Court of Appeal (Civil Division) judgments, 2013

An appellate court may refuse to reinstate an appeal struck out for failure to comply with procedural orders and listing requirements where delay is wholly…

Permission to appeal in financial-remedy proceedings requires the proposed appeal to have a real prospect of success. A challenge to factual findings or the…

Occupational pension scheme rules should be construed purposively, in their commercial and administrative context, to give reasonable and practical effect to…

Patent claims must be construed purposively by asking what the skilled person would understand the claim language to mean. A claim requiring a…

An enhanced criminal record certificate may disclose unsubstantiated allegations, but disclosure requires a proportionate balance between protecting vulnerable…

Damages for negligent physical damage to a repairable chattel are measured by its diminution in value at the time of the tort. The reasonable cost of repair is…

An appellate court should not interfere with findings of fact unless they are plainly wrong. A trial judge need make only the findings necessary to decide the…

Where an appeal results in a retrial on some issues but not others, costs should reflect the self-contained issues on which each party has succeeded. The court…

A liability policy governed by English law ordinarily indemnifies only an actual legal liability. A judgment or an insurer-approved settlement may establish…

For an application concerning service out of the jurisdiction, the claimant must show a serious issue to be tried, expressed in current practice as a real…

Where property is registered in one person’s sole name, beneficial ownership is presumed to coincide with legal ownership. The person asserting otherwise bears…

Whether later conduct breaks the chain of contractual causation is a fact-sensitive question. The claimant must show that the later conduct obliterated the…

For the second limb of section 102(1)(b) of the Finance Act 1986, the question is whether the donee’s enjoyment of the gifted property remains exclusive of a…

Where a tax charge follows the ending of approval for a retirement benefits scheme, the relevant year depends on the statutory route by which approval ends.…

A planning permission for operational building works does not, without more, release a developer from continuing goods restrictions contained in a planning…

An on-demand performance guarantee is an autonomous contract. A beneficiary’s good-faith demand complying with the guarantee crystallises the bank’s immediate…

Priority for a patent claim is available only where the skilled person can derive the claimed subject matter directly and unambiguously, using common general…

For an appeal from the Upper Tribunal on a point of law, a finding about foreign law is ordinarily a finding of fact. The Court of Appeal may intervene only…

Where a statutory scheme makes permission a condition of an appeal, a general right of appeal from any decision does not ordinarily include an appeal against…

A tribunal’s discretionary refusal to permit a party to withdraw concessions and advance a wider case will stand where the discretion was exercised on a proper…

Apportionment of responsibility for contributory negligence is an evaluative task. Under the Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act 1945, the court must…

In exercising its broad discretion over costs, a first-instance court may defer an interim payment to allow an unsuccessful party to seek permission to appeal.…

In care proceedings, the statutory threshold is assessed at the date of the local authority’s application. Later improvements in a parent’s circumstances bear…

Whether an Environmental Impact Assessment or an Appropriate Assessment is required is distinct from whether precautionary planning conditions should be…

For harassment, offensive words or the offence caused do not by themselves establish that conduct was on racial grounds. The tribunal must ask why the speaker…

On annulment of a bankruptcy which ought never to have been ordered, the court has an unfettered discretion over the trustee’s costs. No presumption or rule…

Escrow money held by a stakeholder is held under a tripartite contract, not on trust. It remains payable only when the contractual event entitling a party to…

When deciding whether to extend time for a race discrimination claim, the tribunal must consider whether an extension is just and equitable in all the…

In public law children proceedings, a court deciding whether a child should give oral evidence must have sufficient time and preparation to consider the actual…

In an application for permission to appeal, the refusal to stay matrimonial proceedings in favour of foreign proceedings is a discretionary case-management…

For breach of a tenant’s repairing covenant at the end of a lease, common law damages are the reasonable cost of works necessary to put the premises into the…

Permission to appeal should be refused where the proposed grounds have no real prospect of success. In registered land, the vesting of property in a trustee in…

On an application under rule 3.9 of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998, the efficient and proportionate conduct of litigation and the enforcement of compliance are…

For the purposes of section 140A(1)(c) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, conduct may be done “on behalf of” a creditor without agency, vicarious liability or an…

Permission to appeal may be granted where the court has a real concern about an employment tribunal’s handling of a material change in the respondent’s case…

A placement for adoption order cannot be made subject to conditions governing the local authority’s choice of prospective adopters. Once the order is made…

On an application to adduce fresh evidence on appeal, the court applies Civil Procedure Rules 1998, rule 52.11 and the criteria in Ladd v Marshall [1954] 1 WLR…

Permission to appeal may be granted where the claimant’s standing is genuinely doubtful but the proposed appeal raises issues of sufficient public importance…

A stay of a permanent injunction pending appeal is a discretionary risk-management exercise. The court should ordinarily avoid ranking the parties’ merits once…

A contractual prohibition clause does not cancel a contract merely because an export restriction has been announced. The restriction must have a causal and…

For a contractual prohibition clause to operate, an executive or legislative act must be of a nature that itself expressly or implicitly relates to restricting…

Where no Framework-compliant Local Plan has set housing requirements, the five-year housing-land calculation must use the full objectively assessed housing…

An asylum applicant has an effective remedy under Article 39 of the Procedures Directive where judicial review provides independent and sufficiently thorough…

A housing authority complies with its duty to have regard to statutory homelessness guidance by addressing its substance. A review officer need not identify…

For intentional homelessness under section 191(1) of the Housing Act 1996, a deliberate act or omission must cause the applicant to cease occupying…

The statutory duty to endeavour to trace the family of an unaccompanied child asylum seeker must be commenced as soon as possible and integrated with the…

Patent claims must be construed purposively in context, using the description, drawings and the skilled person’s common general knowledge, while respecting…

A failure to serve a first claim form within the period required by Civil Procedure Rules 1998 does not automatically prevent a court from disapplying the…

An employer incurs liability for disability discrimination only if it has actual or constructive knowledge of the facts constituting the employee’s disability.…

An adjournment of an appeal requires sufficient grounds. The court may refuse an adjournment where the appellant has had ample time to prepare, has failed to…

Article 27 of Directive 2004/38/EC applies to measures that interfere, or may interfere, with free movement, including administrative detention connected with…

An accrued contractual right to an unpaid deposit survives the innocent party’s acceptance of a repudiatory breach. A deposit payable as security for…

A court has a broad power to control expert evidence under the Civil Procedure Rules 1998, but must exercise it consistently with a fair trial. If a site visit…

Absent an exceptional basis for departing from domestic precedent, a lower court must apply binding House of Lords authority on Convention claims even where…

An anti-social behaviour injunction should not be refused on equality grounds without evidence establishing the alleged protected characteristic. An…

A person may aid a regulatory offence without knowing that the conduct is unlawful or that statutory authorisation is required. Liability depends on…

A trial judge may conclude that an accident occurred in a way not advanced by either party. However, where the trial has been conducted on defined factual…

An applicant for pre-action disclosure under rule 31.16 of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 need not establish an arguable or prima facie claim as a…

An indirectly discriminatory rule governing social security benefits is justified unless it is manifestly without reasonable foundation. Whether a bright-line…

Paragraph 120B of Appendix A to the Immigration Rules leaves the evaluative question of academic progress to the sponsoring college. Academic progress may…

When an employer seeks to justify a provision which indirectly disadvantages an employee’s religious observance, the tribunal must balance its discriminatory…

An immigration detainee may be detained in a hospital for medical treatment under a direction made pursuant to Schedule 2 to the Immigration Act 1971. The…

Where a proposed amendment adds a new claim after limitation has expired and does not arise from the same or substantially the same facts, permission should be…

Where a renewed application for permission raises an important issue that was not expressly argued before the first-instance judge, a single judge may decline…

At the permission stage, an appeal may proceed where an arguable tribunal error and a substantial concern about the foundation of a safety-related finding…

Foreseeability of physical injury does not by itself establish the proximity required for a duty of care. The court must examine the defendant’s role, the…

The anticipatory duty to make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010 may require a public authority to consider obtaining further medical evidence…

In disciplinary proceedings that may lead to striking a solicitor from the Roll, a complaint alleging dishonesty must be supported by hard, credible evidence…

A tree preservation order may lawfully be made where a local planning authority is entitled to conclude that trees’ roots or canopies are at risk from track…

Failure to take account of a material planning policy document does not automatically justify quashing a decision. The court must ask whether any principle in…

A party may be added or substituted after limitation has expired only within the circumstances authorised by Limitation Act 1980, section 35, and the Civil…

In a claims-made insurance dispute, a court may withhold declaratory relief where proposed declarations are unclear, depend on disputed or untested facts, or…

Under regulation 13(2)(b) of the Motor Vehicles (Compulsory Insurance) (Information Centre and Compensation Body) Regulations 2003, compensation is assessed as…

Construction adjudication is a temporary stage. An adjudicator’s decision is binding until final determination by court, arbitration or agreement, but the…

Subrogation is a restitutionary equitable remedy. A claimant must establish enrichment at the claimant’s expense, unjustness, and absence of policy reasons to…

Permission to appeal requires a real prospect of success. The Court of Appeal is especially reluctant to interfere with a judge’s discretionary costs order and…

Where a general civil restraint order is made on the court’s own initiative without prior representations, the affected person has a right under rule 3.3(5)(a)…

A solicitor retained to draft a company’s executive service agreements may take instructions through the executives where the company has authorised them to…

A diagnosis of depression does not necessarily establish disability for the purposes of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. The claimant must prove an…

On a challenge under section 288 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, an inspector’s decision must be read fairly and as a whole, without excessive…

Guidance requiring a local authority to have due regard to the actual costs of providing residential care does not prescribe a structured, arithmetical or…

Under the revised CPR 3.9, the efficient and proportionate conduct of litigation and the enforcement of procedural obligations are of paramount importance.…

Where professional negligence causes necessary remedial works to be deferred, damages may reflect the reasonable cost of carrying out those works at the later…

In an Article 8 deportation appeal involving serious foreign criminality, a tribunal must give reasons showing how it weighed the public interest against the…

Article 32 of the Directive 2001/24/EC on the Reorganisation and Winding Up of Credit Institutions refers to the entirety of existing proceedings, not merely…

Permission for a private litigant to bring committal proceedings based on a false statement of truth depends on whether the proceedings serve the public…

The penalties doctrine can apply to a term triggered by breach even where it withholds an entitlement or requires property to be transferred at an undervalue.…

Failure to comply with the tracing duty for an unaccompanied asylum-seeking child affects the legal assessment of an asylum or humanitarian-protection claim…

Article 3(2)(a) of Directive 2004/38/EC requires an other family member seeking preferential treatment to have been dependent on, or a member of the household…

Apparent bias arises where a fair-minded and informed observer, having considered the relevant facts, would conclude that there is a real possibility that the…

A solicitor’s duty is measured by the retainer. A solicitor need not advise an experienced client on the commercial wisdom of a transaction without…

Under Civil Procedure Rules 1998, rule 52.9, the court must first identify a compelling reason to impose a condition on an existing permission to appeal and…

When determining whether an applicant is intentionally homeless, a local housing authority must apply the prescribed factual criteria under Housing Act 1996.…

Interim relief in immigration detention applications is determined by the balance of convenience. The court may refuse release where the substantive appeal can…

For intentional homelessness under section 191 of the Housing Act 1996, the applicant’s deliberate act or omission must have played a causative part in the…

A general transitional power to provide for the termination of judicial review proceedings does not, without specific and express language, authorise a…

Where national patent proceedings run concurrently with opposition proceedings before the European Patent Office, a stay is the default option if no other…

Success on substantive arguments does not necessarily justify an award of costs where an appeal produces no practical benefit and was destined to fail because…

