Latest Cases

Company – Administrator. The applicant creditors of a company in administration applied for orders that: (i) the remuneration of the respondent administrators was excessive and should be either disallowed entirely or reduced; and (ii) that the administrators should pay the costs of the application personally and not as an expense of the administration. The Companies Court rejected the contention that the administrators, appointed under Insolvency Act 1986, could not or should not have made the statement as to the statutory purpose, as required under para 29(3)(b) of Sch B1 to the Act, which had led to their appointment. Further, the argument that they should not be entitled to any remuneration at all for their services was rejected. Once the decision to appoint administrators had been made, the responsibility on the prospective administrator in considering whether the statement as to the statutory purpose could be made was to look ahead at what would or might happen during the administration if he was appointed, and not behind at the motives which might have led the directors to choose to make the appointment. 

Personal Injury: Quantum Case. Clinical negligence. The claimant received £13,192.99 in general damages following a settlement when she suffered a posterior capsular rupture with vitreous loss. The claimant had approximately one year of blurred vision in the eye, extended period of floaters, a fat cigar in the visual field as well as 18 months of inflammation in the eye and the requirement for an additional surgical procedure. She was likely to need to use drops on and off for the rest of her life. 

Practice – Pre-trial or post-judgment relief. The court made an order that 500 pages of court be bundle be translated. The legal aid authority to whom the order was directed refused the application and the matter was referred back before a judge. The Family Court held that it was not 'necessary' under Bundles Practice Direction, Family Procedure Rules 2010 SI 2955/10, PD 27A, para 5.1, for the 500 pages to be translated and that only 51 pages were necessary and that proper compliance with PD27A and, in particular, strict adherence to the bundle page limit, was an essential tool in the struggle to control the costs of family litigation. 

Legal aid – Entitlement. The claimants challenged reg 5A(1) of the Civil Legal Aid (Remuneration) Regulations 2013, SI 2013/422, which introduced a 'no permission, no fee' arrangement for legally aided applications for judicial review and provided no entitlement to payment where permission had neither been granted nor refused. The Divisional Court, in allowing the application, held that the scope of reg 5A extended beyond the circumstances which could be seen as rationally connected to the stated purpose given for its introduction. To that extent it was inconsistent with the purposes of the scheme in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012. 

Practice – Pre-trial or post-judgment relief. Following the withdrawal of the claimant's case for damages for personal injury after cross-examination, the defendant applied for an order enforcing costs in their favour on the basis that the court could make a finding on the basis of various inconsistencies in the evidence, that the claim was fundamentally dishonest. The county court agreed on the evidence that the bringing of the case had been fundamentally dishonest. 

Immigration – Leave to remain. The claimant Thai national's application for leave to remain in the United Kingdom was refused on the basis of an unspent criminal conviction. The Administrative Court, in dismissing the application, held that, inter alia, the Secretary of State had been entitled to take the new Immigration Rules into account, notwithstanding that the application had been made prior their entry into force. Further, the Secretary of State had not acted perversely or irrationally. 

Town and country planning – Planning authority. The claimant developer applied, under s 113 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, to quash and, alternatively, remit to the defendant local planning authority, parts of its development plan. The Planning Court, in dismissing the application, held that the inspector had been entitled, on the evidence, to find that the full housing need of the authority had been objectively assessed in accordance with the National Planning Policy Framework and the National Planning Policy Guidance. Further, the authority and the inspector had considered market signals and other market indicators, as they had been required to do by national guidance. 

Immigration – Asylum/humanitarian protection – Fresh claim. Court of Session: In judicial review proceedings by a failed Pakistani asylum seeker, who challenged a decision that his further submissions did not amount to fresh claim, the court pronounced an order reducing the decision letter complained of, holding that the respondent had failed to satisfy the requirement of anxious scrutiny and it had not been demonstrated on her behalf that the petitioner would inevitably fail before any further adjudicator. 

European Union – Value Added Tax. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling, deciding that the Portuguese special procedure applicable to abusive practices in the field of taxation was applicable to VAT, provided that the EU principles of effectiveness and equivalence were not breached. 

Criminal evidence – Appeal – Fresh evidence. High Court of Justiciary: Allowing an appeal by an appellant who was convicted, inter alia, of murder by smothering and attempting to defeat the ends of justice, the court held that potentially significant fresh evidence was available from a neuropathologist, offering for the first time moderate head injury as a positive contributing cause of the deceased's death—ie as direct alternative to smothering; that a reasonable explanation of why that evidence was not heard at the trial had been made out; and that had the new evidence been available at the trial there would have been a real possibility of a different verdict being returned.