Civil litigation
Scott v LGBT Foundation Ltd — [2020] 4 WLR 62
DATA PROTECTION — Sensitive personal data — Disclosure to third party — Whether verbal communication of personal data to third party without data subject’s consent unlawful — Data Protection Act 1998, ss 1, 2, 55 — Council Directive 95/46/EC, art 2(1)
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Civil litigation
Kavaarupo v Nursing and Midwifery Council — [2020] 4 WLR 61
MEDICAL PRACTITIONER — Fitness to practise committee — Appeal — Midwife struck off in light of finding of dishonesty — Midwife seeking permission at appeal hearing to advance previously unpleaded ground of appeal — Whether permission to be granted to amend grounds of appeal
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Civil litigation
Sternberg Reed Solicitors v Harrison — [2020] 2 WLR 176
EVIDENCE — Privilege — “Without prejudice” communication — Party in arbitration proceedings sending communication to opposing party offering to settle dispute — Defendant not heading communication “without prejudice” — Whether “without prejudice” rule engaged by implication — Whether communication admissible for purpose of determining costs
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Civil litigation
Sternberg Reed Solicitors v Harrison — [2020] Ch 223
EVIDENCE — Privilege — “Without prejudice” communication — Party in arbitration proceedings sending communication to opposing party offering to settle dispute — Defendant not heading communication “without prejudice” — Whether “without prejudice” rule engaged by implication — Whether communication admissible for purpose of determining costs
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European Union
Aspen Underwriting Ltd v Credit Europe Bank NV — [2020] 2 WLR 919
CONFLICT OF LAWS — Jurisdiction under European Union Regulation — Exclusive jurisdiction — Insured assigning rights under insurance policy to assignee — Insurers paying sum to assignee under insurance policy — Insurers subsequently bringing proceedings seeking damages and restitution of sum — Whether assignee bound by exclusive jurisdiction clause in policy
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European Union
Secretary of State for Health v Servier Laboratories Ltd — [2020] Ch 193
EUROPEAN COURT OF JUSTICE — Judgment — Res judicata — Claimants seeking damages in English court in respect of defendants’ anti-competitive conduct — European Commission giving decision in relation to defendants’ anti-competitive conduct — Part of decision subsequently annulled by General Court of the European Union — Whether General Court’s factual findings binding as res judicata in English proceedings
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Costs
XDE v North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust — [2020] WLR(D) 239
COSTS — Order for costs — Success fees and after the event insurance premiums — Claimant changing funding from legal aid to conditional fee agreement — Guidance in previous authority establishing broad equivalence between CFA-lite and legal aid funding — Whether guidance of general application in assessing reasonableness of costs consequences of change in funding
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Crime
R v KK — [2020] 4 WLR 63
CRIME — Jury — Irregularity relating to jury — Proper application of steps to follow where use of internet during jury’s deliberations
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Crime
Dines v Director of Public Prosecutions — [2020] WLR(D) 242
CRIME — Sentence — Confiscation order — Criminal proceedings against appellants commenced in Italy for tax fraud — Appellants entering into "patteggiamento" consisting of a negotiated agreement for a penalty in criminal cases — Confiscation orders also made — Whether foreign confiscation order to be registered in this jurisdiction — Whether patteggiamento equating to criminal conviction under Italian law — Whether counting as criminal conviction for purposes of English law — Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (External Requests and Orders) Order 2005 (SI 2005/3181), art 21
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Crime
R v Gabbai (Edward) — [2019] WLR(D) 60
CRIME — Practice — Trial — Judge reciting statutory definition of rape in summing up but omitting requirement penetration be intentional from route to verdict — Whether jury missing importance of requirement for key aspect of offence of rape
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Crime
R v Anekore — [2020] 4 WLR 57
CRIME — Non-molestation order — Breach — Defendant made subject to non-molestation order in family proceedings prohibiting sending of intimidating communications to complainant — Defendant driving past complainant and shouting abuse — Defendant charged with breach of order — Whether shouting abuse amounting to sending communication
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Crime
R (Shields-McKinley) v Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor — [2020] QB 521