Copyright protects the expression of an author’s intellectual creation, not ideas, functionality, methods of operation, programming language or data-file…

Once a parent has shown a change of circumstances under section 47(5) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002, the court must assess whether the parent has…

On an application under Adoption and Children Act 2002, section 47(5), the court must first consider whether circumstances have changed sufficiently and then…

A decision by a Competent Authority on trafficking is not itself an immigration decision carrying a statutory appeal. Judicial review remains the route for a…

In private law children proceedings, a without-notice prohibited steps order is an exceptional interference with a parent’s parental responsibility. It…

An appellate court may interfere with a first-instance costs order only where the judge erred in principle, considered an irrelevant matter, omitted a relevant…

A statutory time limit for planning enforcement is not, in principle, incompatible with the EIA Directive. Its compatibility falls within domestic procedural…

An assured shorthold tenancy originally granted for a fixed term may fall within section 21(1) after the fixed term ends and a periodic tenancy arises. Section…

For regulation 5, a contract is “made” when a legally binding agreement is concluded, not when negotiations begin. A credit hire agreement signed at a…

In construing a conveyance or transfer plan, the court must consider the instrument as a whole together with admissible evidence of the physical features known…

Where an oral application for permission to appeal is heard on notice to the respondent, the court does not thereby direct the respondent to file submissions…

Whether an advertisement is directed towards a political end under the Communications Act 2003 is determined objectively from its text. The advertiser’s…

A local authority must operate its published housing allocation scheme lawfully, but procedural requirements cannot be used as a trap where the authority’s own…

A contractual jurisdiction clause covering disputes “under” an agreement does not ordinarily extend to a purely non-contractual competition-law damages claim…

Where a charterparty exception refers to “mechanical breakdown at mechanical loading plants”, its meaning depends on the particular wording, the charterparty…

A trade mark is excluded from registration under Article 7(1)(c) where at least one possible meaning designates a characteristic of the relevant goods or…

For gaming duty, the value in money or money’s worth of chips staked is their face value. A commission payable under a separate incentive agreement does not…

A claim under sections 238 and 241 of the Insolvency Act 1986 requires an identified transaction which the company itself entered into at the relevant time.…

A settlement which releases one or more joint tortfeasors ordinarily releases all joint tortfeasors. A claimant may preserve a right to sue the others by an…

A defamation claim may be struck out as an abuse of process under the Jameel principle only where it is not a real and substantial tort, or where the likely…

A judgment against a person in an individual capacity does not bind that person in a trustee capacity. A beneficiary is therefore not bound by earlier…

A claim in unjust enrichment cannot be summarily dismissed merely because the claimant conferred a benefit while mistakenly pursuing its own interests. The…

An ombudsman may refer a complaint back to the authorised person where it had already been made to that person but was not received or resolved. Sending on a…

Whether a term has arisen from custom, practice or conduct is determined by ordinary contractual principles. The court asks what employees reasonably…

Under the Brussels II Revised Regulation, jurisdiction in parental-responsibility proceedings generally lies with the Member State where the child was…

The ETO exception under Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 regulation 7 requires an intensely fact-sensitive and subjective…

Costs orders in Employment Tribunals are discretionary. On appeal, the court should not reanalyse each item of conduct or require a precise causal link between…

The general sale power in section 32 of the Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908 applies to allotment land whose management vested in a parish council under…

Immigration detention pending a decision on an exception to automatic deportation must last no longer than is reasonable in all the circumstances. The…

A follow-on damages claim under section 47A of the Competition Act 1998 is not confined to breach of statutory duty. It may employ any cause of action…

A trust special administrator may recommend, and the Secretary of State may decide upon, only action in relation to the NHS trust to which the administrator…

An allegation of an implied representation should not be rejected summarily where its existence depends on the full factual context. A bank proposing a…

Permission to appeal may be granted where the proposed ground has a real prospect of success. An arguable procedural irregularity in a non-party costs order…

Permission from the registered owner, whether express or implied, prevents occupation being adverse for limitation purposes. Implied permission must arise from…

An applicant’s residence in a local authority district may be of her own choice, despite restricted options and an urgent need for refuge. The question is…

Whether a structural feature of holiday accommodation complies with local safety standards is ordinarily assessed by reference to the standards applying when…

For a prescription medicine, the relevant product-market customer is not the pharmacist acting as an intermediary. The inquiry focuses on the patient…

In a discrimination claim, the relevant question is why the treatment causing the detriment occurred. Race need only be one reason influencing the treatment…

Trustees’ power to exercise a discretion under a charity’s constitution does not exclude judicial supervision. Where the true construction of the trust imposes…

Under Part 8 of the Civil Procedure Rules, costs-only proceedings are distinct from the detailed assessment proceedings that follow a costs order. A default…

For Article 6 purposes, condemnation and forfeiture proceedings must be classified as civil or criminal by applying the Engel criteria. The domestic…

Hearsay evidence is admissible in children proceedings, but its weight must be assessed critically in the context of all the evidence. Where an absent adult…

Common-law negligence requires a foreseeable risk judged by contemporary knowledge. A non-delegable employer’s duty does not make the employer liable for an…

The public sector equality duty requires a decision-maker personally to confront, before and during policy formation, the foreseeable equality consequences of…

A breach of a mandatory statutory duty does not make a subsequent safeguarding-listing decision invalid unless Parliament can fairly be taken to have intended…

A local authority’s decision to reduce youth-services funding may engage section 507B(1) of the Education Act 1996 where the proposal carries a prospect of…

On a statutory appeal concerning homelessness, the court must review the legality of the local authority’s decision, not decide the merits afresh. A failure to…

A court may refuse late expert evidence where it was required by an earlier order and the report, as served, does not assist determination of a live issue. An…

An intimate sexual relationship established or maintained by a covert human intelligence source is a “personal or other relationship” within section 26(8)(a)…

A non-reliance clause is not intrinsically objectionable. Its fairness and reasonableness under section 11 of the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 must, however…

An admission in pleadings that a document bears a party’s signature generally admits its authenticity. Unless withdrawn, the party cannot deny the signature or…

Permission to appeal requires a real prospect of success or some other compelling reason. On summary judgment, the court may decide a claim where the defence…

An application under Part 52.9A of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 must be made as soon as practicable. That requirement is mandatory. A litigant’s ignorance of…

Under the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006, a residence card for an extended family member evidences a right to reside; it does not create…

Under the CMR, a cargo claimant may sue a primary carrier in a court having jurisdiction under article 31.1 and join in the same action a successive carrier…

For the purpose of section 86(1)(b) of the Communications Act 2003, a regulator must assess objectively whether the market underlying an earlier market power…

Negotiating damages for temporary trespass must reflect the period and extent of the trespass which actually occurred. The hypothetical parties are treated as…

The valuation of an outgoing partner’s entitlement depends on the proper construction of the partnership agreement. No special presumption favours either…

A gaming machine for VAT purposes may comprise more than one physically separate item of equipment. A player terminal and a connected random number generator…

In adoption cases, dispensing with parental consent under section 52 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 requires a rigorous proportionality assessment.…

An exceptional costs order may be made against a company director where a fact-sensitive and objective assessment shows that the director was the real party to…

In valuing damages for failure to transfer a minority shareholding, the court must value the shareholding actually lost, rather than simply the underlying…

A successful Part 36 offer must receive due weight and will often decide the incidence of costs. The prescribed consequences remain subject to the court’s…

Permission to bring a claim after the six-month limit under section 4 of the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 depends upon a judicial…

A domestic authority implementing the United Nations sanctions regime may use a reasonable-suspicion standard when deciding whether to support a person’s…

A public decision-maker must understand a material planning consideration correctly, although the weight given to it remains a matter for the decision-maker.…

A director ordinarily breaches fiduciary duty and section 175 of the Companies Act 2006 by personally exploiting an opportunity which arose through the…

In an Article 8 removal case affecting a child, the tribunal must assess the child’s best interests first and overall. They are a primary, not paramount…

A purported dissolution of a partnership does not automatically end the partnership’s business tenancy where the partnership has not been validly terminated…

Initial questioning before a formal Achieving Best Evidence interview is not inherently improper and is not confined to listed examples. It must preserve due…

A court considering care and adoption must establish the statutory threshold for the particular child and conduct a child-focused welfare assessment. Where…

An error in an administrative decision may be immaterial where the court is satisfied that, without the error, the outcome would inevitably have been the same.…

Under clause 15 of the New York Produce Exchange time charterparty, full working is assessed by reference to the service immediately required of the vessel at…

Although the Court of Appeal is bound by an earlier Court of Appeal decision on the relevant point, it retains a discretion to refer the question to the CJEU.…

A party which receives a serious invitation to participate in alternative dispute resolution (ADR) must normally engage with it. Silence is, as a general rule…

A placement order requires a present judicial conclusion that adoption, rather than a lesser alternative, is required for the child’s welfare throughout life.…

UNHCR eligibility guidelines ordinarily command considerable respect because of their intrinsic quality, but they are not presumptively binding. A tribunal…

On a renewed application for permission to appeal, permission should be granted where proposed grounds are fairly arguable and have a real prospect of success.…

An off-hire clause in a time charterparty is applied by reference to the service immediately required of the vessel when the specified event occurs. The…

A settlement agreement is construed objectively like any other contract. Broad release and covenant-not-to-sue language intended to end all disputes arising…

For registration under section 4B of the British Nationality Act 1981, the Secretary of State must be satisfied that the applicant has no other citizenship or…

In a no-transaction damages claim arising from negligent property valuation, cost of funds may form part of the basic loss before any SAAMCO limitation is…

Permission to appeal may be limited to issues that are properly arguable. Grounds with no realistic prospect of success should be refused unless there is a…

Removal of a seriously ill person engages article 3 only where the consequences cross its high threshold. A child’s vulnerability forms part of that assessment…

An English court may order a foreign party to provide further information or disclosure even where compliance may expose that party to prosecution under…

In financial remedy proceedings, the court must consider a clean break as an initial consideration under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, section 25A(1). A…

Open justice is the starting point for an application for interim reporting restrictions. The applicant must establish, by clear and cogent evidence, that…

Where subsequent events make an application for interim relief unnecessary, the Court of Appeal should not ordinarily convene a full court merely to give…

In child-contact proceedings, the appellate question is whether the judge struck the proper balance between the risks of dangerousness and the children’s need…

When choosing between placement within a child’s family and adoption, the court must undertake a global, holistic evaluation of every realistic option. It must…

The jurisdiction conferred by Council Regulation (EC) No 2201/2003 does not prevent an English court from staying matrimonial proceedings in favour of prior…

The police duty under article 2 to take reasonable operational measures against a real and immediate risk to life is not confined to identified or identifiable…

In unfair dismissal cases, the tribunal may assess the dismissal process as a whole. However, later events in an internal appeal cannot make the original…

Permission to appeal should be refused where the proposed grounds disclose no arguable error and the lower court’s decision is logical, legally correct and…

A seller may recover the price of goods only within section 49 of the Sale of Goods Act 1979. Where payment is not due on a day certain irrespective of…

Permission to appeal may be granted where a proposed challenge raises an important question of principle and presents an argument of sufficient force, even…

In a personal injury claim, reasonable evidence that treatment was provided and that payment is required will ordinarily establish a recoverable expense. Proof…

A present assignment of future copyright may take effect in equity when the work comes into existence. Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988…

An appellate court need not resolve every issue raised in the pleadings if it is immaterial to the relief sought. A binding oral agreement may be established…

Under the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957, an occupier must take such care as is reasonable in all the circumstances to ensure that visitors are reasonably safe…

