Latest Cases

Prison – Release on licence. In circumstances where the claimant sought judicial review of the delay in the determination of her application for release from custody, the Court of Appeal, Civil Division, held that there had been no breach of the obligation under art 5(4) of the European Convention on Human Rights, as a speedy determination could not have been made more quickly than it had been. 

Practice – Pre-trial or post-judgment relief. The first defendant resigned from his employment with the claimant and the claimant sought to enforce the terms of certain contractual post-termination restrictive covenants and covenants relating to confidential information. The claimant had previously obtained an interim injunction in relation to the first defendant's activities and applied to continue the injunction. The principal issue in the action was whether the first defendant had signed or had otherwise agreed to be bound by the written contract on which the claimant relied. The Queen's Bench Division, on established principle, continued the injunction and ordered a speedy trial. 

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. 

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. 

Trade Union – Member. The Employment Appeal Tribunal (the EAT) dismissed the appeal by a member of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) against a decision of the Certification Officer (CO) to reject all but one of his complaints that the NUM had breached its Rules by the matters set out by that member in his complaints. However, the EAT accepted that the CO had erred in including in the enforcement order on Complaint 1, text which had formed no part of remedying the breach of rule which he had found to have occurred. Accordingly, that text was deleted from the enforcement order. 

Will – Construction. The Chancery Division held that, on the true construction of a clause in a deceased's will, the ordinary and natural meaning of the words 'issue of mine' and 'such of my issue' respectively, included both the deceased's children and step-children and their children. 

Local government – Statutory powers. The claimant disabled children sought judicial review of the defendant local authority's proposed cut to the budget for the integrated disability service in its local offer. The Administrative Court held that the proposed local offer fell a considerable distance short of the statutory requirements and that the authority was over 20 years late in complying with its duty, under para 2 of Sch 2 to the Children Act 1989, to maintain a register of disabled children. As the claimants' did not seek substantive relief beyond factual findings, those factual findings were made. 

Negligence – Causation. Following the trial of a preliminary issue regarding the defendant's liability to the claimant in respect of her treatment for an infection and her subsequent total knee replacement, the Queen's Bench Division held that the defendant was liable in damages for the claimant having to undergo the total knee replacement in 2008 rather than when she would have been about 49 years old, and liable for the post total knee replacement infection and all of its consequences by way of the further infections and operations and the claimant's resulting disability. 

Immigration – Deportation. The respondent, MA, originated from Somalia and came to the United Kingdom, where he was granted indefinite leave to remain. MA was convicted of rape and attempted rape, for which he was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, and a decision to deport him to Somaliland was served. The First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) allowed MA's appeal against the deportation decision and the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) (the tribunal) dismissed the appellant Secretary of State's appeal. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, in allowing the Secretary of State's appeal, held, inter alia, that the FTT's error in having considered the case outside the Immigration Rules had been a material error of law and the matter would be remitted to the tribunal for reconsideration. 

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.