CRIME — Sentence — Imprisonment — Claimant extradited to United Kingdom from Germany — Claimant convicted and sentenced to extended sentence of imprisonment — Recorder failing to specify number of days claimant detained in Germany pending extradition for purposes of sentence calculation — Governor failing to give credit for those days in calculating release date — Whether governor erring — Whether claimant entitled to credit for days on remand in Germany — Whether Secretary of State’s failure to exercise prerogative power to order release rendering continued detention unlawful — Whether breach of claimant’s right to liberty — Human Rights Act 1998 (c 42), Sch 1, Pt I, art 5 — Criminal Justice Act 2003 (c 44) (as amended by Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (c 10), ss 108(1)(2), 110(8), Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014 (c 11), s 9(6) and Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 (c 2), s 6, Sch 1, para 16), ss 240ZA, 243(2)(2A) — Council Framework Decision 2002/584/JHA, art 26
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Employment
Heal v Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford — [2020] WLR(D) 241
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS — Employment tribunals — Procedure — Recording of proceedings — Disabled claimant applying for use of recording equipment as adjustment for disability — Employment judges ordering application to be heard at preliminary hearing — Whether correct — Observations on use of recording devices as adjustment — Contempt of Court Act 1981 (c 49), s 9
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Employment
Basfar v Wong — [2020] WLR(D) 240
CONFLICT OF LAWS — Sovereign immunity — Diplomatic immunity — Employment — Claimant employed to carry out domestic work for diplomat at diplomatic residence — Claim of constructive dismissal and failure to pay national minimum wage — Employer claiming diplomatic immunity — Whether claimant’s employment “commercial activity” outside diplomat’s official functions — Diplomatic Privileges Act 1964 (c 81), Sch 1, arts 39(1), 39(2)
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Employment
NH v Associazione Avvocatura per i diritti LGBTI — Rete Lenford — [2020] WLR(D) 238
DISCRIMINATION — Employment — Sexual orientation — Public statements ruling out recruitment of homosexual persons — No recruitment procedure opened or planned — Whether “conditions for access to employment” satisfied — Whether member state entitled to determine conditions under which association representing collective interests could bring legal proceedings — Whether association representing collective interests having standing to bring proceedings without acting in name of specific complainant or in absence of injured party — Whether association entitled to damages — Council Directive 2000/78/EC, arts 3(1)(a), 8(1), 9(2)
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Employment
Various Claimants v Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc — [2020] 2 WLR 941
VICARIOUS LIABILITY — Employment — Course of employment — Defendant’s employee publishing personal details of other employees on internet in order to harm defendant — Whether defendant vicariously liable for acts of employee — Whether wrongful acts done in course of employment
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European Union
Subdelegación del Gobierno en Ciudad Real v RH — [2020] 4 WLR 59
EUROPEAN UNION — Freedom of movement — Right to reside — Application for residence permit by third-country national spouse of Union citizen — Union EU citizen never exercising freedom of movement — Application refused pursuant to national legislation on basis Union citizen having insufficient resources — Whether Union citizen deprived of enjoyment of substance of rights — Whether relationship of dependency between Union citizen and spouse — Whether EU law precluding national legislation — FEU Treaty, art 20FEU
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European Union
Pfizer Consumer Healthcare Ltd v Revenue and Customs Comrs — [2020] 4 WLR 58
EUROPEAN UNION — Reference for a preliminary ruling — Common Customs Tariff — Combined Nomenclature — Tariff classification — Heading 3005 and heading 3824 — Self-heating patches and belts to relieve pain — Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1140 — Invalidity
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European Union
Tibor-Trans Fuvarozó és Kereskedelmi Kft v DAF Trucks NV — [2020] 1 WLR 1477
CONFLICT OF LAWS — Jurisdiction under European Union Regulation — Special jurisdiction — Matters relating to tort, delict or quasi-delict — Place of harmful event — Claimant seeking compensation for damage caused by defendant cartel member’s collusive arrangements on pricing for trucks — Claimant not having established contractual relations with defendant — Whether place where victim claimed to have suffered damage being “place where the harmful event occurred” — Parliament and Council Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012, art 7(2)
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Family
Potanin v Potanina — [2020] Fam 189
MARRIAGE — Divorce — Financial provision — Russian court dissolving parties’ marriage and ordering financial provision for wife — Wife applying to English court for financial relief — Whether appropriate for English court to order financial relief — Whether court entitled to dismiss wife’s application on ground of lack of connection with England and Wales — Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act 1984 (c 42), s 16 (as amended by Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments (Maintenance) Regulations 2011 (SI 2011/1484), Sch 7, para 10) — Council Regulation (EC) No 4/2009
