Latest Cases

Partnership – Dissolution. In order to make a valuation clause in the family farming partnership agreement workable, the court had to read in amendments so that so that it was not requiring the Continuing Partners in the partnership to pay unknown sums. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, held it was necessary to decide when the purchase price was ascertained for the purposes of cl 13 and that was the date on which the accounts had been produced by the accountants.

Housing – Local authority. The second defendant charity's arrangements for the allocation of its social housing properties, which in effect precluded any persons who were not members of the Orthodox Jewish community from becoming tenants, were justified as proportionate under ss 158 and 193 of the Equality Act 2010. The Divisional Court further dismissed the claimants' challenge to the first defendant local housing authority's arrangements for the nomination of applicants to the properties, as once it was established that the second defendant was legally entitled to discriminate, the core of their case against it dissolved.

Agent – Commercial Agent. The claimant energy mediator was entitled to compensation, pursuant to the Commercial Agents (Council Directive) Regulations 1993, following the defendant energy retailer's repudiatory beach of contract. Accordingly, the Chancery Division held, among other things, that the sum of £1,049,600 would be payable by the defendant to the claimant.

Town and country planning – Grant of planning permission – Development plan –Football stadium development. Court of Session: Refusing a petition seeking reduction of a planning authority's decision to grant planning permission for a football stadium development on a green belt site, contrary to the provisions of the local development plan, the court rejected contentions that the council had made material errors of law in the interpretation and application of its own development policy and that it had failed to establish the necessary factual basis for the sequential approach that it adopted in concluding that there was no alternative available site.

Property – Beneficial ownership. The claimant's application for a declaration that he was the sole beneficial owner of three properties succeeded. The Chancery Division held that, on the evidence, the claimant was entitled to have the legal title of the properties transferred to his sole name.

Extradition – Judicial authority. The Prosecutor General's Office in Lithuania was a 'judicial authority' for the purposes of s 2(2) of the Extradition Act 2003, and for the purposes of the Council of the European Union Framework Decision on the European Arrest Warrant and Surrender Procedures between Member States of the European Union 2002/584/JHA. The Divisional Court, in dismissing an application for permission to appeal, held that to seek to argue to the contrary was unarguable.

Commercial contract – Terms – Construction. Court of Session: Refusing a reclaiming motion in an action which concerned a contract for the supply of equipment and personnel for the removal and relocation of soil on the seabed close to an offshore wind farm, in which the commercial judge found the defenders liable, in terms of the contract, to pay the pursuers for the services of a sub-sea excavator and its crew after the machine became stuck on the sea-bed because its lifting lug failed when it was being lifted, the court held that the commercial judge had not misapplied the terms of the contract to the facts of the incident: he was not wrong in his interpretation of the terms 'breakdown' and 'temporary abandonment' in the contract; and in relation to the defenders' counterclaim he had not misconstrued its indemnity provisions.

Family proceedings – Orders in family proceedings. Although s 51A of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 had introduced a bespoke statutory regime for the regulation of post-adoption contact, the law remained that it would only be in an extremely unusual case that a court would make an order stipulating contact arrangement to which the adopters of a child did not agree. While there might be justification in considering some form of direct contact, the ultimate decision as to what contact was to take place was for the adopters. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, so ruled in dismissing the appellant natural parents' appeal against the dismissal of their application for post adoption contact with their child.

Proceeds of crime – Confiscation order. A confiscation order was varied, so as to include a tainted gift, namely money which the defendant had given to his girlfriend for the purchase of a council house. The Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, in allowing the prosecution's appeal, ruled that the possibility of hardship or injustice to a third party was not the relevant test under s 6(5)(b) of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, as amended, and that, accordingly, the Recorder had fallen into error in applying the concept of proportionality in s 6(5)(b), in circumstances where he had ruled that it would be disproportionate to include the tainted gift in the confiscation order made against the defendant, who had pleaded guilty to money laundering.

Public procurement – Public contracts. It was well established that a general reference to an alleged breach of the Defence and Security Public Contract Regulations 2011, SI 2011/1848 (the 2011 Regulations), was not enough; the notice had to identify the actual breach complained of. What mattered was a clear statement of the alleged breach by reference to those Regulations, and a stated intention to commence proceedings. Applying those principles, the Technology and Construction Court dismissed the application by the Secretary of State for Defence to strike out certain passages in Serco Ltd's claim, seeking to challenge a procurement exercise carried out by the Ministry of Defence. The court took the view that although Serco could only rely on the 2011 Regulations, the information Serco had identified in its two pre-action letters made it clear that its attack was on the whole of the scoring criteria.