Profiles

Personal injuries – Limitation of actions – Time bar – Discretion to allow action to proceed. Court of Session: In an action in which relatives of persons killed when a bin lorry driven by the defenders' employee collided with pedestrians sought reparation from the defenders, who pled that the claims in that action were time-barred, the instance of an earlier action raised within the triennium having fallen as the summons was not called within 3 months and a day of its passing signet, the court was in no doubt that the balance of the equities came down in the pursuers' favour and that it should exercise its power under s 19A of the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973 to allow their claims to proceed.

Criminal evidence and procedure – Rape – Judge's charge – Distress – Corroboration of lack of reasonable belief of consent. High Court of Justiciary: Refusing an appeal against a conviction for rape in a case in which the appellant maintained that intercourse was consensual and the complainer that it took place whilst she was so intoxicated that she was incapable of consent, the court rejected a contention that the trial judge misdirected the jury on distress: her directions were erroneous in a number of respects, notably on both absence of reasonable belief and the need to provide corroborated evidence of that absence but those directions were entirely in the appellant's favour and the jury's verdict, based on the complainer's intoxication, would have been almost inevitable standing the state of the proof.

Immigration – Judicial review – Curtailment of leave to remain – Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visa – Working in breach of conditions. Court of Session: Refusing a reclaiming motion in judicial review proceedings in which a Nigerian national challenged the Home Secretary's decision to curtail his leave to remain for working in breach of the conditions of his Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visa, the court rejected contentions that the Lord Ordinary, in refusing the petition, had erred, firstly by proceeding on the basis that in order for the petitioner to comply with the conditions of his leave to remain there required to be a connection between the nature of the work he did and the nature of the work he had proposed to do when applying for leave, and secondly by refusing to explore the true nature of the petitioner's employment status.

Bankruptcy – Sequestration – Recovery of council tax – Warrants to cite. Sheriff Court: In three petitions for sequestration in which a local authority sought warrants to cite the respondents following the grant of summary warrants for unpaid council tax and the expiry of charges, the petitioner maintaining that although each expired charge sought payment of less than £3,000 it was a qualified creditor for the purposes of s 7 of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016 by virtue of other debts which the respondents were due to the council, the court concluded that as the petitioner had not provided prima facie evidence of any debt apart from those disclosed in the charges and, separately, as the procedures it adopted did not comply with either the underlying purposes of Sch 8 to the Local Government Finance Act 1992 or what were now ss 2 and 7 of the 2016 Act, it should refuse to grant warrants to cite in each case.

Disclosure and inspection of documents – Public interest immunity. The Competition and Markets Authority (the CMA) was granted various warrants under s 28 of the Competition Act 1998, concerning an investigation into suspected anti-competitive behaviours in relation to a number of pharmaceutical drugs. The defendant (Concordia) applied to have the warrant granted in respect of it discharged to the extent that it applied to certain medicines. Prior to that application being heard, the Chancery Division considered whether Concordia could have sight of certain confidential material submitted in support of the CMA's application or whether non-disclosure could be justified, as the CMA submitted, on the ground of public interest immunity.