An appellate tribunal must not substitute its own view for an employment tribunal’s decision on a perversity appeal. Intervention requires an overwhelming case…

An application under section 47(5) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 requires a two-stage inquiry. The court first asks whether circumstances have changed.…

An appellate court should admit fresh evidence only with permission and where admission is just under the overriding objective. The applicant should generally…

The waste hierarchy does not require a proposal to qualify as “recovery” when it starts operating. For an electricity-generating plant, failure to meet the R1…

An appellate court will not interfere with a case-management decision where the judge applied the correct principles, considered the relevant matters and…

A redundancy policy must first be construed according to its terms. Repeated payments of an additional element do not necessarily create a binding workplace…

A mistaken registration of land which follows a mistaken registration of a manorial lordship does not thereby escape the statutory protection afforded to a…

Once care proceedings have begun, the court determines the relevant facts, evaluates welfare and proportionality, and decides which order, if any, is required.…

Domestic VAT legislation implementing a directive should be construed in conformity with it. The exemption for private tuition in Value Added Tax Act 1994 and…

In direct age discrimination claims, the claimant and comparator must occupy the same position in all material respects apart from age. Consequences associated…

In an Article 8 proportionality assessment, the fact that removal would make a child’s life more difficult, or that the child’s best interests favour remaining…

A post-termination non-solicitation covenant is enforceable where it reasonably protects an employer’s proprietary interest and is no wider than reasonably…

A temporary contractual variation reducing an employee’s working days does not by itself alter the days on which the employee would normally be required to…

Counsel is not automatically barred from acting against a former client. The court may intervene where necessary to avoid a significant risk of disclosure or…

Under the Immigration Rules (HC 395 as amended), a qualification relied on for Tier 1 (Post-Study Work) leave must have been obtained by the date of the…

A regulatory rule and its statutory remedy do not, without more, create a concurrent common-law duty of care with the same content. A duty to advise depends on…

A planning inspector considering temporary permission for a gypsy and traveller site must assess the likely practical consequences of refusal where they are…

Where a planning decision engages a child’s rights under article 8, the child’s best interests must be identified and treated as a primary consideration. They…

Employment status must be determined from the cumulative effect of the parties’ agreement and all the circumstances of their relationship. A low level of…

On an application to amend a defence to plead ex turpi causa non oritur actio, manifest or obvious illegality must be raised by the court itself. Where…

Under the criminal-deportation provisions of the Immigration Rules HC 395, the decision-maker first asks whether paragraph 399 or 399A applies. If neither…

A public authority’s duty to make reasonable adjustments is anticipatory and owed to disabled persons as a class. The authority must identify its ordinary…

A full council’s power to approve a local authority’s budget does not permit it to direct how the executive must exercise executive functions. A budget…

A compulsory purchase order requires a compelling case in the public interest. Its interference with private rights must be justified by sufficient reasons…

A foreign judgment obtained by fraud may be denied recognition only where the fraud was operative. The order must have been procured by the fraud, in the sense…

Registration under Article 2 of Directive 2008/95/EC requires a sign, a graphic representation of that sign, and capacity to distinguish goods or services. The…

A colour may constitute a trade mark only if the application identifies a single sign and represents it graphically with clarity, precision, self-containment…

A clear basis of contract clause in an insurance proposal form gives the form contractual effect, even where the policy does not refer to it. The statements in…

A successful party cannot appeal merely against findings, or failures to make findings, which do not determine the proceedings or affect the final order. A…

The admission of fresh evidence on appeal is governed by the established Ladd v Marshall practice. The reasonable-diligence requirement is objective: the…

Satisfaction of the threshold criteria for statutory intervention does not determine which welfare order is proportionate. The court must identify the relevant…

An applicant for permission to appeal must identify an arguable basis for contending that the lower court’s order was wrong. Procedural irregularity is a…

In an immigration appeal, a tribunal may refuse an adjournment to secure the asylum interviewer’s attendance and may rely on legible parts of the interview…

The equitable principle of marshalling concerns the relationship between creditors. Where one creditor can resort to two funds and another to only one, equity…

The discretion to order an interim payment on account of costs under the former Civil Procedure Rules 1998 Part 44.3(8) is at large and requires consideration…

Particulars of claim must identify the essential facts and the legal basis on which those facts are said to justify the remedy claimed. A claimant may not…

For Article 17.1 of the Montreal Convention 1999, an accident is the cause of bodily injury, not the injury itself. It requires an unexpected or unusual event…

Section 54(4) of the Access to Justice Act 1999 prevents an appeal from a court’s decision to grant or refuse permission to appeal. The bar includes a proposed…

Where an asylum application has remained undecided for an inordinate period and the respondent offers no explanation, the delay may justify judicial review…

Under the Immigration Rules, requirements in an appendix may be mandatory conditions for awarding points even where the operative rule does not expressly…

A no-contact order is a draconian interference with family life. It may be justified only where the child’s welfare requires it after the court has considered…

An application for leave to oppose adoption involves two stages: establishing a relevant change in circumstances and evaluating whether leave should be given.…

In Hague Convention proceedings, DNA testing to establish paternity is not a routine case-management step. It is a serious measure engaging privacy and welfare…

Under section 3 of the Road Traffic (New Drivers) Act 1995, revocation of a new driver’s licence after qualifying penalty points is mandatory. If service of…

When deciding whether a child may travel temporarily to a non-Hague Convention country, the court must treat the child’s welfare as paramount. It must keep…

On a summary-judgment application, a court must not resolve genuinely disputed evidence or factual issues requiring cross-examination. A company’s…

A court determining contact must treat the child’s welfare as paramount. An older child’s wishes carry increasing weight, but the court must examine their…

A positive covenant may bind a successor in equity where the benefit and burden arise from the same transaction, the benefit is conditional on or reciprocal to…

Care and placement orders leading to adoption are exceptional measures. The court must treat adoption as a last resort and actively evaluate proportionality in…

A collective agreement incorporated into employment contracts must be construed as a whole, in its factual setting and with common sense. A contractual power…

Habitual residence in international child-abduction proceedings is a fact-sensitive question, assessed from integration and all objectively provable…

A judge who has made adverse findings in a substantive judgment will ordinarily remain the appropriate judge for consequential costs issues. However, the…

Section 54(4) of the Access to Justice Act 1999 prevents a further appeal against an appellate court’s refusal of permission to appeal. A challenge alleging…

Rectification for common mistake is available where the parties had a common continuing intention, objectively expressed, which persisted when the instrument…

Where a local authority proposes outsourcing as a means of fulfilling its best value duty, consultation under section 3(2) of the Local Government Act 1999…

A workplace practice may become a contractual term where, viewed objectively and in all the circumstances, the employer has conveyed that employees enjoy the…

In an unfair dismissal claim based on alleged dishonesty, the issue is whether the employer had reasonable grounds for its belief and conducted the…

A contractual death-in-service benefit is part of an employee’s remuneration even where it is payable, at trustees’ discretion, to third parties after the…

An applicant seeking to use property subject to a property freezing order for legal expenses must persuade the court that this would be just in all the…

An application by an unmarried father for parental responsibility under the Children Act 1989 is governed by the child’s paramount welfare. The court should…

A company’s claim against its directors and their accessories for fraud or breach of fiduciary duty is not defeated by attributing the directors’ wrongdoing to…

A blanket prohibition on assisted suicide and euthanasia is compatible with Article 8 where the State has a wide margin of appreciation. Courts must still…

For a former relevant child, section 23C(4)(b) of the Children Act 1989 imposes a duty to provide assistance under section 24B(2) to the extent that welfare…

A court has jurisdiction to order an affected party to pay immediately the costs of a without-notice application. Such an order is exceptionally strong and…

Regulations may prescribe a statutory benefit by reference to determinations made under a separate order. They need not reproduce the detailed functions of the…

Cause of action estoppel bars parties and their privies from reopening an identical cause of action, including essential points which reasonable diligence…

Vicarious liability under the Police Act 1996 requires both a relationship capable of attracting liability and a close connection between that relationship and…

A consent order requiring applications to be considered under a withdrawn policy preserved the applicants’ opportunity to be assessed under that policy. It did…

After the statutory threshold for public intervention is crossed, the court must undertake a global and holistic welfare evaluation. It must compare every…

Jurisdiction cannot be conferred on a court by the parties’ agreement. A dispute over a local authority’s refusal to pay a fostering allowance on the ground…

An order authorising adoption is a measure of last resort. It is justified only where the child’s interests make it necessary and nothing else will do. The…

A composite joint and several guarantee naming several intended guarantors is prima facie conditional on all named guarantors signing it. That is only the…

An Employment Tribunal’s case-management decision may be overturned on appeal only for an error of legal principle or a perverse outcome. This includes failing…

A landowner owes a measured duty in negligence and nuisance to take reasonable steps to prevent natural hazards on its land causing damage to neighbouring…

An error in determining whether an employee has a disability does not require remittal where the tribunal’s unchallenged findings make the discrimination…

In patent amendment cases, added matter is assessed by asking whether the skilled person would learn anything about the invention from the amended…

In a renewed application for permission to appeal, an argument is sufficiently arguable where a subject access request may have generated a further deliberate…

In country-guidance asylum appeals, there is no general duty requiring the Secretary of State to disclose every relevant document held by government, nor a…

In family proceedings, Children Act 1989, section 98 removes a witness’s privilege against self-incrimination. The witness must answer questions, subject to…

In adoption appeals, the appellate court must ask whether the decision was wrong, rather than apply the former stricter test of whether it was plainly wrong. A…

A claim that has been struck out is at an end and is no longer pending, even while the claimant retains a right to apply for reinstatement. A later successful…

In an interim application arising from financial remedy proceedings, the general costs rule in Family Procedure Rules 2010 r 28.3 did not apply. Costs were…

On a second appeal in care and placement proceedings, permission should be granted where the proposed appeal raises an important point of principle or…

The principle of equivalence concerns a comparison between remedies enforcing rights derived from European Union law and remedies for comparable domestic…

A court should not determine a distinct, unpleaded claim where the defendant objected and the omission created a real possibility of material prejudice. A…

When choosing between permanent placement options for a child, the court must undertake an evidenced and reasoned comparison of each option’s benefits…

A patent monopoly must correspond to the technical contribution made across substantially the whole scope of the claim. A technical effect must be plausible…

Privity of interest requires consideration of the new litigant’s interest in the earlier dispute, its identification with the original litigant, and whether…

For means-tested housing and council tax benefit, the personal-injury disregard for payments made under an agreement or court order applies where the agreement…

A regulatory authority does not irrevocably discontinue enforcement proceedings merely by making an internal decision or publishing an unauthorised website…

An outright possession order terminates a secure tenancy on the date specified. The parties cannot revive or vary that effect by agreement, although they may…

Fiduciary duties may arise between commercial joint venturers where special features place the venture's assets and management under one party's control for…

For an appeal against deprivation of citizenship, the discretion to extend time where there are special circumstances must be exercised fairly and in light of…

An appeal under section 289 is confined to points of law, not planning merits. The appellate court must respect an Inspector’s findings on fact and degree and…

Courts should exercise caution before staying a block of immigration cases merely because an appellate decision in another case is awaited. The relevant…

A court should stay immigration proceedings pending a decision in other litigation only where justice requires it. The anticipated decision must be likely to…

The common-law Mocambique exclusionary rule is narrow. It applies where proceedings are founded on a disputed claim to title to, or possession of, foreign…

A renewed application for permission to appeal should be granted where the proposed appeal raises an issue of principle requiring determination by a full…

On a section 31(7) variation application, the court may commute periodical payments into a clean-break capital award. It may consider fairness to both parties…