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Family
Cowan v Foreman — [2020] Fam 129
FAMILY PROVISION — Surviving spouse — Reasonable financial provision — Wife principal beneficiary of trusts — Wife claiming will failing to make reasonable provision — Wife seeking to bring claim out of time against trustees — Whether sufficient reasons to justify delay in bringing claim — Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, ss 2, 4
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Family
Moher v Moher — [2020] Fam 160
HUSBAND AND WIFE — Financial provision — Disclosure of material facts — Husband failing to provide full disclosure of financial assets — Award to wife of lump sum with interest if payment not made by specific date as well as periodical payments — Further order preventing husband from applying for decree absolute until declaration of required steps taken to obtain religious divorce — Court’s approach to party’s failure to provide full and frank disclosure — Whether lump sum award properly made — Whether interest on award allowed — Whether periodical payments until grant of religious divorce valid — Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 (c 18) (as amended by Divorce (Religious Marriages) Act 2002 (c 27), s 1(1), Administration of Justice Act 1982 (c 53), s 16 and Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act 1984 (c 42), s 3), ss 10A, 23, 25
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Land law
Thirunavukkrasu v Brar — [2020] Bus LR 611
LANDLORD AND TENANT — Forfeiture of lease — Re-entry — Landlord exercising statutory commercial rent arrears recovery mechanism — Landlord subsequently purporting to forfeit lease by re-entry — Whether landlord having waived right of forfeiture by exercising statutory mechanism — Common Law Procedure Act 1852 (15 & 16 Vict c 76), s 210 — Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 (c 15), ss 72, 79
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Public law
McGrath v Camden London Borough Council — [2020] Bus LR 643
RATING — Business — Business Improvement District levy — Billing authority serving demand notice on business ratepayer requiring him to pay levy — Notice failing to supply information required under Regulations — Whether notice invalid — Business Improvement Districts (England) Regulations 2004 (SI 2004/2443), Sch 4, paras 3, 4(1)
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Public law
R (Wiltshire Council) v Secretary of State for Housing Communities and Local Government — [2020] WLR(D) 244
PLANNING — Development — Planning permission — Inspector allowing appeal against local planning authority’s refusal of planning permission to change use of separate annexed accommodation from ancillary to independent residential accommodation — Whether proposed development involving “subdivision of an existing residential dwelling” — Whether falling within exception to general policy of avoiding development of isolated homes in countryside — Whether inspector erring — National Planning Policy Framework (2019), para 79(d)
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Public law
R (Sawkill) v Highways England Co Ltd — [2020] WLR(D) 243
STATUTE — Construction — General and specific powers — Powers of entry onto land — Highway authority having power under different statutory provisions — Whether one power more general or specific than other — Whether powers exclusive or overlapping — Whether authority having choice of which power to exercise — Planning Act 2008 (c 29), ss 53(1), 120 — Housing and Planning Act 2016 (c 22), ss 172, 174(3)
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Public law
R (Debono) v Parole Board for England and Wales — [2020] 4 WLR 60
PRISONS — Prisoners’ rights — Transfer to open conditions — Claimant serving indeterminate sentence of imprisonment for public protection — Parole Board declining to recommend claimant’s transfer to open conditions — Whether decision unlawful — Whether failure to take into account Secretary of State’s directions — Whether failure to undertake balancing exercise required by directions
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Public law
R (Miller) v Prime Minister (Lord Advocate intervening) — [2019] 3 WLR 589
CROWN — Minister — Exercise of prerogative power — Prime Minister’s decision to advise Crown to prorogue Parliament for five-week period — Prorogation taking effect during period leading up to stipulated date for United Kingdom’s withdrawal from European Union — Terms of withdrawal remaining undecided — Challenge to lawfulness of advice on ground prorogation having effect of limiting scrutiny of executive at time of constitutional change — Whether justiciable — Whether decision outside legal limits of prerogative power — Whether advice to be declared unlawful — Whether prorogation “proceeding in Parliament” so as to preclude additional declaration that prorogation null and of no effect — Bill of Rights (1688) (1 Will & Mary, sess 2, c 2), art 9
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Public law
R (Miller) v Prime Minister (Lord Advocate intervening) — [2020] AC 373
