High Court: Queen's Bench Division judgments, 2004

The court may grant urgent interim relief in support of arbitration before arbitral proceedings have formally begun where the applicant is a proposed party to…

On an interlocutory meaning and pleading application in a libel action, a court should exclude a pleaded meaning only where it is so far-fetched that a…

Civil proceedings under section 3 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 are governed by the balance of probabilities. The court must apply the strictness…

A freezing order may support a solicitor’s claim for unpaid costs where there are reasons to believe that the former client has assets sufficient to meet a…

Where money is paid to an individual pursuant to an agreement for a specified investment, the individual may remain personally liable even if the payment was…

Communications made for a child protection conference are protected by qualified privilege, but the occasion is not one of absolute privilege. Extending…

On an appeal concerning a solicitor’s bill delivered more than 12 months earlier, the question whether “special circumstances” justify detailed assessment is a…

A claimant who makes a valid offer to settle liability at a stated proportion, which the defendant rejects and the court later awards precisely, may ordinarily…

On an interim application under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, the court may restrain an apprehended course of harassment and impose protective…

Qualified privilege for responsible journalism requires an objective assessment of the publication as a whole. The public interest in the subject matter does…

A freezing order is relief in personam. Its standard security provision protects a claimant against the defendant’s removal or dissipation of assets. It does…

On an appeal from a costs judge, the appellate court must review rather than rehear the decision. Intervention is justified only where the decision is wrong or…

A fiduciary who receives money for another remains accountable for it unless a valid subsequent arrangement changes the legal relationship. A purported…

Failure to commence detailed assessment within the prescribed time does not automatically justify disallowing the receiving party’s costs. Under CPR rules 47.7…

A post-termination employment covenant is enforceable only where it protects a legitimate business interest and is no wider than reasonably necessary in the…

For planning purposes, a structure mounted on wheels is not necessarily outside the concept of a building or development. The court must assess all the…

Interlocutory injunctive relief may protect a class of persons from threatened harassment, including persons who cannot yet be individually identified. The…

For an interlocutory injunction restraining industrial action, Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, s.221(2), requires the court to…

A medical professional is not negligent merely because another practitioner would have reached a different diagnosis. The question is whether the defendant…

In assessing future losses, the court must select a realistic baseline career model and use the conventional multiplier and multiplicand approach. A…

In a defamation claim, a company’s market capitalisation, calculated by multiplying its issued shares by a quoted share price, is not itself a market price or…

An arbitration agreement does not prevent a party from commencing court proceedings before applying for a stay. Once a valid application is made under…

On an application for a stay on grounds of forum non conveniens, the defendant must show that another available forum is clearly or distinctly more…

An interlocutory injunction requires an underlying legal or equitable cause of action, except in limited cases concerned with preserving assets, evidence or…

The court’s role in reviewing a disciplinary decision of a domestic sporting body is supervisory. Whether the claim is contractual or based on restraint of…

In defamation proceedings, the statutory test for adding a new defendant after expiry of the limitation period is necessity, not desirability. A claimant’s…

A contractual payment described as liquidated damages is unenforceable as a penalty where it is not a genuine pre-estimate of loss. The assessment is made by…

An agent who is required to account for expenditure of a principal’s money bears the burden of showing that it was properly spent. Where proper accounts are…

Restrictive covenants in employment contracts are prima facie unenforceable unless the employer identifies a legitimate business interest and proves that the…

The court retains an inherent jurisdiction to grant interlocutory relief in support of an intended arbitration where necessary to preserve assets or evidence…

In group litigation, the court may impose directions and sanctions to identify claims that will continue, be discontinued or await funding decisions. It cannot…

An adjudicator’s decision may be enforced only where the adjudication process complies with natural justice and the adjudicator acts impartially. The court…

A general practitioner who makes a differential diagnosis including life-threatening conditions must respond to the risk of sudden deterioration. Where…

Persons who control the way construction work is carried out may owe concurrent duties to provide a safe workplace, safe access and egress, and safe pedestrian…

Accommodation is provided in a hostel for the purposes of the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 where residents are required, or may be required, to share…

Under section 2 of the Defamation Act 1952, words are actionable in slander without proof of special damage where they are objectively likely to disparage the…

Qualified privilege depends on whether the occasion of publication was protected by public interest considerations. The relevant inquiry is whether the…

At the interlocutory stage in a defamation claim, a pleaded meaning should be removed only where no reasonable reader could adopt it. Otherwise meaning remains…

A court has no jurisdiction to award compound interest on a common-law judgment for damages for deceit. The equitable jurisdiction to award compound interest…

Where antenatal imaging identifies an exomphalos without a visible bladder, the resulting possibility of cloacal exstrophy requires a focused and appropriately…

A court managing exceptionally large group litigation may approve and impose a practical settlement methodology, including on an interested party which did not…

An insurer may affirm a voidable insurance contract only by an informed and unequivocal choice, assessed objectively in context. In the ordinary case…

