Latest Cases

Contract – Construction. The proceedings concerned an application for a stay, arising out of proceedings brought by the authority, which the defendant contended breached a term of the contract, made on the FIDIC General Conditions of Contract for EPC/Turnkey Projects issued by FIDIC in 1999, which provided that disputes would be adjudicated by a dispute adjudication board. The Technology and Construction Court, in granting a stay, held that the contract required that the determination of the present dispute was to be by way of adjudication and amicable settlement and, only failing that, by litigation. 

Costs – Order for costs. In a dispute concerning costs, the claimant was required to file Further Information, which it failed to file on time as the result of an oversight. The claimant submitted that, among other things, there had been no breach of the CPR in failing to provide the Further Information at the commencement of the detailed assessment proceedings. The Chancery Division held that, although there had been breach, the claimant's appeal against the finding of the costs judge would be allowed on the basis that an incorrect sanction had been applied. 

Consumer credit – Agreement. The claimant contended that his relationship with the defendant lender had been unfair, under ss 140A and 140B of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, because of the way in which the defendant had exercised or enforced its rights under a mortgage, given its knowledge of his mental disability. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, held that the claimant had not established that his relationship with the defendant had been unfair in the way alleged. 

Child – Protection. A baby born by emergency caesarean section, he later suffered acute cardio-respiratory deterioration and required mechanical ventilation. The NHS Trust caring for the baby brought the matter to court to ask for permission to withdraw ventilation, which would inevitably result in the baby's death. The parents did not agree to the withdrawal of ventilation. The Family Division held that it was in the child's best interests to withdraw ventilation. 

Education – School. The claimant local authority sought judicial review of the defendant Independent Appeal Panel's decision, allowing the parents' appeal against the claimant's refusal to offer a place to the child at a specific school on the basis that the offer was not withdrawn in a reasonable time frame. The Administrative Court, in allowing the application, held that the defendant had erred by considering the failure to withdraw the offer within a reasonable time had, in itself, necessarily made the withdrawal of the offer and the consequent refusal to admit unreasonable in a public law sense. It had failed to consider any prejudice to the parties. 

Injunction – Interim injunction. The claimant son of a recording artist sought an injunction to stop publication of a semi-autobiographical book, written by his father. A judge dismissed the claim on various grounds. The claimant appealed. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division dismissed the appeal on the questions whether the claimant had a cause of action for misuse of private information or negligence. However, it held that the claimant had sufficiently favourable prospects on the facts of the case of establishing at trial his claim that the publication by the defendants of the work in its present form would constitute intentional conduct causing him psychiatric harm to justify an injunction restraining publication of parts of the work pending trial. 

Company – Administration order. The Chancery Division, Companies Court, considered an application by the former joint administrators of Brilliant Independent Media Specialists Ltd (In Liquidation) (the company) for the court to fix their remuneration pursuant to r 2.106 and 2.108 of the Insolvency Rules 1986, SI 1986/1925. Taking into account the outcome of the administration and the benefit achieved the court held that £233,147.25 was a fair, reasonable and proportionate sum. 

Immigration – Detention. In the case of R (Refugee Legal Centre) v Secretary of State for the Home Department[2004] All ER (D) 201 (Nov), the court held that the Detained Fast Track system, which provided an accelerated method of dealing with straightforward asylum claims, operated unfairly, and hence unlawfully, but only in specific ways. The appellant action group appealed against that finding. The Court of Appeal, in dismissing the appeal, held that the judge had been correct not to have given any relief in addition to the declaratory order which he had made. 

Damages – Personal injury. The claimant, accidentally fell and fractured his ankle whilst at work for the defendant. The claimant claimed that he fell on black ice, and that the defendant was liable for the resultant physical damage, pain and suffering and financial loss. It was contended that his fall was caused by common law negligence on the part of the defendant alternatively by breaches by the defendant of statutory duties imposed by the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 (the workplace regulations) and the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. Regulation 12(3) of the workplace regulations provided to the effect that every surface of every traffic route in a workplace was to kept free from obstructions which might cause a person to slip, trip or fall, so far as was 'reasonably practicable'. It was common ground that the access road constituted a traffic route in a workplace for the purposes of reg 12(3) and that the ice on the access road. The trial judge held in favour of the defendant. The claimant appealed and the appeal was dismissed. 

Race relations – Discrimination. The employment tribunal struck out two aspects of the employee's claim of race discrimination and unlawful detriment by reason of his having made a protected disclosure. It made other aspects of the claim subject to deposit orders. The Employment Appeal Tribunal held that, among other things, the tribunal had not erred in the striking out, and had erred only with regard to one of the aspects made subject to a deposit order.