Under the Rome Convention, an implied choice of law must be demonstrated with reasonable certainty. English drafting, CIF terms, assumptions about an English…

A standard-form freezing order restraining dealings with a defendant’s assets does not ordinarily prevent unsecured borrowing. A personal, cancellable and…

Judicial proceedings immunity protects participants from civil liability founded on the evidence they give, and extends to preparatory material only where that…

Stamp duty land tax is charged on land transactions rather than documents. In a sub-sale completed simultaneously with the original contract, section 45(3) of…

A force majeure clause is construed according to its wording, but it does not ordinarily excuse a party from consequences arising from performance delegated to…

Where an agreement is void, sums paid under it may be recovered as payments made under a mistake. Recovery must be reduced by the value of benefits received…

For paragraph 320(7A) of the Immigration Rules, the relevant application is the application process as a whole, including the form and interview. A truthful…

For an interim injunction, the initial threshold is whether there is a serious question to be tried, equivalent in this context to a real prospect of success.…

On an application for permission to appeal based on fresh evidence, the court must assess the evidence’s credibility and whether it could have been produced…

For the majority, a plan or programme sets the framework for future development consent only where it fixes or establishes ground rules having legal influence…

Unpaid solicitors’ fees for unsuccessfully opposing a winding-up petition may be allowed as an expense of a subsequent liquidation. They are not, however, an…

Statutory guidance requiring equal treatment of family-and-friends foster carers and unrelated foster carers must ordinarily be followed. A local authority may…

An annual-fee regime for supplementary protection certificates may require payment in advance and in a single sum. A fee remains an annual fee where its amount…

An employment tribunal has a broad discretion to refuse a very late amendment introducing multiple new causes of action with only a remote connection to the…

Where a Part 36 offer is accepted after the relevant period, Civil Procedure Rules Part 36.10(5) provides the starting point for the costs order, subject to…

An appellate court rarely interferes with case-management decisions, but should do so where the decision is clearly wrong or creates a serious risk of…

In family proceedings, a parent who is a compellable witness must comply with an order to give evidence, even where concurrent criminal proceedings create a…

In an Article 8 challenge to deportation, a tribunal must identify the best interests of affected children and treat them as a primary consideration. That…

Adoption without parental consent is a last resort. It is permissible only where the child’s welfare requires consent to be dispensed with and adoption is…

An Employment Tribunal may, with procedural adjustments securing a fair hearing, determine a claim using evidence from a party who does not attend or cannot be…

In construing a commercial agreement, clear language governs. Commercial common sense may resolve genuine ambiguity, but it does not authorise the court to add…

In VAT abuse-of-rights cases, two conditions must both be satisfied. The tax advantage must conflict with the purpose of the legislation, and objective factors…

For National Insurance purposes, an actor’s status under paragraph 5A is determined prospectively from the contract at the outset of the engagement.…

In a Convention return application, a child’s objection is not rendered unreal merely because it arises from a single past event or because no repetition has…

A service-charge covenant is construed by ordinary contractual principles. The court must ascertain the meaning of the language in its context and in light of…

Whether a person is an “administrator” of a pension scheme is a question of fact and degree. The court must examine the substance of the person’s role, rather…

The absence of an express finding at confiscation stage that property was a tainted gift does not invariably deprive the enforcement court of jurisdiction to…

A principal is entitled to require a former agent to produce documents relating to the principal’s affairs for inspection and copying. That incident of agency…

A violation of Article 8 caused by the use of legally professionally privileged material does not automatically require a warning notice to be quashed. Under…

Removal will not ordinarily breach an alien’s Convention rights merely because family law in the receiving state is religiously or culturally discriminatory by…

General damages for loss of use of a chattel must fairly compensate the owner for the loss caused by its temporary unavailability. Where no special loss is…

A restrictive covenant directed at activities on burdened land does not ordinarily extend to nuisance, annoyance or disturbance caused solely by third-party…

A secured creditor does not lose its security merely because it proves for the whole debt in a bankrupt debtor’s estate and receives a dividend. Bankruptcy…

The lawfulness of exercising a statutory search power depends on its true and dominant purpose. A lawful purpose may coexist with an unauthorised or collateral…

A false document submitted in support of an immigration application requires mandatory refusal under the Immigration Rules even where the document was…

Habitual residence is determined by one fact-sensitive test under domestic law, European Union law and the 1980 Hague Abduction Convention. The child’s…

In a professional negligence claim, causation depends on the counterfactual question whether the claimant would have acted differently if properly advised…

Under the Education (Student Support) Regulations 2009, “ordinary residence” includes an implied requirement of lawful residence. A qualifying immigration…

The schedule to a Tomlin order is a binding contract. It may ordinarily be set aside only on grounds which vitiate a contract, such as fraud…

An appellate court may interfere with a costs order only where the court or tribunal below made an error of law or principle. It does not re-exercise the costs…

A placement order requires separate and rigorous consideration of the adoption welfare checklist and of whether the child’s welfare requires parental consent…

In planning appeals, a Secretary of State must refer a case back after an inquiry only where relevant new evidence or a new matter of fact, excluding…

A court may consider at the outset of a trial whether a pleaded defence discloses a triable issue, even without a formal striking-out application. It must…

For exclusion from refugee protection for crimes against humanity, the Secretary of State must establish serious reasons for considering, on the balance of…

Permission to appeal requires a realistic prospect of success. The Court of Appeal does not rehear evidence or grant permission merely because an applicant…

An unless order can provide for automatic strike-out on the date of non-compliance. An appellate tribunal considering an appeal from the resulting strike-out…

A tenancy granted by a mortgagor after the mortgage, without the mortgagee’s consent, is not binding on the mortgagee. It becomes enforceable against the…

In private nuisance, whether interference is actionable is an objective question of degree assessed in all relevant circumstances, including the character of…

Temporary accommodation secured under Housing Act 1996, section 188 or section 190(2), is not generally accommodation occupied as a dwelling under a licence…

Temporary accommodation secured under the homelessness duties in sections 188 or 190(2) of the Housing Act 1996 is not ordinarily accommodation occupied as a…

Disturbance compensation for compulsory acquisition must be proved by evidence connecting the acquisition with actual loss and satisfying causation, remoteness…

In an employers’ liability claim arising from a robbery, the absence of a documented risk assessment does not itself establish breach or liability. The court…

The Johnson exclusion area bars a common-law claim for loss caused by dismissal itself, but leaves claims independent of dismissal available. The court must…

Open justice is the governing rule. A private hearing is permitted only where a recognised exception applies or exclusion is strictly necessary in the…

For capital gains tax purposes, compensation paid on the termination of a dealership contract is derived from the contractual rights surrendered, even where…

Commercial bed-and-breakfast accommodation is a similar establishment to a hotel or boarding house where accommodation is offered for varying periods and…

An apparently absolute statutory time limit for an appeal must be read, so far as necessary under article 6, to permit an extension where its inflexible…

In assessing relative responsibility for a collision at a mini-roundabout, formal priority is not decisive where the proximity and speed of approaching…

In ancillary relief on divorce, equality of capital is not automatic where resources are tight and the case is driven by needs. The court may allocate more…

In family proceedings concerning children, costs do not normally follow the event. The family court nevertheless has jurisdiction to order one party to pay…

An application made within the six-week period prescribed by section 288 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 may be amended after that period has…

Where a land-sale contract fixes no completion date, completion is required within a reasonable time, assessed in light of all circumstances known when the…

A service provider’s service must be identified accurately before the reasonable-adjustment duty is engaged. This is a question of law, assessed by…

Under the exceptional Taylor v Lawrence jurisdiction in the Civil Procedure Rules 1998, r 52.17, a final appeal determination may be reopened only to avoid…

In a credit-hire claim, impecuniosity for recovering credit-hire rates does not conclusively determine whether the claimant should fund repairs to the damaged…

In criminal contempt proceedings based on allegedly false evidence, the applicant must prove beyond reasonable doubt both that the statement was untrue when…

On consequential matters after an appeal, the court may frame a declaration to reflect the present position where an order for sale has not yet been made. The…

Criminal contempt based on a false statement requires proof beyond reasonable doubt that the statement was untrue when made and that the maker knew it was…

A trial judge’s factual determination in care proceedings attracts substantial appellate respect. An appellate court should interfere only where it is plain…

Where squatters establish homes on privately owned land, the court proceeded on the unchallenged assumption that Article 8 could be engaged because the court…

Pre-emption rights over shares operate only upon the events which the parties have expressly specified. Practical control over a shareholder, without a…

Acceptance of a repudiatory breach requires a communication which, viewed as a whole, clearly and unequivocally conveys that the aggrieved party is treating…

Permission for a second appeal requires an important point of principle or practice, or another compelling reason for the Court of Appeal to hear the case. An…

Subrogation to an unpaid vendor’s lien is an equitable remedy for reversing unjust enrichment. The court must first consider whether the defendant was enriched…

Permission to serve proceedings out of the jurisdiction requires a serious issue to be tried, a good arguable case within a service-out gateway, and England to…

An exclusive jurisdiction clause falling within article 23 of the revised Lugano Convention is assessed under an autonomous European-law regime. Written…

Witness immunity is a justified derogation from access to a court and must not extend beyond what the administration of justice requires. Its application may…

In care proceedings involving unexplained non-accidental injury, the court must distinguish identifying a perpetrator from the wider welfare enquiry. A care…

Equitable subrogation may reverse unjust enrichment where a lender provides value by agreeing to release existing security, even though it neither owns nor…

For jurisdiction under Article 3.1 of Council Regulation (EC) No 2201/2003, habitual residence has an autonomous meaning. It concerns the place where a person…

On a renewed application for permission to appeal, permission may properly be granted where a trial judge adopts a material factual scenario that was not…

The Dublin II regime allocates responsibility for asylum claims between member states. It does not confer individual rights or procedural safeguards enabling…

A family member residing with a worker may acquire permanent residence under Article 17(3) of Council Directive 2004/38/EC where the worker acquired permanent…

Under Part 44.3 of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998, the court has a discretion whether to make any order as to costs. It may depart substantially from the…

Under the Public Passenger Vehicles Act 1981, a vehicle is used for carrying passengers throughout the period when passengers are on board for transport from…

Anonymous hearsay is not inadmissible in civil possession proceedings merely because its maker is not identified or available for cross-examination. Its weight…

Where land is acquired by a bare trustee for several beneficial owners, stamp duty land tax is charged on the single equitable estate collectively acquired…

Where a judicial review claim is settled after the claimant has obtained everything sought, the starting point is that the claimant should recover all costs. A…

An appellate court should not determine an appeal where the issue is academic on the facts before it and the proposed ruling would be advisory or declaratory…

A residential assessment in care proceedings should be directed only where it is necessary for the just resolution of the proceedings. It is not necessary…

For Tier 1 (Post-Study Work) applications, the requirement that an application be made within 12 months of obtaining the relevant qualification means that the…

Trustees of an occupational pension scheme are persons directly affected by a determination to issue a financial support direction. The expression is…

Serving a notice to complete makes time of the essence for both parties because completion requires their co-operation. The party serving the notice must…

In libel, the court must identify the single natural and ordinary meaning which the words convey to the ordinary reasonable reader. That meaning will generally…

A substantial breach of the disclosure provisions ancillary to a freezing order is serious contempt and will normally justify imprisonment. Continuing…

The Court of Appeal has no jurisdiction to grant permission to appeal where the High Court has refused permission under section 69(8) of the Arbitration Act…

In a harassment claim arising from debt-collection communications, letters and telephone calls may be assessed cumulatively for the required level of severity.…

A solicitor is not negligent merely because a complex mediation produces an agreement in principle rather than an immediately enforceable settlement. A…