A highway authority’s liability for an uneven pavement requires proof that the highway was dangerous to traffic, that the dangerous condition resulted from a…

Summary judgment is appropriate only where the claimant has no real prospect of success. In defamation, the threshold is higher: the applicant must show that…

Summary judgment or strike-out is inappropriate where a claimant has a strong case but the defendants retain a real prospect of defending the claim, or where…

A party who seeks to rely on an opponent’s conduct to reduce liability for costs should raise the matter before the judge making the costs order, where that…

In a lump-sum personal injury award assessed by reference to the prescribed discount rate, investment advice, fund management and related transaction costs…

A claim based on increased traffic noise may engage Article 8 where the interference with private and family life is sufficiently serious. At the…

Issue estoppel may prevent a claimant from relitigating the enforceability of a contract where that issue was determined by an Employment Tribunal, even though…

Professional negligence in diagnosis and treatment is judged by reasonable skill and care in the circumstances. A GP must exercise reasonable care in deciding…

Civil self-defence requires an honest and reasonable apprehension of imminent attack and the use of reasonable, proportionate force. Soldiers performing…

A tenant’s inability to refer a non-work notice to arbitration before service of a notice to quit does not deny access to a court. The Agricultural Holdings…

A barrister is not negligent merely because a tactical decision at trial later proves unsuccessful. The question is whether the decision was one that no…

A repudiation of an employment contract does not terminate it automatically. Termination requires conscious acceptance, or conduct objectively inconsistent…

On assessment of publicly funded counsel’s fees, a brief fee must cover the work reasonably required for representation at trial, including ordinary…

Compensation under the offer of amends regime must be tailored to the circumstances and cannot be fixed by applying a standard percentage discount. The court…

A hospital post-mortem authorised under the Human Tissue Act 1961 includes removal and retention of organs when reasonably necessary for diagnosis. No…

An order for disclosure of a non-party’s confidential medical records in civil proceedings is justified only in a very exceptional factual situation. The court…

Summary judgment is appropriate only where the evidence establishes that the defendant cannot make out a credible defence and the issues are fit for…

An intentional touching without lawful justification may constitute the tort of assault even where the force used is slight. Misfeasance in public office…

A collective agreement may be incorporated into an individual contract of employment by clear contractual reference, even though the agreement is not itself…

A guarantee is construed objectively, by reference to the document read in its relevant commercial background. Where that background makes clear that the…

Communications made in the performance of an existing duty, such as an educational placement report, attract qualified privilege. The privilege is defeated…

In an application to stay an English libel claim in favour of Scotland, the court applied the Spiliada approach. The defendant had to show that Scotland was…

In a libel action by a trading corporation, actual pecuniary loss need not be proved. Damage is presumed, and a serious allegation of insolvency may justify…

Regulation 6(2) of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 must be interpreted restrictively. It excludes scrutiny of the adequacy of the…

A claimant who establishes liability must still prove injury and consequential loss on the balance of probabilities. Where the evidence does not establish…

A contract is not unenforceable merely because one party enters it intending to use the transaction as part of a fraud. The intended illegality must have…

Where aircraft are supplied under an oral or incompletely documented hiring arrangement, the court determines the parties’ agreement from the evidence of their…

In a solicitor-negligence claim concerning lost litigation, the court must assess what the claimant would probably have recovered at a notional trial had the…

A defamation claim is not an abuse of process merely because it is unlikely to produce a substantial financial recovery or because the alleged publication…

Acceptance of a Part 36 offer or payment in libel proceedings does not ordinarily end the claimant’s entitlement to recover the costs of obtaining permission…

For internet defamation, publication occurs where defamatory material is downloaded and read. The location of publication is therefore relevant to jurisdiction…

Where a contractual restriction on development is breached, damages may be assessed by reference to the price that might reasonably have been negotiated for…

An occupier of a motor-racing circuit must take such care as is reasonable in all the circumstances to make visitors reasonably safe. An occupier may discharge…

An appeal from a county court judgment is ordinarily a review, not a rehearing. A rehearing is available only where a practice direction permits it or where…

A contractual cost-sharing provision must be construed by identifying the meaning conveyed to a reasonable person with the parties’ relevant background…

For an interim injunction engaging freedom of expression, assembly or association, the court must assess whether the claim has a real prospect of success…

A bailee who accepts possession of goods bears the burden of proving their return to the owner or to a person authorised by the owner. General evidence of…

Evidence offered to support a qualified-privilege defence must bear on a live issue in the case. Material showing only a speculative possibility that a…

Qualified privilege for publication of defamatory allegations to the public depends on the objective common-law duty-interest test. The question is whether, at…

A highway authority’s statutory power to improve a highway, including by salting roads, does not ordinarily create a private right to compensation or a common…

Summary judgment is appropriate only where the defendant has no real prospect of succeeding and there is no other compelling reason for a trial. The court must…

For malicious prosecution, the claimant must establish prosecution, favourable termination, absence of reasonable and probable cause, and malice. Reasonable…