The respondent had lost its investment in a Russian development, and the appellants challenged a finding that they had been negligent in their advice with regard to the offer documents. Held: As to the basis of calculation of damages as to a loss of chance, the root question was what damages had followed. The Appeal … Continue reading Coudert Brothers v Normans Bay Limited (Formerly Illingworth, Morris Limited): CA 27 Feb 2004
The claimants appealed refusal of an order restricting comparative advertising materials for the defendant’s competing veterinary medicine. The claimant said that the rule against prior restraint applicable to defamation and other tort proceedings did not apply to trade mark infringement. Held: The rule against prior restraint applied to actions involving reputation, but did not apply … Continue reading Boehringer Ingelheim Ltd and others v Vetplus Ltd: CA 20 Jun 2007
The claimant sought damages against the respondent for various infringements in sales of unlicensed products, and also additional damages. The defendant argued that Microsoft’s licensing arrangements acted anti-competively. Held: ‘the defendants would not at trial be able to defend liability for issuing instruments of deception. ‘ The application for summary judgment for additional damages succeeded. … Continue reading Microsoft Corporation v Ling and others: ChD 3 Jul 2006
The Secretary of State for Environment can remove a Local Authority’s powers if a tender competition is restricted. Citations: Times 02-Mar-1994 Statutes: Local Government Act 1988 7-7 Jurisdiction: England and Wales Local Government Updated: 26 October 2022; Ref: scu.87696
The claimants had sponsored tennis players to wear their logo. The respondents organised tennis tournaments whose intended rules would prevent the display of the claimant’s logos. The claimants said that the restriction interfered with their rights to trade within Europe. Held: The rules were potentially a breach of the claimants rights to trade, and an … Continue reading Adidas-Salomon Ag v Drape and others: ChD 7 Jun 2006
ECJ Judgment – Satellite broadcasting – Broadcasting of football matches – Reception of the broadcast by means of satellite decoder cards – Satellite decoder cards lawfully placed on the market in one Member State and used in another Member State – Prohibition on marketing and use in a Member State – Visualisation of broadcasts in … Continue reading Football Association Premier League and Others v QC Leisure: ECJ 4 Oct 2011
The defendant had developed a draft standard for automotive body repairs. It included a requirement that any replacement parts must be either the manufacturer’s own or certified under a recognised conformity certification scheme. The claimant imported so-called ‘replica parts’ and said that the costs of such a scheme would be so disproportionate as to destroy … Continue reading Sel-Imperial Ltd v The British Standards Institution: ChD 23 Apr 2010
The claimant a boxing promoter had had his licence withdrawn for misconduct. He said that the respondent licensing authority had acted unlawfully and in breach of the 1988 Act. He now requested orders which would ensure his re-instatement pending the outcome of his challenge. Judges: Sir David Eady Citations: [2014] EWHC 2074 (QB) Links: Bailii … Continue reading Baker v The British Boxing Board of Control: QBD 25 Jun 2014
The claimant journalist sought disclosure of papers acquired by the respondent in its conduct of enquiries into the charitable Mariam appeal. The Commission referred to an absolute exemption under section 32(2) of the 2000 Act, saying that the exemption continued until the papers were destroyed, or for 20 years under the 1958 Act. Held: The … Continue reading Kennedy v The Charity Commission: SC 26 Mar 2014
This is an appeal on preliminary points of European Union and domestic law regarding the circumstances in which damages may be recoverable for failure to comply with the requirements of the Public Procurement Directive (Parliament and Council Directive 2004/18/EC on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts, public supply contracts and … Continue reading Nuclear Decommissioning Authority v Energysolutions EU Ltd (Now Called ATK Energy EU Ltd): SC 11 Apr 2017
Claim challenging the procurement of decommissioning contracts. Held: CFP should have been disqualified from the competition for failing two threshold requirements, and, in any event, RSS would have won the competition had the NDA not made ‘many manifest errors’ in its assessment of the tenders, but for which the NDA would have awarded RSS a … Continue reading Energysolutions EU Ltd v Nuclear Decommissioning Authority: TCC 29 Jul 2016
The claimants sought damages after contracting meselothemia working for the defendants. The defendants argued that the claimants had possibly contracted the disease at any one or more different places. The Fairchild case set up an exception to the rule, so that the defendants could be liable for all the losses despite the fact that others … Continue reading Barker v Corus (UK) Plc: HL 3 May 2006
The court considered the territorial scope of Articles 81 and 82. in the context of producers outside the Community selling to purchasers established in the Community. The external producers had engaged in price fixing and therefore restricted competition. The Commission had determined that there had been an infringement of Article 85. On appeal they argued … Continue reading A Ahlstrom Osakeyhtio And Others v Commission Of The European Communities: ECJ 27 Sep 1988
