Latest Cases

Practice – Compromise of action. Following settlement of an action, the appellant's shares in a company were to be purchased by the first respondent at a price to be determined by an independent valuer. The appellant unsuccessfully challenged the valuation as not being in accordance with the valuer's mandate as set out in the Tomlin Order. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, allowed the appeal as, on the true construction of the express terms of the settlement, the valuer had been instructed to arrive at his valuation with regard to the books and records, including the handwritten takings, of the company. He had failed to take into account the handwritten takings and so had not followed his mandate. 

Contempt of court – Committal. The claimant local planning authority sought the committal of the defendant for contempt of court by reason of breaches of an injunction in relation to unauthorised use of land. The Queen's Bench Division held that the appropriate sentence was one of four months' imprisonment, but that would be suspended provided the defendant adhered to the timings set out in the undertakings which were accepted and the court's order. 

Immigration – Leave to remain. The claimant Pakistani national sought judicial review of the defendant Secretary of State's decision to curtail his leave to remain, to detain him and to remove him from the United Kingdom. The Administrative Court, in allowing the application, held that, as the claimant had provided a local address in Pakistan, the Secretary of State had not been entitled to rely upon deemed notice of the curtailment of leave and to conclude that it had not been possible to give notice to the claimant. 

Family proceedings – Care proceedings. The Family Court engaged in a fact-finding hearing in relation to the allegation by the local authority that the mother of a child was fabricating or inducing illness on the part of the child. It found that although there were serious elements in the evidence, its findings fell short of those for which the local authority contended. 

Company – Shareholder. The Chancery Division granted the claimant minority shareholder of a company (BL), permission to continue a derivative action brought against the director of companies, owned by BL, who was alleged to have breached his fiduciary duties, resulting in loss to the companies. 

European Union – Public procurement. The General Court of the European Union dismissed the action by European Dynamics Luxembourg SA and others (the applicants) for: (i) annulment of the decision of the Publications Office of the European Union to rank the applicants in the way that it had, in respect of the bids they had submitted in response to the call for tenders, concerning the provision of certain computing services, as well as the decisions awarding the contracts at issue to other tenderers in as much as they referred to their ranking; and (ii) damages. 

Solicitor – Negligence. The Chancery Division held that the claimant company's claim for damages for breach of contract and/or negligence against its former solicitors would succeed, where the defendant solicitors had failed to inform the claimant of plans to develop a school near the property that the claimant had intended to purchase. 

Mental health – Court of Protection. In a case with an application by a deputy under s 18(1)(b) of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 for 'the sale, exchange, charging, gift or other disposition of a patient's property, the Court of Protection allowed the application in circumstances where the disposition was to pay the school fees of the patient's brother and such payment was in the patient's best interests. 

Executry – Confirmation of executors – Transgender person. Sheriff Court: Instructing that an application by a transgender woman, submitted via solicitors, for confirmation as executrix-nominate, be processed, the court held that (contrary to what was suggested at para 5-22 of Currie on Confirmation of Executors (9th edn)) the production of a full gender recognition certificate accompanied by a birth certificate should not ordinarily be required to support an application for confirmation presented by solicitors on behalf of an executor-nominate or an executrix-nominate. Certificates might be required where the executor-nominate or executrix-nominate was unrepresented. 

Town and country planning – Planning permission. Court of Session: Refusing an appeal against the decision of a reporter appointed by the Scottish Minsters, a local authority having refused planning permission for the construction of two electricity substations and associated works and the reporter having allowed the developer's appeal and granted permission subject to conditions, the court rejected the appellants' contentions that the reporter had adopted an unfair procedure in not holding an oral hearing, that he acted irrationally in his assessment of the likely visual impact of the proposed development and that he had failed to carry out an environmental assessment which complied with an EU directive.