CROWN — Minister — Exercise of prerogative power — Prime Minister’s decision to advise Crown to prorogue Parliament for five-week period — Prorogation taking effect during period leading up to stipulated date for United Kingdom’s withdrawal from European Union — Terms of withdrawal remaining undecided — Challenge to lawfulness of advice on ground prorogation having effect of limiting scrutiny of executive at time of constitutional change — Whether justiciable — Whether decision outside legal limits of prerogative power — Whether advice to be declared unlawful — Whether prorogation “proceeding in Parliament” so as to preclude additional declaration that prorogation null and of no effect — Bill of Rights (1688) (1 Will & Mary, sess 2, c 2), art 9
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Public law
R (Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens) v Secretary of State for the Home Department — [2020] 1 WLR 1486
NATIONALITY — British citizenship — Fees — Children applying for registration as British citizens unable to afford registration fee — Whether regulations prescribing registration fee ultra vires — Whether regulations made in breach of Secretary of State’s statutory duty to have regard to need to safeguard and promote children’s welfare — British Nationality Act 1981 (c 61), ss 1(4), 3(1) — Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 (c 11), s 55 — Immigration Act 2014 (c 22), s 68 — Immigration and Nationality (Fees) Order 2016 (SI 2016/177), art 10 — Immigration and Nationality (Fees) Regulations 2018 (SI 2018/330), reg 10, Sch 8, Table 19
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Tax
Union Castle Mail Steamship Co Ltd v Revenue and Customs Comrs — [2020] WLR(D) 237
REVENUE — Corporation tax — Derivatives — Taxpayer wholly-owned subsidiary issuing bonus shares to parent company carrying right to dividend transferring economic benefit of derivative contracts held by taxpayer — Taxpayer derecognising corresponding value of derivative contracts for accounting purposes — Whether derecognition giving rise to allowable loss for corporation tax purposes — Whether accounting debit consequent upon derecognition constituting loss — Whether loss arising to taxpayer from derivative contracts — Whether accounting debit fairly representing loss arising from derivative contracts — Whether accounting debit recognised in equity subject to accounting requirement applying to debit recognised in income — Finance Act 2002 (c 23), Sch 26
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Tort
Various Claimants v Barclays Bank plc — [2020] 2 WLR 960
NEGLIGENCE — Vicarious liability — Relationship akin to employment — Bank paying doctor to undertake pre-employment medical examinations of claimants — Doctor allegedly sexually assaulting claimants — Whether bank vicariously liable — Whether relationship between bank and doctor akin to employment — Whether sufficient that fair, just and reasonable to impose vicarious liability upon bank
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Tort
XX v Whittington Hospital NHS Trust — [2020] 2 WLR 972
Damages — Personal injuries — Loss of opportunity to have children — Claimant unable to have children because of defendant’s negligence — Claimant seeking damages for costs of surrogacy arrangements — Commercial surrogacy arrangements unlawful in England — Whether damages for costs of non-commercial surrogacy arrangements using claimant’s or donor’s eggs recoverable — Whether contrary to public policy to award damages for costs of commercial surrogacy arrangements in California — Surrogacy Arrangements Act 1985 (c 49), s 2(1) (as amended by Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (c 22), s 59(3))
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Trusts and Chancery
Group Seven Ltd v Nasir — [2020] Ch 129
TRUSTS — Fraudulent breach of trust — Dishonest assistance — Defendant assisting in breaches of trust by trustee and breaches of fiduciary duty by company director — Whether defendant dishonest — Whether suspicions short of blind-eye knowledge relevant to dishonesty
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Trusts and Chancery
Zavarco plc v Nasir — [2020] WLR(D) 236
DEBT — Cause of action — Merger in judgment — Company obtaining declaration that shares allotted to defendant unpaid for — Articles of association providing defendant continuing to be liable to pay for shares notwithstanding their forfeiture by company — Company bringing debt action to recover sum payable — Defendant claiming doctrine of merger applying with result that debt action extinguished by declaratory judgment — Whether doctrine of merger applying if declaration sole remedy granted
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Grece v Hunt — 2 QBD 389
THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT, 1858 (21 & 22 VICT. C. 98), SS. 62, 63 — The Public Health Act, 1848 (11 & 12 Vict. c. 63), s. 69 — Sewering, Paving, &c. — Liability of Owner of Premises — Expenses incurred by Local Board — Notice of Apportionment — Demand, when necessary — Time within which summary Proceedings may be taken — 11 & 12 Vict. c. 43, s. 11.
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Le Meunier v Le Meunier — [1894] AC 283
PRACTICE — Special Leave. — — Divorce - Ceylon
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