Tenants in a shopping precinct sought to enforce restrictive covenants directly against other tenants. Held: The leases were in the same form, and covenants had been imposed to restrict the uses to avoid conflict. The scheme had the characteristics required of a letting scheme. It was not necessary to look beyond the leases themselves. The … Continue reading Williams, Williams v Kiley T/A CK Supermarkets Limited: CA 21 Nov 2002
ECFI Council Regulation 4064/89, Article 2(3) provided that there should be declared to be incompatible with the common market: ‘A concentration which creates or strengthens a dominant position as a result of which effective competition would be significantly impeded in the common market or in a substantial part of it..’ There had been a merger … Continue reading Gencor Ltd v Commission: ECFI 25 Mar 1999
The defendants had been required to enter into a recognisance to be of good behaviour after disrupting a hunt by blowing of a hunting horn. They were found to have unlawfully caused danger to the dogs. Though there had been no breach of the peace, they had acted contrac bonos mores. They complained that the … Continue reading Hashman and Harrup v The United Kingdom: ECHR 25 Nov 1999
A business had grown, but the two founders split, and set up separate business. There was no agreement as to the use of the trading names and trade marks. The original law of Trade Marks prohibited bare exclusive licenses, licences excluding the rights of the owner to use the mark, and with no quality control. … Continue reading Scandecor Developments AB v Scandecor Marketing AV and Others and One Other Action: HL 4 Apr 2001
A notice was given to the holder of a waste disposal licence to require certain information to be provided on pain of prosecution. The provision of such information could also then be evidence against the provider of the commission of a criminal offence. Held: Nevertheless, the provision of such information was required in this case, … Continue reading Regina v Hertfordshire County Council, ex parte Green Environmental Industries Ltd and Another: HL 17 Feb 2000
The company took in a new director and shareholder, and relied upon their solicitors to draft a covenant to restrain him competing within a set time of leaving the company. The covenant turned out to be ineffective. The defendant solicitors replied that the action was out of time. Held: The purpose of the covenant was … Continue reading D W Moore and Co Ltd v Ferrier: CA 1988
The claimant sought damages for the losses it had suffered as a result of price fixing by the defendant companies in the vitamin market. The European Commission had already fined the defendant for its involvement. Held: In an action for breach of statutory duty the court can in appropriate circumstances make a restitutionary award, that … Continue reading Devenish Nutrition Ltd and others v Sanofi-Aventis SA (France) and others: ChD 19 Oct 2007
Decomposed Snail in Ginger Beer Bottle – Liability The appellant drank from a bottle of ginger beer manufactured by the defendant. She suffered injury when she found a half decomposed snail in the liquid. The glass was opaque and the snail could not be seen. The drink had been bought for her by a friend, … Continue reading Donoghue (or M’Alister) v Stevenson: HL 26 May 1932
The court considered correct approach to determination of the rateable value of an office building, in circumstances where the evidence showed at the relevant time a general demand in the area for comparable office buildings, but no actual tenant willing to pay a positive price for the building itself. Held: (Briggs, Black LL dissenting) The … Continue reading Telereal Trillium v Hewitt (Valuation Officer): SC 15 May 2019
The claimant said that the defendant had, through its members visiting their premises, breached the licence under which they entered, by taking photographs and distributing them on the internet, and in so doing also infringing the performance rights of the claimant. Held: On breach of confidence, the parties had an arguable cases on each side, … Continue reading Heythrop Zoological Gardens Ltd (T/A Amazing Animals) and Another v Captive Animals Protection Society: ChD 20 May 2016
The claimant said that the defendant bank as trustee of her late father’s estate had been negligent in its investment of trust assets. Held: The claimant had failed to establish either a breach of trust or any loss flowing from it, though there was not much for the bank to be proud of in its … Continue reading Nestle v National Westminster Bank: CA 6 May 1992
A company went into liquidation, being owed substantial sums by another company in the same group, but itself insolvent. A settlement did not include accrued interest, but was claimed to be taxed as if it had, and on an accruals basis. If so, was this an expense properly arising in the insolvency, and payable as … Continue reading Kahn and Another v Commissioners of Inland Revenue; In re Toshoku Finance plc: HL 20 Feb 2002
The patient saw his doctor and complained about a lump under his arm. The doctor failed to diagnose cancer. It was nine months before treatment was begun. The claimant sought damages for the reduction in his prospects of disease-free survival for ten years from 42%, when he first consulted the doctor to 25%. The House … Continue reading Gregg v Scott: HL 27 Jan 2005
Exercise of Prerogative Power is Reviewable The House considered an executive decision made pursuant to powers conferred by a prerogative order. The Minister had ordered employees at GCHQ not to be members of trades unions. Held: The exercise of a prerogative power of a public nature may be, subject to constraints of national security and … Continue reading Council of Civil Service Unions v Minister for the Civil Service: HL 22 Nov 1984
