, under reg 12 of the Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes Regulations 2004, SI 2004/1633, relating to the assessment of reasonable alternatives. 

Family proceedings – Orders in family proceedings. In a case where the local authority sought care orders in respect of a family of three children who had relocated from Poland to the United Kingdom, the Family Court decided having regard to, Brussels II Regulation (EC) 2201/2003, decided various issues around jurisdiction and transferred the matter back to the regional family court. 

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. 

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. 

Disclosure and inspection of documents – Order for disclosure. The claimant sought declarations that the defendants were bound to provide certain documents and information that arose out of two sets of arbitration in which the defendants were involved. The claimant's interest was financial as two of the defendants had bought its business and the proceedings arose out of contracts to which it had been a party. The Technology and Construction Court, in allowing the application, held that the defendants were the claimant's agents under the contracts and that they were bound, under those documents, to provide the information sought. The defendant's submissions concerning an alleged failure on the part of the claimant to comply with the pre-action protocol and confidentiality of the documents were dismissed. 

Local Government – Land. The Chancery Division held that a sculpture created by Henry Moore, 'Draped Seated Woman', belonged to the claimant local authority which had, by exercising control over the sculpture, extinguished the defendant local authority's rights to it 

European Union – Free movement. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, dismissed an appeal by the trustees of the BT Pension Scheme, against the decision of the Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) that its claim for tax credits in relation to dividend income received from foreign companies and, save in relation to a certain period, its claim for dividends paid by an English resident company which it elected to attribute to income received by it from foreign subsidiaries, were time-barred. However, it held that those claims which were not time-barred raised a question of EU law regarding the EU principle of free movement of capital, which ought to be referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union.