Latest Cases

European Union – Rules on competition. The General Court of the European Union dismissed the application by Toshiba Corp. (Toshiba) for annulment of a decision by the European Commission in which the Commission had found that over a certain period, in breach of European Union competition law, Toshiba had participated in an unlawful cartel covering the entire European Economic Area, consisting of an oral agreement between European and Japanese producers of power transformers to respect each other's home markets and to refrain from selling in those markets. The General Court further refused to cancel or reduce the fine of €13.2m that the Commission had imposed on Toshiba. 

Disclosure and inspection of documents – Application. The claimant had been imprisoned for the murder of his girlfriend. He sought the disclosure of further information relating to the case from the police. The first defendant Chief Constable refused to disclose documents to the extent required by the claimant. The claimant commenced an application for judicial review, seeking, among other things, an order requiring the Chief Constable to grant him access to the prosecution evidence. The Supreme Court held, in dismissing the application, that there was no indefinitely continuing duty on the police or prosecution either in the same form as existed pre-trial or to respond to whatever enquiries the claimant might make for access to the case materials to allow re-investigation. 

Patent – Validity. The claimant company issued proceedings to invalidate the defendant company's patents concerning a dosage regimen and composition of a monoclonal antibody called trastuzumab, a major breakthrough in *** cancer therapy. The Patents Court held that the patents were invalid. The patent concerning the dosage regimen was obvious in the light of the state of the art, and the patent concerning composition was anticipated and lacked inventive step. 

Judgment – Default judgment. The proceedings concerned a dispute over non-payment of the full amount for a cargo of oil. The Commercial Court set aside a default judgment against a foreign defendant with conditions attached, where the claim against him involved serious allegations of dishonesty and to maintain the judgment in default deprived him of any prospect of vindicating his defence and, importantly,where the judgment was possibly for an excessive sum to which the claimant was not fully entitled. 

Pleading – Counterclaim. Negotiations took place concerning the financial future of Coventry City Football Club. The negotiations broke down, and the claimant trustees commenced proceedings. The defendant company counterclaimed, submitting that it had been an implied term of an agreement between the parties that the negotiations would be conducted in good faith, and that the trustees would not do anything to impede the performance of certain conditions precedent. The Mercantile Court held that there was no justification for reading into the contract the elements sought by the defendant, and the counterclaim would be dismissed. 

Contract – Construction. Shares in a company had been used as security for a loan along with an equitable mortgage of a valuable property in France. The company whose shares had been used as security took over the loan as borrower. The lender assigned its benefit under the loan to another company. The villa was sold to the defendants in part settlement of money obtained by fraud by the man who owned the company that had taken out the loan. The lender and assignee claimed actionable interference with their rights and a breach of the loan agreement. The judge found in favour of the lender and assignee. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division upheld the judge's decision for the reasons he had given and dismissed the appeal. 

Personal injury – Negligence – Duty of care. Court of Session: Pronouncing decree of absolvitor in an action in which the pursuer, who was struck and blinded in the right eye by a golf ball hit by the defender during a golf tournament, sought damages, claiming the defender was negligent, the court held that the defender played his shot in the ordinary course of play, the danger of the pursuer's being hit by the shot was a risk incidental to the competition, which he accepted when undertaking the task of officiating, and the injury he sustained was not caused by an error of judgment on the defender's part that a reasonable competitor, being a reasonable man of the sporting world, would not have made. 

Criminal law – Costs. The Director of Public Prosecutions sought judicial review of the judge's order that the Crown Prosecution Service should pay the costs incurred by an acquitted defendant, under s 19 of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985. The Divisional Court, in allowing the application, held that the judge had no jurisdiction to use s 19 of the Act at the end of the trial as a means of impugning the prosecutorial discretion. Further, the court had jurisdiction to set aside the judge's order, as the judge had had no jurisdiction to make the order. 

Immigration – Asylum – Refusal of leave to appeal. Court of Session: In judicial review proceedings in which a failed Afghan asylum seeker challenged a decision of the Upper Tribunal (UT) refusing him leave to appeal against a decision of the First Tier Tribunal, and also applied for interim suspension of a subsequent decision to return him to Afghanistan, the court, granting the motion for interim suspension along with first orders, held that the petitioner had presented a prima facie case that there was a compelling reason for the court to review the UT's decision. 

European Union – Trade marks. The General Court of the European Union dismissed three actions brought by European Drinks SA (ED) against three decisions of the Fourth Board of Appeal of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (Cases R 680/2011-4, R 682/2011-4 and R 679/2011-4), concerning three opposition proceedings between ED and SC Alexandrion Grup Romania Srl (SC) relating to SC's three applications for registration of the figurative signs 'Dracula Bite' as Community trade marks.