The claimant sought an injunction and damages to prevent the defendant publishing a book identifying himself as ‘the Stig’ saying that this broke his undertaking of confidentialty as to his identity, a necessary part of the character in the TV programme Top Gear. Held: The claimant was refused an injunction. The driver had worked for … Continue reading British Broadcasting Corporation v Harpercollins Publishers Ltd and Another: ChD 4 Oct 2010
Walker v Wilshire still Good Law After successfully appealing, the defendant claimant argued for a substantial part of its costs, saying that the defendant had unreasonably refused ADR. To pursue this, it now sought disclosure of the details of the without prejudice negotiations between them. Held: No distinction is to be made between party-to-party negotiations … Continue reading Reed Executive Plc, Reed Solutions Plc v Reed Business Information Ltd, Reed Elsevier (Uk) Ltd, Totaljobs.Com Ltd: CA 14 Jul 2004
The defendant had been involved in price fixing arrangements, and the claimant sought damages for breach of its proprietary rights. The claimant appealed refusal of an award an account of profits for what was akin to a breach of statutory duty. Held: The appeal failed. An account of profits should be available in a cartel … Continue reading Devenish Nutrition Ltd v Sanofi-Aventis Sa (France) and others: CA 14 Oct 2008
The principal claimants sold the rights to take photographs of their wedding to a co-claimant magazine (OK). Persons acting on behalf of the defendants took unauthorised photographs which the defendants published. The claimants had retained joint copyright over the photographs and reserved a right to control publication of any particular photographs. In return they made … Continue reading Douglas and others v Hello! Ltd and others (No 3): CA 18 May 2005
The claimants had been in coaches being driven to take part in a demonstration at an air base. The defendant police officers stopped the coaches en route, and, without allowing any number of the claimants to get off, returned the coaches to London. The officer acted saying that he feared a breach of the peace … Continue reading Laporte, Regina (on the application of ) v Chief Constable of Gloucestershire: HL 13 Dec 2006
The claimants had been wrongly imprisoned for a murder they did not commit. The assessor had deducted from their compensation a sum to represent the living costs they would have incurred if living freely. They also appealed differences from a prisoner also wrongly accused of the same crime, in the percentage deduction made for their … Continue reading O’Brien and others v Independent Assessor: HL 14 Mar 2007
After complex litigation, the remaining issues were a claim for damages by the claimant in respect of the defendant’s misuse of confidential information and a counterclaim by the defendants for loss falling within the claimant’s cross-undertaking in damages given when obtaining interlocutory injunctive relief. Held: In the light of the facts established at trial, the … Continue reading Universal Thermosensors Ltd v Hibben and Others: ChD 8 Jul 1992
The claimant companies appealed against a reversal of their judgment against a former employee that she had misused their confidential trade secrets after leaving their employment. The companies manufactured and supplied bednets designed to prevent . .
The court allowed an appeal against the decision of the Master of the Court of Protection refusing registration to an enduring power of attorney on the ground that the donor, although capable of understanding the nature of the power, was herself . .
The parties had engaged in a bitter 95 day trial in which allegations of forgery, theft, false accounting, blackmail and arson. A company owning patents and other rights had become insolvent, and the real concern was the destination and ownership of . .
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Administrative Discretion to be Used Reasonably The applicant challenged the manner of decision making as to the conditions which had been attached to its licence to open the cinema on Sundays. It had not been allowed to admit children under 15 years of age. The statute provided no appeal procedure, and the applicant sought a … Continue reading Associated Provincial Picture Houses Ltd v Wednesbury Corporation: CA 10 Nov 1947
Ban on Prisoners talking to Journalists unlawful The two prisoners, serving life sentences for murder, had had their appeals rejected. They continued to protest innocence, and sought to bring their campaigns to public attention through the press, having oral interviews with journalists without undertakings from the journalists not to publish any element of the interview. … Continue reading Regina v Secretary of State for The Home Department Ex Parte Simms: HL 8 Jul 1999
(New South Wales) The court considered the use by directors of their fiduciary power of allotment of shares for a different purpose than that for which it was granted, and so as to dilute the voting power of the majority shareholding of issued shares. Lord Wilberforce said: ‘Having ascertained, on a fair view, the nature … Continue reading Howard Smith Limited v Ampol Petroleum Limited: PC 14 Feb 1974
The two prisoners, serving life sentences for murder, had had their appeals rejected. They continued to protest innocence, and sought to bring their campaigns to public attention through the press, having oral interviews with journalists without . .
