Damages to Rise
Lord Judge, the Lord Chief Justice has announced that damages awarded in PI, nuisance and defamation cases will rise by 10% from next year. “We take this opportunity to declare that, with effect from 1 April 2013, the proper level…
A Smell By Any Other Name
A case brought by a group of residents who live near a tip was recently heard by the Court of Appeal. The residents complained that the smell of the tip was a nuisance that blighted the everyday enjoyment of their…
Fatherhood and Child Contact
The Court of Appeal recently ruled in a case which asked whether fatherhood is sufficient to warrant contact with a child and decided that the answer is ‘no’. The case was unusual. It involved a married couple who wanted to…
Flood Insurance Ending
In 2009, the Government and the Association of British Insurers entered into an agreement, the Statement of Principles on the Provision of Flood Insurance, which committed home insurance providers to making flood insurance as widely available as possible. This agreement…
Health and safety: parent company liable
Businesses with subsidiaries should be notified of the first reported case in which a parent company was found liable to an employee of its subsidiary on tort law principles. The Court of Appeal held that the parent company owed a…
Company convicted of manslaughter
A Northern Irish company has been prosecuted under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 (Corporate Manslaughter Act 2007) and fined £187,500, plus £13,000 costs, over the death of an employee. The employee was killed after being hit by…
Time Runs Out for Claim
A recent case shows how important it is to make sure that when a time limit for taking action is specified, it is not inadvertently breached. When a company was sold, the purchase agreement specified that some of the consideration…
Arrangement Between Friends Scuppers IVA
When a man was worried that his creditors would not approve his proposals for an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA), he took innovative steps to ensure that when the meeting of creditors was held a majority of them voted for it…
Tenant Fails in Claim for Three Times His Deposit
A former tenant has failed in a claim for damages over and above the return of his deposit, in a ruling that has demonstrated the limitations placed on tenants’ rights under Section 214 of the Housing Act 2004. This legislation…
Award for Family of Girl Injured in Crash
The family of a girl who sustained horrific injuries in a car crash as a baby has been awarded a multi-million pound settlement in compensation. Cerys Edwards was just 11 months old when she was injured in an accident caused…