Latest Cases

Contract – Damages for breach. The claimant claimed to have entered into a collaboration agreement with the defendants which entitled it to an interest in four large oilfields in Iraqi Kurdistan. It claimed specific performance, or alternatively damages of more than $1.6bn on various different contractual and non-contractual grounds. Gulf Keystone, and two of its subsidiaries, which were also defendants, denied that they were parties to the collaboration agreement; and all of the defendants denied any liability to Excalibur. The Commercial Court gave judgment in the dispute in favour of the defendants. 

Employment – Discrimination. The proceedings concerned the first case relating to the equal terms under the Equality Act 2010. Two female port assistants brought a claim against the employer before the employment tribunal, alleging that they were entitled to be paid the same as output clerks, one of whom was a male, for performing like work. The tribunal rejected the employer's application to strike out the claim after the employees had conceded that they did not seek to contend that they had been directly discriminated against. The employer appealed. The Employment Appeal Tribunal, in dismissing the appeal, held that there remained a prima facie case of discrimination to be answered on the facts. Accordingly, the tribunal had been entitled to find as it had. 

Contract – Construction. The Commercial Court held that a restructuring swap entered into between the parties had been binding; the defendant's contention that it had not been because a condition precedent had not been satisfied would be rejected. 

Will – Husband of deceased being granted letter of administration in respect of deceased's estate. The claimant sought revocation of an existing grant of letters of administration to the deceased's husband in respect of a deceased's estate, on the ground that the deceased had not died intestate, but that she had previously made a will in Mumbai. The Chancery Division, in dismissing claimant's claim, held that, on the evidence, the deceased had not signed the will and the signature on the document had been forged. 

Court-Martial – Courts-Martial Appeal Court. The Court Martial Appeal Court held that it had no jurisdiction to hear an application for leave to appeal against an order lifting restrictions on the reporting of the name of a Marine convicted of the murder of an Afghan insurgent, together with the names of other Marines who were acquitted. Accordingly, that application would be considered as an application for judicial review by the Court sitting as a Divisional Court of the Queen's Bench Division. It further held that there was no basis for assailing the findings that had been made by the Judge Advocate General in relation to the release to the media of a video and various images. The Divisional Court, in considering the application for judicial review, held that the identity of Marine A, who had been convicted of murder, had to be made public. The public interest in open justice was the same in relation to Marines B and C, who had been acquitted. As to Marines D and E, against whom proceedings had been discontinued, the matter would be remitted for consideration by the judge. 

Immigration – Deportation. The claimants were nationals of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (the DRC). R was a failed asylum seeker liable to deportation and P was a criminal deportee. They sought judicial review of the defendant Secretary of State's decisions to deport them to the DRC. The Administrative Court held that the decision that R would not be at risk of treatment contrary to art 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights had been reasonable, rational and based on objective country origin information. However, there was a real and substantial risk that P would be subjected to further imprisonment and ill-treatment if returned. 

European Union – Rules on competition. The General Court of the European Union dismissed the action brought by a company, established in Slovenia, in which that company had sought annulment of a contested decision taken by the European Commission to the effect that the company had participated in infringing European competition rules by, inter alia, price-fixing in the market for calcium carbide and magnesium for the steel and gas industries in the European Economic Area. The General Court further refused to reduce the fine imposed by the Commission on the applicant. 

Town and country planning – Grant of permission for development. The Administrative Court dismissed the claimant's application for judicial review of the defendant local authority's decision to grant planning permission to the interested party dismissing the claimant's allegation that in coming to the decision the planning committee had taken into consideration irrelevant considerations. 

European Union – Jurisdiction. The Court of Justice of the European Union made a preliminary ruling concerning the interpretation of arts 2 and 5(1)(a) and (b) of Council Regulation (EC) 44/2001 (on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters). The request had been made in proceedings between Corman-Collins SA, established in Belgium, and La Maison du Whisky SA, established in France, concerning a claim for compensation on account of the termination of an agreement for the distribution of goods between those companies. 

Employment – Worker. The Employment Appeal Tribunal, in dismissing the employees' appeal, held that, the employment tribunal had correctly construed the word 'temporary' in the Agency Workers Regulations 2010, SI 2010/93, to mean 'not permanent' and in holding that, on the facts, the employees had been placed by the first respondent with the second respondent on a permanent, and not a temporary, basis and, accordingly, fell outside the scope of those Regulations.