Supreme Court judgments, 2018

Where legislation permits methods of serving a notice beyond specified statutory methods, service ordinarily requires actual receipt by the intended recipient…

A responsible clinician has no power under the Mental Health Act 1983 to impose community treatment order conditions whose concrete effect is to deprive a…

Under section 15(1) of the Equality Act 2010, the claimant need not identify a comparator. The tribunal must identify the relevant treatment and decide whether…

On a statutory transfer between successive highway authorities, “the highway” includes all property in the vertical plane which the former authority held in…

For a landlord to oppose a business tenant’s new tenancy under section 30(1)(f) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, it must have a firm and settled intention…

Where cargo is shipped in apparent good order but discharged damaged, the carrier bears the legal burden of proving compliance with its duty of reasonable care…

The power to order the conditional discharge of a restricted patient does not authorise the First-tier Tribunal or the Secretary of State to impose conditions…

Article 14 requires differential treatment within a Convention right’s ambit, based on a listed ground or other status, between persons in relevantly analogous…

For section 117B(5) of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, every non-UK citizen whose leave to remain is limited rather than indefinite has a…

A Swiss-form second medical use claim is sufficient only if the specification, read with common general knowledge at the priority date, discloses reasonable…

A pension scheme is a formal, specialist and long-term instrument which confers important rights on non-parties. Its interpretation should therefore give…

Under a protected trust deed providing for discharge by composition, the trustee determines when a distribution is final, subject to fiduciary duty. That…

Under paragraph 276ADE(1)(iv) of the Immigration Rules and section 117B(6) of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, the reasonableness assessment…

Under article 16(3) of the Athens Convention relating to the Carriage of Passengers and their Luggage by Sea 1974, domestic grounds for the suspension of…

Under sections 64 and 67 of the Housing Act 2004, an HMO licence may restrict occupation to a particular class of person where the restriction makes the house…

An accident and emergency department owes a recognised duty to take reasonable care not to cause physical injury to a patient who has attended, supplied the…

Direct discrimination requires less favourable treatment because of a protected characteristic. A refusal directed at a message rather than the customer is not…

Whether married and unmarried bereaved parents are in analogous situations under article 14 depends on the purpose of the benefit concerned. A contributory…

An acquittal does not bar disclosure of the underlying allegation in an enhanced criminal record certificate. The chief officer’s task under section 113B of…

Clinically assisted nutrition and hydration is medical treatment. Treatment of an adult who lacks capacity is lawful only when it is in that person’s best…

The EU law principle of equivalence requires a context-specific comparison between procedures governing EU law claims and similar domestic claims. The court…

Liability for economic loss caused by a negligent statement rests on a voluntary assumption of responsibility to an identifiable, although not necessarily…

Under section 1(2)(b) of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, the court must determine what the respondent did or omitted to do, assess its effect on the…

An employer defending a claim based on vicarious liability does not owe its employees a duty to conduct the litigation so as to protect their economic or…

EU law requires foreign portfolio dividends to receive a tax credit calculated by reference to the foreign nominal tax rate where domestic dividends are…

On an application to vary periodical payments, the court has a wide discretion to decide whether a paying spouse should meet needs created by the recipient’s…

A local authority cannot use section 20 of the Children Act 1989 compulsorily. Removing a child from a parent who is caring for the child requires a real and…

Under the United Kingdom VAT-grouping regime, the representative member, rather than the group as a separate quasi-person, is the single taxable person. A…

Article 3 of the Directive 2001/24/EC on the Reorganisation and Winding up of Credit Institutions requires every member state to recognise the entire legal…

Judicial review of a decision whether to prosecute is capable of being a proceeding “in a criminal cause or matter” within section 6(11) of the Justice and…

Discrimination contrary to article 14 of the Convention must be justified by reference to the difference in treatment itself. A government’s wish for time to…

A statutory discretion must be exercised consistently with the objects and scope of its statutory scheme. Under the Construction Industry Scheme, the…

Section 75A of the Finance Act 2003 applies when connected transactions objectively reduce stamp duty land tax below that payable on the statutory notional…

A person is a limb (b) worker where the contract requires personal performance and the other party is neither a client nor a customer of a profession or…

A legally innocent intermediary which is ordered to prevent third parties from using its facilities unlawfully is ordinarily entitled to an indemnity from the…

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission may institute human-rights proceedings only where there is or would be an identifiable victim of an unlawful act.…

Under marine war-risks insurance, a person acts maliciously where the conduct involves spite, ill-will or a similar state of mind directed towards property or…

Domestic administrative law does not recognise equal treatment or substantive fairness as freestanding grounds of judicial review. Consistency is generally…

A contractual No Oral Modification clause is legally effective. A purported variation which fails to satisfy prescribed writing and signature requirements has…

In the absence of an express contractual term governing receipt, written notice of dismissal sent by an employer takes effect when it comes to the employee’s…

A solicitor’s equitable lien is an equitable charge securing the client’s contractual liability for the solicitor’s charges against the fruits of litigation.…

Common law damages for breach of contract compensate for loss caused by non-performance. Negotiating damages are available only where that loss is…

Unlawful means conspiracy imposes primary liability. The unlawful means need not be independently actionable. Criminal conduct, including criminal contempt of…

A symptomless physiological change is actionable personal injury where it materially impairs a person’s physical capacity and makes that person appreciably…

The right under article 6.3(c) of the European Convention on Human Rights to legal assistance of one’s choosing is an element of the right to a fair trial. It…

An employer may reasonably dismiss a head teacher who fails to disclose a close relationship with a person recently convicted of sexual offences against…

Plant providing services to a hereditament is excluded from rating where its services are used mainly or exclusively as part of manufacturing operations or…

For limitation purposes, company directors are treated as trustees and as having received company property through their fiduciary stewardship. A director who…

Liability for economic loss caused by a careless misrepresentation remains founded on the representor’s assumption of responsibility. The representee must…

Under Civil Procedure Rules rule 6.15(2), retrospective validation of defective service depends on a single evaluative question: whether all the circumstances…

Article 3 of the Convention imposes a positive duty on the state to conduct an effective investigation into credible allegations of serious ill-treatment…

A child placed in the permanent legal guardianship of a Union citizen under a foreign kefalah arrangement may fall within the wider concept of a family member…

The summary-return procedure under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction 1980 is unavailable if, immediately before the…

Interference with possessions must strike a fair balance between the community’s general interest and the protection of individual rights. The distinction…

On an appeal against a prohibition notice under section 24 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, the employment tribunal must determine for itself…

When determining entitlement to British citizenship under section 4C of the British Nationality Act 1981, the statutory assumption of equal maternal…

Immigration bail under paragraphs 22 and 29 of Schedule 2 to the Immigration Act 1971 requires a subsisting lawful power to detain. The statutory word…

Police officers have no general immunity from negligence liability. They owe the ordinary duty to avoid causing reasonably foreseeable personal injury by their…

Diplomatic archives and official correspondence are generally inviolable under articles 24 and 27(2) of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961.…

For a Crown Court confiscation order, proportionate credit for a part payment under section 79(2) of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980 must be calculated by…

A magistrates’ court may rely on information which cannot be disclosed in the public interest when deciding an ex parte application for a search warrant under…