Latest Cases

Judicial review – Act of Scottish Parliament. Court of Session: Refusing a judicial review petition challenging the lawfulness of provisions in an Act of the Scottish Parliament establishing the framework for a scheme creating a new public service for children and young persons in Scotland, the court held that Pt 4 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 did not contravene rights under the European Convention on Human Rights, EU law on data protection or fundamental common law rights; it was unnecessary to make a reference to the European Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling; the subject matter of the legislation was within the devolved competence of the Scottish Parliament; and the first to fourth petitioners did not have standing to bring the proceedings. 

Family proceedings – Care proceedings. R's parents were arrested on suspicion of causing injury, following his admission to hospital with a fracture of his right ankle. No explanation was provided. R was placed in foster care. Care proceedings were commenced by the local authority a fact finding hearing took place. The Family Court found that R had been injured when his right leg was yanked and twisted by one of his parents, both of whom had jointly decided not to tell the truth. 

Damages and compensation – Miscarriage of justice – Ex gratia compensation scheme. Court of Session: Refusing a reclaiming motion in judicial review proceedings in which the petitioner, whose rape conviction was quashed on appeal, challenged decisions refusing his application under a non-statutory ex gratia scheme for compensating persons who had spent time in custody following wrongful conviction, the court, agreeing with the Lord Ordinary, held that the Scottish Ministers' decision letters did not demonstrate rational and adequately reasoned exercises of their undoubtedly wide discretion in determining whether there were, in the petitioner's case, exceptional circumstances that justified compensation. 

Reparation – Personal injury – Liability – Quantum. Court of Session: In an action by an 81-year-old pursuer who alleged that she fell and broke her collar bone due to the negligence of a bus driver employed by the defender, the court made an award of £10,000 for solatium after holding that the defenders were liable to the pursuer because their driver, contrary to the defenders' policy and in breach of common law, failed to ensure that a passenger who he had seen was elderly and unsteady was seated before moving off, and the movement of the bus while the pursuer was not seated caused her to fall. 

Human rights – Right to respect for family and private life. Further to its previous judgment (see [2014] All ER (D) 156 (Dec)), the Investigatory Powers Tribunal declared that, prior to the disclosure that had been made and referred to in the previous judgment and the present judgment, the regime governing the soliciting, receiving, storing and transmitting by United Kingdom authorities of private communications of individuals located in the UK, which had been obtained by United States authorities pursuant to US National Security Agency programmes, had contravened arts 8 or 10 of the Convention, but at the present time complied. 

Criminal evidence – Res gestae. The appellant appealed, by way of case stated, against his conviction for assault by beating. The Divisional Court, in dismissing the appeal, held that the justices had been correct in admitting the out of court statements of the complainant to police and evidence of her 999 calls. The circumstances surrounding the incident meant that the evidence of the telephone calls, together with the conversations with the police officers that had occurred shortly afterwards, had fallen well within the res gestae principle. 

Employment – Contract of employment. The deceased had been employed with a company in the United Kingdom, which had entitled him to death-in-service benefits, among other things. He had moved to India to work with the parent company's organisation there, but had died after a fatal motor vehicular accident. The claimant, his widow, brought a claim against the defendant underwriter of the parent company's insurance policy, after it rejected a claim for death benefit on the grounds that the deceased had not been ordinarily employed or resident in the UK at the time of his death. The Chancery Division, in dismissing the claim, held that, on the facts, the deceased had not been ordinarily employed or ordinarily resident in the UK at the date of his death. 

Family proceedings – Orders in family proceedings. A 10-month old child was admitted to hospital with three fractures to the leg and a tear under the tongue. A local authority brought proceedings for a care order and a placement order in respect of the child. The Family Division conducted a fact-finding hearing and found that, on the facts, the father had caused the child's injuries, but the mother had not. It further found that the parents had separated and that they were unlikely to resume their relationship in the future. 

Practice – Pre-trial or post-judgment relief. There were two applications before the court, the first was the claimant company's application to continue the interim injunction and freezing injunction against the defendants (in liquidation and bankruptcy) and secondly an application by the second and third defendants to set aside those injunctions on the grounds of material non-disclosure. The Queen's Bench Division continued the freezing order and injunction and dismissed the defendants application. 

Town and country planning – Permission for development. The claimant Lee Valley Regional Park Authority challenged the defendant local planning authority's decision to grant the interested party planning permission. The Administrative Court, in allowing the application, accepted the claimant's submissions that the authority had misinterpreted Green Belt policy in the National Planning Policy Framework in an unlawful manner, particularly with reference to the concepts of openness and previously developed land. Further, the development had not been in accord with the development plan.