In a collective enfranchisement valuation, development hope value may be included in the open-market value of intermediate leasehold interests where a…

A jurisdiction agreement under Article 23 of the Council Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 depends on the parties’ actual consent, established clearly and precisely.…

A costs order is discretionary. The Court of Appeal will interfere only for an error of principle, reliance on an irrelevant consideration, failure to consider…

A compensation scheme has a broad discretion to assess fair compensation for unsuitable regulated mortgage advice. That discretion must be exercised…

A private regulatory body exercising disciplinary powers under contractual rules is subject to procedural fairness. A duty to give reasons may arise at some…

In a share buy-out valuation under an unfair-prejudice remedy, an earnings/multiplier method does not automatically exclude every liability. A purchaser may…

Permission to oppose adoption requires a change of circumstances under Adoption and Children Act 2002, section 47(7), together with a welfare-based exercise of…

An employer breaches its duty of care where its commanding officer permits an employee whom he knows to be unqualified to drive a service vehicle, contrary to…

Registration of land as a town or village green is a control of use, rather than a deprivation of possessions, where title remains with the owner. Under A1P1…

A franchisor may own and protect goodwill in a licensed brand where it controls the brand and provides the associated marketing services. The absence of a…

A Community trade mark registration does not provide a defence to a claim for passing off. Where passing off is established, the court may grant a general…

When a fixed-term assured shorthold tenancy expires and a statutory periodic tenancy arises under section 5 of the Housing Act 1988, the periodic tenancy is a…

An occupier's warning duty is not discharged by a general warning about moving parts where a machine presents a specific and unusual danger that is not obvious…

A local authority’s child-in-need assessment is reviewed for legality; the court does not substitute its own assessment or require a line-by-line comparison…

An order requiring one party to fund another’s legal costs pending family proceedings does not necessarily make payments irrecoverable when the order is…

When deciding whether to order security for the costs of an appeal, the court may consider the appellant company’s ability to meet an adverse costs order, the…

Where Parliament provides a specialist statutory procedure for a full reconsideration of a regulator’s decision, judicial review will ordinarily be withheld.…

The principle of open justice requires civil proceedings and judgments to be conducted and published openly, normally including the parties’ identities.…

Under rule 25.1 of the Family Procedure Rules 2010, expert evidence is admissible only where it is necessary to assist the court to resolve the proceedings.…

For claims under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme, the occasion when a primary victim sustained injury is the event which inflicted the injury…

Permission for a second appeal requires an issue of principle or another compelling reason. A challenge to a lower court’s assessment that a bank may retain…

A state cannot lawfully be designated as generally presenting no serious risk of persecution where an entire section of its population, substantial in number…

An appellate court will interfere with a trial judge’s case-management decision only where it was plainly wrong and caused significant injustice. It will not…

Under rule 34, the Upper Tribunal may determine an appeal without an oral hearing where the issues can fairly be resolved on the written material. A party must…

A tribunal’s statutory jurisdiction cannot be created by a party’s waiver, agreement or failure to identify the issue. A tribunal may raise and determine its…

A specialist tribunal may admit relevant material even where it would be inadmissible in a civil trial. Relevant evidence should normally be admitted unless a…

Article 15 of the Brussels II Bis Regulation requires an autonomous and uniform interpretation. A transfer of jurisdiction is permissible only where the child…

A creditor may make reasonable contact to seek repayment, but the existence of a debt does not permit repeated telephone calls after the debtor has clearly…

Summary judgment is not avoided by a vague assertion that disclosure or cross-examination may reveal a defence. A party must identify and support a properly…

A family member forms part of a head of state’s household under section 20(1)(b) of the State Immunity Act 1978 only within the established diplomatic meaning…

A default judgment obtained without the required application notice is not automatically void or set aside as of right under the Civil Procedure Rules. The…

A shipowner exercising a general average lien may reasonably require an average bond from the consignee, supported by an insurer’s guarantee or cash deposit…

A partnership under section 1(1) of the Partnership Act 1890 requires an actual carrying on of business in common with a view to profit. Actual trading is…

A guarantee’s anti-discharge wording must be construed in the context of the instrument as a whole. Wording that a guarantee extends to variations may preserve…

Reasonableness under ground 16 of Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1985 requires a broad, common-sense, multi-factorial assessment of all relevant circumstances…

A statutory time limit for challenging a solicitor’s intervention is compatible with Convention rights and ordinarily must be observed. Even if the court can…

For priority need under section 189 of the Housing Act 1996, vulnerability is determined by the single, composite Pereira inquiry. The applicant must, when…

For secondary insolvency proceedings under the Insolvency Regulation (Council Regulation (EC) 1346/2000), an establishment requires, at the date the court’s…

In a passing-off claim, the relevant public is not confined to the claimant’s direct trade purchasers. It may include end-users who know the claimant’s goods…

A negligence cause of action accrues when the claimant first suffers actual financial damage through the breach of duty. The question is when the claimant…

On an application under Civil Procedure Rules 1998, rule 3.4(2)(a), pleaded facts are assumed to be true. The question is whether they disclose a legally…

For the prohibition in section 40(4) of the British Nationality Act 1981, a person is stateless only if they are de jure stateless. The Secretary of State’s…

Under the Services Directive and the Provision of Services Regulations 2009, charges imposed under an authorisation scheme must be reasonable, proportionate…

A landlord retaining parts of a building adjoining demised premises is not ordinarily subject to an absolute duty to repair defects there. The relevant…

A contractual payment described as rent does not become a deposit or protected possession merely because a scheme calculates a future credit by reference to…

Where the High Court refuses permission to apply for judicial review of an Upper Tribunal decision, Rule 52.15(1A) of the Civil Procedure Rules requires the…

A Norwich Pharmacal order requires the respondent to have become involved in the furtherance of the transaction constituting the relevant wrongdoing. A person…

A judge may make extensive use of a party’s written submissions, but must acknowledge that use where appropriate and demonstrate independent, even-handed…

An inspector deciding whether to grant temporary planning permission for inappropriate Green Belt development must consider the local authority’s breach of…

A statutory notice must be construed against the background known to its recipient and in the light of the governing legislation. A mistaken name does not…

For liability under section 41 of the Highways Act 1980, a claimant must identify the particular highway defect that caused the injury. Showing that the…

A treaty provision for mutual assistance in collecting taxes applies according to the amending protocol’s own entry-into-force provisions. It is not subject to…

Delay in performing an ongoing contractual obligation is repudiatory only where, assessed when termination is purported, its actual and reasonably foreseeable…

Permission to appeal on fresh evidence may be granted where the proposed evidence gives rise to a properly arguable case that it could not reasonably have been…

In contempt proceedings arising from breach of a court undertaking, an alleged contemnor cannot defeat the process by knowingly failing to attend. The court…

In proceedings on a judgment summons under the Debtors Act 1869, statements which a judgment debtor was compelled to provide in an earlier general enforcement…

Where a claimant has lost at trial, an interim injunction pending appeal requires a real prospect of success. The court must then assess all relevant…

A public body exercising prerogative or common-law powers may adopt a bright-line policy containing no exceptions. It need not reconsider each case unless the…

Section 426 of the Insolvency Act 1986 permits broad cooperation between courts exercising corresponding insolvency jurisdiction. A requesting court need not…

A professional disciplinary tribunal may adopt a fair procedure for a temporary absence by one member where its governing rules do not prohibit that procedure.…

A child's best interests are a primary consideration of substantial importance when assessing whether deportation would breach article 8. They require a proper…

Under Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, regulation 4 imposes a standard more stringent than common-law reasonableness. A defendant cannot…

An appeal becomes academic where the respondent accepts that the lower tribunal erred and agrees to a remittal which will provide the necessary remedy. The…

On an application for summary judgment, a creditor may establish a prima facie case that a default notice was served by showing that it was posted. Once the…

For an extended family member under Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006, regulation 8(2)(c) incorporates regulation 8(2)(a)’s requirement…

An agreement by solicitors to accept service is construed objectively in the same way as a commercial contract. The court considers the correspondence as a…

A child’s best interests carry considerable and ordinarily primary weight when privacy rights are balanced against freedom of expression, but they do not…

For an application under paragraph 1(a) of Schedule 14 to the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, the accompanying document must be identifiable as a map, be…

A gang injunction may be granted where the statutory conditions are satisfied. Deliberately joining a coordinated and provocative gang incursion into rival…

Where participants pursue a joint criminal enterprise which foreseeably exposes them to unusual or increased risks of harm, and such a risk materialises, the…

Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, regulation 17(2), extends to risks caused by the position of controls, including musculoskeletal risks…

Mitigation does not require an innocent party to accept any proposal from the contract-breaker. The claimant may need to negotiate, or even initiate…

Joint liability in tort is narrower than accessory liability in crime or equity. It requires a common design, which may be tacit and need not be directed to…

An appellate court reviewing a discretionary interim child-contact order should focus principally on the material before the judge. An increase in unsupervised…

An administrative body must interpret its published policy according to its language, context and purpose. Where the policy creates formal and de facto…

A final civil recovery order is not re-opened merely because a later judicial decision gives the governing statute a different construction. Re-opening under…

An amendment made after expiry of a limitation period introduces a new cause of action where it adds allegations of intentional wrongdoing and bad faith to a…

For vulnerability under section 189(1)(c) of the Housing Act 1996, the authority must make a practical and composite assessment of the applicant’s…

For the duty to consider other material considerations under section 70(2) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, a matter must be objectively relevant to…

A litigant in person has a strong presumption in favour of assistance from a McKenzie friend. The court must give fair-trial considerations careful weight and…

The occurrence of a fire does not, without more, establish that contractual or tortious precautions were breached or that the breach caused the damage. Where…

Statutory damages for unlawful eviction under sections 27 and 28 of the Housing Act 1988 are assessed by comparing two open-market valuations of the landlord’s…

A power to vary leave to remain which must be exercised by written notice is exercised through that notice, not by an earlier uncommunicated decision. Under…

Under regulation 4(1) of the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992, a residual workplace risk engages the duty to provide suitable personal…

Where legislation requires financial assistance to be assumed to have been withdrawn on a specified valuation date, assistance given as a loan must be treated…

A First-tier Tribunal is a creature of statute and has only the powers conferred by the Mental Health Act 1983. For restricted patients, the Act contains no…

In child-injury fact-finding, the court may assess the cumulative force of several significant injuries. It is not necessary to prove that every injury…

In a clinical-negligence claim, where liability depends on which of two conflicting accounts of a consultation is accepted, the trial judge must resolve the…

In financial remedy proceedings, the absence of a statutory limitation period does not require a stale claim to proceed to trial. Under the Family Procedure…

On a second appeal, permission requires an important point of principle or practice or some other compelling reason. Where the latter ground is relied on, very…

A court will protect a solicitor’s claim to funds recovered or due to be recovered by a client where the paying party either colludes with the client to defeat…

A credit agreement is restricted-use under section 11 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 only where the debtor has contractually agreed that the credit be used…

Summary judgment is appropriate where a claim is fanciful, hopeless or bound to fail. It is not an abbreviated trial conducted on incomplete evidence. Where…

An interim care hearing must address the child’s safety and welfare before the final hearing. Separation requires immediate protection and must be…

For a statutory betting levy, the distinction is between the bookmaker, who receives or negotiates bets, and the customer, who makes them. That distinction…

For the purposes of service charge demands, costs are not “incurred” under sections 18, 19 and 20B of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 merely when services or…

On an application for summary judgment, a claim has a real prospect of success when it carries some degree of conviction and is more than merely arguable. The…

A computer-implemented invention is not excluded from patentability merely because its solution is embodied in software. The court must identify its actual…

For the purposes of the Leasehold Reform Act 1967, a building adapted for living in must also be reasonably called a house. That is a fact-sensitive question…

A person who signs a contract is ordinarily a contracting party. They avoid personal liability only if the document makes clear that they sign as agent for a…

A non-party costs order against a solicitor is exceptional and turns on whether, in all the circumstances, it is just to make the order. A solicitor acting…

The scope of a guarantee depends upon its objective construction in its commercial context. A guarantor’s knowledge of an existing contract between creditor…

Where money is contributed towards the purchase of property registered in another person’s sole name, the court must determine the transferor’s subjective…

An extended sentence under section 85(2) of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 is a sentence of imprisonment for its aggregate term…

Capacity under Mental Capacity Act 2005 is decision-specific. The relevant decision may, where its nature requires it, be assessed in its particular factual…

A local authority may prepare and pursue adoption for a child voluntarily accommodated under Children Act 1989, section 20, although no interim care order has…

Whether an amendment introduces a new cause of action depends on a comparison of the essential factual elements of the existing and proposed claims. Further…

In loan trading, the allocation of interest and fees between seller and buyer depends on the payment obligations created by the applicable standard terms. A…

Where English conflict rules select the law of the matrimonial domicile to determine spouses’ property rights, that law must be applied at every relevant stage…

In a direct discrimination claim, a but for connection between a protected characteristic and treatment is not enough. The treatment must be because of a…

Costs are assessed by identifying the successful party in the litigation as a whole. The ordinary rule is that the unsuccessful party pays the successful…

Detention under the Mental Health Act 1983 does not, by itself, prevent a patient or those responsible for his assets from paying for or contributing to care…

A parent’s choice of child restraint is judged by the circumstances known at the time. Explicit manufacturer requirements and warnings are powerful evidence of…

Obviousness is principally a question of fact, degree and overall impression. The court must evaluate the evidence as a whole, including the motive to find a…

An occupier may exceptionally invoke article 8 against enforcement of an existing possession order. A later challenge will usually be an abuse where…

A non-statutory highway-maintenance code is evidence of good practice, not a mandatory standard. A highway authority may adopt inspection intervals different…

A breach of a contractual condition does not automatically terminate the contract unless that consequence has itself been properly implied. Ordinarily, the…

A party alleging that land is a highway maintainable at public expense must prove that allegation where it is not admitted. The statutory presumption of…

When a collective agreement is incorporated into employment contracts, its terms must be construed in the commercial and factual circumstances to which they…

An employer may create a binding contractual entitlement by announcing a guaranteed bonus pool to employees, even though the allocation of individual awards…

Permission to oppose an adoption under section 47(5) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 involves two stages. The applicant must establish a change of…

On an application by a bankrupt for permission to sue a trustee under section 304(2) of the Insolvency Act 1986, the court must assess whether the proposed…

In a breach of confidence claim involving competing products, damages are not confined at the strike-out stage to a head-start award merely because later…

An account of profits for misuse of confidential information is an equitable and discretionary remedy. A successful claimant has no right to elect it instead…

A fact-finding judgment must do more than state the judge’s conclusions and reasoning. It must set out enough of the evidence on each allegation to show how…

Under section 2(2) of the Occupiers Liability Act 1957, an occupier must take reasonable care in all the circumstances to keep visitors reasonably safe for…

For a comprehensive planning scheme involving buildings, an outline application need not be confined to construction or to details strictly subsidiary to…

Where a defendant challenges jurisdiction, Civil Procedure Rules 1998, Parts 11 and 24 must be read together. Rule 11.1(7)(c) requires directions about a…

Commercial contracts are construed objectively from their wording, read in context and against the relevant factual background. The text remains the starting…

Money is a tenancy deposit only where it is intended to be held as security for obligations or liabilities arising under the relevant tenancy. Rent paid to…

The tort of deceit has four ingredients: a false representation; knowledge of falsity or recklessness; an intention that the claimant act on it; and reliance…

Recall to custody during the extension period of an extended sentence is compatible with Article 5(1) where the statutory scheme makes the licence revocable…

A court may refuse to hear a party who is in deliberate contempt of its orders, including by dismissing an application for permission to appeal. Relevant…

Under the Rome Convention, an implied choice of law exists only where the contract’s terms or circumstances objectively demonstrate with reasonable certainty…

A company may offer a cash payment to members of a class of noteholders who vote in favour of a restructuring resolution, provided the offer is available to…

Functionally interdependent proposals forming one specific and integrated development must be considered together when deciding whether the environmental…

Approval of a costs budget controls prospective expenditure, but it does not establish that costs later incurred within the approved scope are reasonable or…

On an oral renewal of an application for permission to appeal, permission should be granted where reasonable grounds of appeal or a compelling reason to…

A high standard of navigational skill is reasonably expected of adults training 14-year-old participants during an expedition on Dartmoor. Serious elementary…

EU free-movement rules ordinarily prevent a patentee from stopping the marketing of products put on the market in another Member State with its consent. A…

In quantifying relief for a transaction intended to put assets beyond a creditor’s reach, the court may assess the transferor’s contribution from the evidence…

A certificate of acceptance may conclusively establish that leased property complied with its contractual delivery condition. Its effect depends on the natural…

In identifying a hereditament for non-domestic rating, the geographical or physical test remains important, but it is not a rigid rule of contiguity. Floors…

A third party’s statutory ability to rely on a contractual exclusion of liability may amount to enforcement under section 1(6) of the Contracts (Rights of…

When immigration detention separates a parent from children, the children’s best interests are a primary consideration. They are not determinative and may be…

Rateable occupation requires actual, exclusive and beneficial occupation which has a sufficient character of permanence. Permanence is a question of fact and…

A collective agreement is ordinarily an undertaking binding in honour, not an enforceable contract. Its terms can become part of an individual employment…

Before replacing supervised direct contact between a parent and young children with indirect contact, the court must explore every realistic option for…

Permission to appeal should be refused where the material discloses no possible basis for challenging the order below. A serious allegation against expert…

Where new facts raise sufficient concern about apparent bias in an employment tribunal, the Court of Appeal may adjourn the substantive appeal so that the…

Where, during an appeal, the respondent has already granted the leave that success would produce, the appeal is academic and should be dismissed without…

A judgment obtained by fraud must be set aside where relevant evidence, conduct, statements or concealment involved conscious and deliberate dishonesty and was…

A local authority’s allocation scheme for permanent housing does not, without clear wording, create a legitimate expectation that an applicant will receive…

A pre-entry language condition for entry as a spouse or partner may engage article 8 even if the interference is less than colossal. Its lawfulness depends on…

Care is required to keep a creditor’s Part 8 claim for an order for sale procedurally distinct from matrimonial financial remedy proceedings. It is arguable…

A defect does not automatically amount to a breach of condition. The question is one of degree, assessed by reference to what a reasonable person would regard…

A term incorporated from a collective agreement is legally enforceable where it is capable of meaningful construction. The existence of two clear methods of…

An exemption from a prescribed pre-entry English language requirement depends on whether a physical or mental condition prevents the applicant from meeting the…

Recognition of a foreign divorce under Brussels II Bis is subject to exceptional grounds in article 22, including manifest incompatibility with public policy…

A local authority assessing children under its general duties must examine the risk of significant harm to the children. It must not confine its task to harm…

In a loss-of-control negligence claim, a vehicle leaving the road may justify an initial inference that the driver was at fault. The defendant must establish…

A solicitor acting under a conditional fee agreement may fund a client’s disbursements and make repayment conditional on success. That conduct alone does not…

Consumer evidence in an ordinary trade mark infringement case should be admitted only where the party tendering it shows that it is likely to be of real value…

A public authority creates a substantive legitimate expectation where it gives a clear, unambiguous and unqualified assurance that a particular benefit will be…

Rectification of a voluntary disposition depends on the donor’s or settlor’s subjective intention. An outward expression or objective communication of that…

A tribunal deciding an asylum or human rights appeal must determine every material element of the claim on the current evidence. It may consider an undertaking…

On an appeal from SIAC, the Court of Appeal held that the risk of a flagrant denial of justice under Article 6 must be assessed in all the circumstances. The…

Registration under the Commons Act 2006 depends on the statutory conditions, not on whether the owner could grant or dedicate recreational rights. No…

Where material facts remain disputed, a civil trial should ordinarily be conducted on oral evidence. A judge should hear a relevant witness whom a party wishes…

A statutory entitlement to connect a private drain or sewer to a public sewer under Water Industry Act 1991, section 106, does not of itself confer a right to…

Material factual errors in a tribunal determination constitute errors of law where they affect the conclusion. Any doubt about materiality should be resolved…

For a tort whose constituent events occurred in several countries, the general applicable law is that of the country where the most significant element or…

A court-appointed receiver may recover remuneration, expenses and disbursements for necessary work performed after the receivership order has been discharged.…

Where the same piece of registered land is entered in two titles, the registrations coexist until rectification determines the better title. Possession by a…

A statement in a circular will not found promissory or proprietary estoppel unless, construed in context, it is a clear and unambiguous representation or…

For the purposes of article 8.2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, maintaining immigration control is a legitimate aim even where the individuals…

In Zimbabwe asylum appeals, the principle in RT (Zimbabwe) [2012] UKSC 38 prevents treating political neutrality differently from active political opinion…

Where an appeal requires additional liability issues to be tried, existing directions for a damages inquiry may need to be reconsidered so that liability and…

A coroner has broad discretion to determine the nature and extent of an inquest. The inquiry may examine matters directly or indirectly relevant to the…

For intentional homelessness under section 191(1) of the Housing Act 1996, the applicant’s deliberate act or omission must be a real or effective cause of the…

An interlocutory case-management decision permitting a party to call selected witnesses on alleged real-world confusion was held wrong and the appeal was…

Where a contract makes payment depend on one party’s opinion, that opinion must be honestly formed on reasonable grounds, consistently with fairness, bona…

Where damage may have resulted from competing causes, the court must decide which explanation is more probable on the evidence. Rejecting one improbable theory…

Permission for a further appeal in an asylum case requires an important point of principle or practice, or another compelling reason, under paragraph 2 of the…

In an Article 8 deportation appeal, the question is whether the lower tribunal made a material error of law, not whether the appellate court would itself make…

When a claimant discontinues proceedings, the defendant is presumptively entitled to costs under CPR Part 38.6(1). The claimant must provide cogent reasons for…

Appellate courts should show strong restraint when reviewing evaluative findings on negligence and apportionment. A driver may be negligent despite complying…

A child who is capable of forming views has a right to be heard in proceedings affecting him or her. That right may be satisfied through a representative…

Only the High Court may grant permission to appeal an arbitral award under section 69 of the Arbitration Act 1996. The Court of Appeal has a residual…

An appellate court may interfere with fact-finding only where the decision is plainly wrong and falls outside the generous ambit of reasonable disagreement. It…

A housing authority generally decides what inquiries are necessary when reviewing the suitability of offered accommodation. Its decision is unlawful where no…

In land-registration proceedings, a third party who was not a party to foreign matrimonial proceedings is not bound by judgments made in them about beneficial…

Article 10 proportionality requires the court to balance the value of the particular exercise of expression against the community interests relied on to…

Registration of an enduring power of attorney fixes the scope and operation of the EPA itself. It does not extinguish a separate authority held by the…

Planning decision reasons are adequate when, read fairly and in context, they explain why the decision was reached and address the principal important…

In exercising its discretion over appellate costs, the court may assess substantive success and the relief obtained, while taking account of delay, conduct and…

A defendant may justify a defamatory publication by proving that its essential sting is substantially true. Where a specific allegation is presented as an…

A statutory immigration appeal concerns the immigration decision actually under appeal. The Tribunal cannot use that appeal to determine the lawfulness of an…

A claimant seeking damages as a secondary victim must establish legal proximity to the defendant through the established control mechanisms. Physical proximity…

Legislation limiting dependency damages to cohabitants who lived together as spouses or civil partners for at least two years is compatible with the…

Once the statutory gateway in section 13(2) is met, compensation is available only for an individual’s distress caused by a contravention of data-processing…

A condition preventing an appellant from recovering its costs may be imposed retrospectively under CPR rule 52.9, but only where there is a compelling reason.…

An implied term restraining arbitrary, capricious or irrational conduct arises where a party has a contractual discretion requiring an assessment or choice…

In a conduct dismissal case, the employment tribunal’s task remains supervisory rather than a fresh merits decision. Under section 98(4) of the Employment…

A contractual warranty must be construed objectively, in its commercial setting. An agreement expected by both parties to be signed immediately after…

Permission for a second appeal may be justified by a compelling reason where a care plan would place a child in long-term foster care for most of childhood and…

Where a voyage charterparty specifies a minimum cargo quantity and permits additional cargo, freight for the excess is payable under the agreed overage…

An employer’s absolute statutory liability for unsafe work equipment is qualified where the injured claimant’s own breach of duty is solely responsible for the…

Systematic collection, processing and retention of personal information by public authorities may engage article 8 even where the information comes from public…

Under the 2002 ISDA Master Agreement, Close-out Amount is determined by valuing the economic equivalent of the terminated transaction’s material terms and…

A shipowner who has authorised a bill of lading stating that freight is payable as per a charterparty may, before payment, countermand the direction to pay a…

The duty imposed by section 239(3) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 requires the Parole Board, rather than the panel making the final release decision, to…

Leave to oppose an adoption after a placement order requires the parent to show a change of circumstances since the placement order. Even where such change is…

Contractual capacity is distinct from the power to perform. A party may contract to confer a right which it does not itself possess, subject to liability for…

On an appeal under the statutory barring scheme, proportionality and rationality remain reviewable as questions of law. The Upper Tribunal must, however…

A child may be removed under an interim care order only where the child’s safety requires immediate separation. Safety includes emotional and psychological…

An agreement retaining part of a purchase price pending completion of specified works must be construed as a whole and in its commercial context. Where the…

Pending a Supreme Court decision, the Court of Appeal was bound to hold that detention under section 139 of the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979 is…

Ordinary internal disciplinary procedures, including contractual procedures, do not ordinarily determine a dispute independently between employer and employee.…

Guidance requiring an educational sponsor to report every sponsored student who fails to enrol applies whether the student abandons the course or is refused…

A commercial contract does not fail for uncertainty merely because matters such as charges or a delivery schedule remain to be agreed. The court must determine…

In claims for slander or malicious falsehood, proceedings may be struck out as an abuse of process where the alleged tort lacks reality and substance and a…

In an Article 8 deportation case, a period of good conduct is relevant because it may reduce current risk; it is not relevant in the abstract. Its weight…

In construing a poorly drafted commercial confidentiality and non-circumvention deed, the court must identify the meaning conveyed to a reasonable person with…

Imperfect transposition of an EU directive following a bona fide misunderstanding does not create an automatic right to Francovich damages. Sufficient…

In catastrophic injury settlements involving periodical payments, the court may resolve disputed terms after the parties have agreed the payment structure and…

Police services requested for maintaining law and order are chargeable as special police services only when they fall outside the police's ordinary public…

A local authority is ordinarily entitled to possession after a non-secure tenancy has been validly determined. An occupier may nevertheless raise an Article 8…

Under ground 16 of Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1985, the relevant question is the tenant’s reasonable requirement for accommodation at the date of the…

A merits appeal challenges the regulatory decision, not merely its reasoning. An appellant normally must show both that the original decision is materially…

Following dismissal of an appeal, the successful respondent was entitled to its costs. On a summary assessment, the court adopted a broad-brush approach…

A preliminary issue is unsuitable where the issues cannot be separated from their factual matrix, or where the facts relevant to the preliminary determination…

A trial judge assessing a witness whose credibility is central must test the oral evidence against objective facts, contemporary documents, motives and the…

The natural and ordinary meaning of an audiovisual publication is determined from the overall impression conveyed to its ordinary reasonable audience. The…

A contractual variation in a technical specification must be read with the specification as a whole. A sentence reconfirming the required performance remains…

Absolute privilege protects defamatory words in witness evidence, affidavits and witness statements made for judicial proceedings where they have any reference…

The sole statutory test for treatment decisions concerning a person lacking capacity is that the decision must be in that person’s best interests. Guidance on…

Permission to appeal should be refused where the proposed grounds seek to introduce a different, unpleaded cause of action, rely on evidence that could and…

An extended family member may satisfy regulation 8(2)(c) even if that person entered the United Kingdom before the relevant EEA national and applied…

Where a deportation appeal raises an Article 8 proportionality issue and the respondent concedes that reconsideration is required under Maslov v Austria [2008]…

For a multi-year part-time course, the governing assessment regulations are ordinarily those in force when the student first enrols, rather than regulations…

A professional regulator considering an interim order must assess whether the allegations and supporting material justify protection pending the substantive…

When deciding whether a defamatory publication conveys fact or comment, the court applies the impression of the reasonable reader. That reader is not avid for…

In child-arrangements proceedings, a court which departs from a material recommendation made by a Cafcass officer must give clear reasons that engage with the…

A common law remedy cannot coexist with a statutory scheme where, viewed as a whole, the remedy would be incompatible with Parliament’s arrangements. The Crime…

An appeal from an employment tribunal lies only on a point of law. An employment tribunal must give coherent reasons, but it need not resolve every factual…

When deciding whether a dismissal for misconduct is fair, an employer may take an extant final written warning into account. The question under section 98(4)…

In a Companies Act 2006 unfair-prejudice share purchase, fair value is fact-sensitive. There is no inflexible rule that shares must be valued on a break-up…

Res ipsa loquitur does not reverse the burden of proving negligence. It is a guide to whether a prima facie case exists and is generally inappropriate where…

Under the Civil Procedure Rules 1998, the court has discretion to order security for appeal costs where a company is unlikely to pay. The discretion is not…

A settlement which acknowledges that an entire debt is due and prescribes staged payments may exclude equitable set-off, even without using the word “set-off”.…

A term will be implied into a negotiated commercial agreement only where, read objectively against its background, it is necessary to give the agreement its…

In a renewed application for permission to bring a second appeal concerning detailed-assessment costs, the proposed appeal had a real prospect of success and…

For possession claims under the Housing Act 1985 based on rent arrears or a knowingly or recklessly false statement inducing the grant of a tenancy, suitable…

Fair consultation depends on the statutory context and the circumstances of the case. Where legislation requires consultation on a published draft scheme…

Screening for environmental impact assessment requires a precautionary approach. A serious possibility of significant environmental effects may suffice…

A medical-use claim requires the claimed therapeutic effect, although treatment need neither cure the disease nor address every aspect of it. For novelty…

Costs in judicial review are not decided mechanically by asking who would have won at a hypothetical trial. Where proceedings end before a final hearing, the…

An appellate court should respect a specialist family judge’s discretionary decision on interim contact in an emergency. Where the judge considers the…

Where a child born outside the United Kingdom claims British citizenship by descent through a father, the statutory definition may require proof that the child…

On an application for costs following withdrawal of an appeal, the ordinary permission-to-appeal costs approach may change when the court directs the…

Input VAT is deductible only where, when liability is incurred, the recipient is carrying on an economic activity and the input has a direct and immediate link…

Damages for a buyer’s failure to complete a sale of land are governed by the compensatory principle, not an inflexible breach-date rule. The breach date is…

In a collective enfranchisement valuation under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, legal rights and liabilities affecting the…

Applications for parental responsibility and direct contact are legally distinct. A refusal of direct contact, based on the welfare assessment and the…

For infringement under section 10(2) of the Trade Marks Act 1994, the court must assess the similarity of the signs and relevant services as a whole, while…

A credit reference agency does not breach the fourth data protection principle merely because data, accurately copied from an authoritative third-party source…

The threshold for leave under section 139(2) of the Mental Health Act 1983 is low. The court should decide only whether the proposed claim is arguable, rather…

A liquidator must give a contingent debt a genuine and fair present value by assessing realistically the likelihood that the contingency will occur. Neither…

A person propounding a will must prove that the testator knew and approved its contents. The court considers the whole of the evidence and asks whether…

Judicial review remedies are discretionary. A court should not quash an impugned decision where no useful purpose would be served. This applies where a later…

A successful judicial-review claim does not automatically attract an order for costs. Under Part 44.3 of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998, the court retains a…

Permission for a second appeal requires an important point of principle or practice, or another compelling reason. In assessing whether refusal to adjourn…

A director’s duty of reasonable care, skill and diligence under the Companies Act 2006 is assessed by reference to both the functions performed and the…

A statutory power to remove a vessel moored “without lawful authority” applies only where the mooring is unlawful. Absence of the navigation authority’s…

Police acting in connection with the care of a person lacking capacity avoid tortious liability only where the statutory requirements of reasonable belief…

An internet platform provider which hosts independently controlled blogs is not a primary publisher merely because it supplies the platform and related tools.…

An employment tribunal is not required to identify every possible factor supporting a head of loss. In its adversarial jurisdiction, it ordinarily decides only…

On an application for summary judgment, the claimant must show a real prospect of succeeding in the claim and of proving any essential disputed facts. An…

Special damage should ordinarily be pleaded expressly. However, a damages inquiry following judgment in default is not invariably confined to the original…

In contempt proceedings arising from family injunctions, hearsay evidence is admissible. Once admitted, the judge must assess its reliability and weight in the…

In Convention proceedings, a return order and an interim care order are distinct. Securing jurisdiction and prompt return does not create a presumption that…

In family proceedings involving disputed allegations of domestic violence, PD 12J does not impose an absolute requirement for a fact-finding hearing before…

For exclusion from accreditation under the Renewables Obligation Order 2006 and Renewables Obligation Order 2009, the relevant qualifying or NFFO arrangement…

Opportunistic political activity undertaken abroad to manufacture an asylum claim does not automatically prevent refugee status. The applicant’s motive is…

A registration certificate issued under the Accession (Immigration and Worker Registration) Regulations 2004 has prospective effect only. It does not…

Where primary legislation requires delegated legislation to prescribe a description of a scheme, the delegated legislation must add substantive descriptive…

For double tax relief under a double-tax convention, income taxed in two jurisdictions is the same only if its source is the same under the domestic tax law…

Section 14 of the Partnership Act 1890 requires a close match between the representation knowingly made or suffered by the apparent partner and the…

On a renewed application for permission to bring a further appeal in an asylum case, the applicant must show an important point of principle or practice, or…

Rectification requires an objectively ascertainable common continuing intention, an outward expression of accord, continuation of that intention when the…

Money advanced to solicitors for a remortgage remains trust money until completion. Completion requires arrangements which assure the redemption of the…

A written commercial agreement must be construed by starting with the language used, read in the structure of the clause and agreement, its purpose and…

When one statutory framework supersedes another, the new framework is presumed to govern future activities. Clear words are required to produce retroactive…

A commercial contract must be construed as a whole and in its commercial context, even where particular words appear clear in isolation. Where language permits…

Actual notice of an equitable assignment may be established by oral communications which objectively convey, with sufficient certainty, that the assignee…

An Inspector may satisfy a policy requiring substantial weight to be given to unmet need without repeating that phrase, provided the decision read fairly shows…

Whether refusing to adjourn care proceedings leaves an unrepresented parent without a fair trial is a fact-specific question. Fairness is assessed across the…

Equity does not make every positive freehold covenant enforceable against a successor in title. The benefit-and-burden principle applies only where the payment…

A wasted costs order under the Senior Courts Act 1981 is compensatory, not punitive or regulatory. The applicant must establish that improper, unreasonable or…

A person who is not entitled to asylum does not acquire a right to remain merely because removal cannot presently be enforced. Article 8 does not confer a…

Permission to appeal may be appropriate where an immigration tribunal appears to have overlooked material country information bearing directly on a central…

Under a standard employers’ liability policy, an insurer must indemnify the employer for the whole liability for mesothelioma where negligent asbestos exposure…

A High Court judge’s refusal of permission to bring a statutory appeal under section 289 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 cannot itself be appealed to…

The constitutional right of access to justice imposes on the State a duty not to place obstacles in the way of access to the courts. It does not ordinarily…

In a conduct dismissal, an Employment Tribunal must assess the employer’s decision against the objective band of reasonable responses. It must not substitute…

A live sports-data collection may be a protected database where it contains independent factual elements arranged for individual retrieval and substantial…

In a permission application concerning care and adoption proceedings, the Court of Appeal should not assess the merits on an incomplete record where there is a…

Under section 141 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, whether an employee unreasonably refuses suitable alternative employment is assessed from that particular…

Where limited leave to remain for more than six months is preserved after a person leaves the common travel area, the returning person may be treated as…

On an application for a charging order, the court must consider all the circumstances and balance the ordinary expectation of a judgment creditor against the…

In contractual remoteness, the ordinary rule remains that loss is recoverable where, at the time of contracting, a reasonable person would have regarded that…

Goodwill is an asset within a freezing order restraining dealings with a business’s property and assets. It can include established commercial connections, a…

On applications for permission to appeal in child-jurisdiction proceedings, the Court of Appeal held that it was strongly arguable that children entrusted by…

Permission to appeal should be refused where the proposed appeal has no real prospect of success. The Court of Appeal generally accepts factual findings made…

A defamation claim may be stopped as an abuse of process where the likely damage and vindication are modest, the issues and procedure are complex, and the…

Where a lower court quantified replacement-car hire by relying on evidence from a source later shown to be systemically dishonest, the Court of Appeal may…

A court deciding whether to adjourn a family trial after publicly funded representation has withdrawn must exercise a broad discretion. It should weigh…

Where a child objects to return under Article 13(c) of the 1980 Hague Abduction Convention, and has sufficient age and maturity for the views to be taken into…

COB 7.9.3 applies to individual draw-downs used to finance particular investments, as well as to overarching credit facilities. A firm may arrange lending by…

Where a purchaser establishes that a material misrepresentation induced entry into a contract, a vendor cannot defeat the claim merely by suggesting that the…

A breach of the duty to endeavour to trace an unaccompanied child’s family does not itself entitle a failed asylum seeker to leave to remain. The breach may…

The usual rule is that costs follow the event, but the court retains a broad discretion to achieve justice. On an appeal concerning costs, the central question…

Permission to appeal in an immigration case requires an arguable error of law of some significance. It is not a route for rearguing evidence-based findings of…

The Court of Appeal did not determine the substantive issues concerning enforcement of lump sum orders or alleged non-compliance with disclosure requirements.…

The Court of Appeal granted an application in an appeal from the Employment Appeal Tribunal. Two grounds were considered to raise points of real interest and…

A provision allowing removal directions against a family member of a person subject to immigration directions is not confined to a family member who is…

Country guidance on Article 15(c) of the Qualification Directive concerns the distinct problem of serious risk from generalised, indiscriminate violence in…

In a child sexual-abuse fact-finding appeal, the absence of ano-genital signs is neutral: it neither supports nor negates the allegation. In a physically…

In a deportation appeal involving a child, the child's best interests must be treated as a primary consideration, but they do not automatically determine the…

In an automatic deportation case, the best interests of a child require a fact-sensitive assessment addressing the actual effect of the foreign criminal’s…

In VAT fraud cases, the connection between a transaction and fraud earlier in the supply chain, and the trader’s state of mind, must be assessed transaction by…

Judicial review is a residual supervisory jurisdiction, not an appeal on the merits from a County Court. Tenancy and possession disputes, including monetary…

Regulation 8(2) of the Allocation of Housing and Homelessness (Review Procedures) Regulations 1999 applies only to a relevant adverse decision which the…

An isolated reference to a need for compelling evidence may appear to impose too high a threshold in a civil fact-finding exercise. However, the judgment must…

Statutory controls on tents and sleeping structures in Parliament Square were compatible with articles 10 and 11 of the Convention. The power to direct removal…

A statutory scheme requiring the mandatory disclosure of all recordable convictions and cautions on enhanced criminal record certificates is incompatible with…

Where a landlord wrongfully and permanently evicts a tenant shortly after granting a lease and selling the associated business, damages may reflect the premium…

A claimant seeking special damages for replacement-vehicle hire must first prove a reasonable need for the vehicle. That need is not self-proving. If…

For a statutory tort of discrimination causing indivisible damage, concurrent tortfeasors, including an employer vicariously liable for an employee, are…

An employment tribunal deciding a late adjournment application must assess overall fairness to both parties in the round. The applicant’s likely absence is…

A fiduciary’s receipt of a secret commission does not necessarily leave the principal with only a personal claim. Under the binding distinction in Sinclair, a…

A tribunal’s findings of fact are final and cannot properly be challenged through judicial review. That finality may sometimes produce factual error or…

Where an applicant for permission to appeal has received clear notice of an oral reconsideration hearing, has been given an additional opportunity to attend…

In an appellate costs ruling, the successful party is identified by the substantive and commercial result, not by counting every issue. A respondent may…

An approved costs budget provides the normal financial limits for litigation, but it is not an absolute cap. The court may permit recovery above the budget…

At the permission stage, the court considers whether the proposed appeal is arguable. Permission may be granted where the appeal raises a novel jurisdictional…

An employer’s contractual disciplinary procedure may be restrained where the proposed process would breach an express contractual term. Applicable policies…

Development-plan policies must be interpreted objectively, according to their language and context. A court should not use the drafting history or the author’s…

A consent order should not be set aside without proof of the alleged duress or undue influence. Where the allegation concerns pressure by the party’s own legal…

In a civil case concerning disputed causation, the court must decide whether the claimant’s explanation is more likely than not on a rational and objective…

Permission to appeal should be refused where the proposed legal challenge cannot affect the result in light of unchallenged factual findings. This applies even…

In two related applications for security for costs, the court gave only a preliminary view. The amount sought appeared excessive, security was arguably…

Under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, a consent order may provide for separate lump sums or for one lump sum payable by instalments. Separate lump sums under…

At common law, a periodic joint residential tenancy ends automatically when one joint tenant, without the concurrence of the other, serves notice to quit on…

Negligence requires a realistic assessment of reasonable care, not a counsel of perfection or a guarantee of safety. A driver need not reduce speed merely…

On a renewed application for permission to appeal, permission should be granted where the proposed grounds are sufficiently arguable and raise an important…

A patent is insufficient if its specification, read with common general knowledge, gives the skilled person no sufficient practical guidance to work the…

Under the Hague Abduction Convention 1980, a parent’s signature to a foreign consent order does not retrospectively establish habitual residence after wrongful…

On a fresh asylum claim, a tribunal need not start entirely afresh. It may take account of earlier credibility findings while making its own assessment of the…

Permission to appeal should be refused where the applicant identifies no arguable error, unlawful conduct or other valid ground challenging the first-instance…

On a second appeal, an asylum decision is not perverse merely because the evidence might support a different assessment. Where the tribunal has considered the…

A new claim for limitation purposes is identified by a new cause of action, not merely by a different remedy or improved particulars. A change in the essential…

Permission to adduce expert evidence in family proceedings depends on whether it is reasonably required to resolve the proceedings. Admissibility alone does…

Permission to appeal should be granted where the proposed appeal has sufficient prospects of success to merit a second look, even if those prospects are…

Under the statutory offer-of-amends regime, an appropriate apology and a clear, unequivocal offer of damages are intended to secure vindication without…

Where a judge relies on a clinician’s opinion to depart from a welfare officer’s recommendation on child contact, the opinion must be assessed on a properly…

For the purposes of the Hague Child Protection Convention of 1996, the word measures is to be construed broadly. It includes a return order and protective…

Where an appellant relies on detailed evidence alleging failures by former solicitors, that conduct waives legal professional privilege in relation to the…

A policy may state a clear general rule while permitting departure in exceptional circumstances. The possibility that reasonable decision-makers may differ…

The Court of Appeal granted permission to appeal, notwithstanding reservations expressed by Lord Justice Patten. The supplied judgment contains no…

On an application for permission to appeal in care and adoption proceedings, the question is whether there is a real prospect of success by reason of an error…

On a renewed application for permission to appeal from the Employment Appeal Tribunal, the Court of Appeal’s task is confined to asking whether the proposed…

Where a litigant cannot attend a hearing because of genuine acute illness, the proper course may be to adjourn the application to the earliest convenient date.…

Jurisdiction under article 6.1 of the Council Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 is assessed when proceedings are instituted. A later default judgment against one…

Applications to vary an order authorising refusal of parental contact with children in care are brought under Children Act 1989, section 34(9). The court must…

A broad full and final settlement clause may compromise statutory and human-rights claims based on facts occurring before the settlement date, even where the…

Permission for a second appeal requires an important point of principle or practice, or another compelling reason for the Court of Appeal to hear the case. A…

In care proceedings, the need to place a child with a parent attracts great weight, but it does not displace a careful assessment of safety. A trial judge may…

Permission to appeal may be refused where an appeal would have no practical effect because the child will shortly attain 18 and the orders under challenge will…

On a second appeal in a deportation case, disagreement with the weight given to long residence, private life or mitigating conduct will not ordinarily…

Permission to appeal in an employment case requires an arguable error of law with a real prospect of success. Findings of fact cannot be challenged merely…

On an application for a stay and security for costs pending an appeal, the court may require sums ordered below to be paid into court as a condition of staying…

Permission to appeal may be refused where the challenged order has become stale, has been overtaken by subsequent events, and an appeal would provide no…

Appeals from an employment tribunal to the EAT lie only on alleged errors of law. Findings of fact are ordinarily final. A perversity challenge succeeds only…

Permission to appeal in a defended matrimonial suit will be refused where the trial judge has made clear findings of fact after hearing the evidence, the…

At the permission stage, the court considers whether a proposed ground is sufficiently arguable and whether, taking its arguability together with the…

Applications to extend the time for appealing to the Employment Appeal Tribunal are approached strictly because the prescribed six-week period is generous. The…

When a court reviews a child’s living arrangements after a parent has moved within the jurisdiction, it must assess the child’s welfare overall. The issue is…

On a renewed application for permission to appeal, the applicant must show a real prospect that the decision below was wrong. A party cannot obtain a rehearing…

In care and adoption proceedings, an appellate court should intervene only where the first-instance judge erred in law or was plainly wrong in exercising the…

In disputes about children, the court must focus on their future welfare rather than allowing adult allegations and counter-allegations to dominate the case. A…

An injunction must state clearly what the respondent must do or refrain from doing. In context, a vested interest is an existing proprietary right, while a…

Permission to appeal against an interlocutory refusal to stay judicial review proceedings should be granted where the claimant’s prospects depend on a rapidly…

Where an appeal turns on the interpretation of contracts said to incorporate terms from other agreements, the appellate court should have the complete…

A discretionary county court order is not appealable merely because a party considers it unjust. Where the judge has directed himself correctly in law…