Uk Supreme Court Court March 2012 Judgments
Browse smarter
Open an 18-section brief on any judgment
Structured AI Brief in seconds on any result - plus Semantic Search when you need meaning, not just keywords.
- AI Brief & Ask
- Semantic AI Search
- Devil's Bench
Credentials emailed - log in to pick up where you left off.
Trigger - Bai (Run Off) Limited (In Scheme of Arrangement) (Appellant) ...
Court: UK Supreme Court
Decided on: Mar-28-2012
LORD MANCE (WITH WHOM LORD KERR AGREES) Introduction 1. The liability of employers for deaths caused by mesothelioma has pre-occupied courts and legislators over recent years. The present appeals concern claims to pass the burden of this liability on to insurers, made either by employers or in the case of insolvent employers by the personal representatives of former employees using the mechanism of the Third Party (Rights against Insurers) Act 1930. 2. The appeals concern employers' liability insurance. This is in contrast with Bolton MBC v Municipal Mutual Insurance Ltd [2006] EWCA Civ 50, [2006] 1 WLR 1492 where public liability insurance was in issue. Employers' liability focuses necessarily upon the relevant employment relationships and activities. Public liability relates to any of the insured's relationships and to activities affecting the world at large. Another feature of employers' liability is that, under the Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 (the "ELCIA"),...
Flood (Respondent) Vs. Times Newspapers Limited (Appellant)
Court: UK Supreme Court
Decided on: Mar-21-2012
Introduction 1. This judgment deals with the first, and major, limb of this appeal. At the end I shall explain the position in relation to the second limb. 2. On 2 June 2006 the appellant ("TNL") published an article ("the Article") which defamed the respondent, ("Sergeant Flood"), who is a Detective Sergeant in the Extradition Unit of the Metropolitan Police Service ("MPS"). The Article stated that allegations had been made against Sergeant Flood that had led Scotland Yard to investigate whether he was guilty of corruption. The police investigation subsequently ended with a finding that there was no evidence that Sergeant Flood had acted corruptly and the trial judge, Tugendhat J accepted Sergeant Flood's evidence that he was not guilty of corruption. That finding has not been challenged. The issue before the Court is whether TNL are protected from liability to Sergeant Flood in defamation under the doctrine known as Reynolds privilege. Put shortly Reynolds privilege protects publicat...
Tesco Stores Limited (Appellants) Vs. Dundee City Council (Respondents ...
Court: UK Supreme Court
Decided on: Mar-21-2012
LORD REED (with whom Lord Brown, Lord Kerr and Lord Dyson agree) 1. If you drive into Dundee from the west along the A90 (T), you will pass on your left a large industrial site. It was formerly occupied by NCR, one of Dundee's largest employers, but its factory complex closed some years ago and the site has lain derelict ever since. In 2009 Asda Stores Ltd and MacDonald Estates Group plc, the interveners in the present appeal, applied for planning permission to develop a superstore there. Dundee City Council, the respondents, concluded that a decision to grant planning permission would not be in accordance with the development plan, but was nevertheless justified by other material considerations. Their decision to grant the application is challenged in these proceedings by Tesco Stores Ltd, the appellants, on the basis that the respondents proceeded on a misunderstanding of one of the policies in the development plan: a misunderstanding which, it is argued, vitiated their assessment of...
R (on the Application of St (Eritrea)) (Fc) (Appellant) Vs. Secretary ...
Court: UK Supreme Court
Decided on: Mar-21-2012
LORD HOPE (with whom Lady Hale, Lord Brown, Lord Mance, Lord Kerr and Lord Clarke agree) 1. A refugee who has been granted a right of lawful presence in the receiving state needs the assurance that this right will not be withdrawn, with the result that he or she may again become an uprooted person in search of refuge. That assurance is given by article 32(1) of the Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (1951) (Cmd 9171) and the New York Protocol (1967) (Cmnd 3906), which provides: "The Contracting States shall not expel a refugee lawfully in their territory save on grounds of national security or public order." This provision is to be contrasted with article 33(1), which provides: "No Contracting State shall expel or return ('refouler') a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion." Every refugee h...
Ministry of Defence (Respondent) Vs. Ab and Others (Appellants)
Court: UK Supreme Court
Decided on: Mar-14-2012
LORD WILSON 1. I consider that each of the nine appeals should be dismissed. In my respectful view the approach of Lord Phillips, Lady Hale and Lord Kerr to the meaning of the word "knowledge" in sections 11(4) and 14(1) of the Limitation Act 1980 ("the Act") is misconceived and would throw the practical application of the subsections into disarray. I also consider that any exercise of the discretion under section 33 so as to permit any of the nine actions to proceed would be aberrant in circumstances in which they have no real prospect of success. 2. What is the nature of the exercise which the court conducts when asked by a defendant to rule that an action in respect of personal injuries is time-barred under section 11 of the Act? Subsection (4) provides that the action shall not be brought after the expiration of three years from "(a) the date on which the cause of action accrued; or (b) the date of knowledge (if later) of the person injured." The subsection refers, at (a), to "the...
In the Matter of S (a Child)
Court: UK Supreme Court
Decided on: Mar-14-2012
LORD WILSON (DELIVERING THE JUDGMENT OF THE COURT) A: INTRODUCTION 1. A mother appeals against an order of the Court of Appeal (Thorpe, Longmore and McFarlane LJJ), [2011] EWCA Civ 1385, dated 14 December 2011, that she should forthwith return her son, WS (whom I will call W), and who was born on 13 November 2009 so is aged two, to Australia. The order was made pursuant to article 12 of the Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction signed at The Hague on 25 October 1980 ("the Convention") and to section 1(2) of the Child Abduction and Custody Act 1985 which gives the Convention the force of law. 2. In making its order the Court of Appeal set aside an order of Charles J, made in the High Court, Family Division, [2011] EWHC 2624 (Fam), dated 30 August 2011, that the application of W's father for an order for his return forthwith to Australia pursuant to the Convention should be dismissed. 3. In this court the mother is therefore the appellant and the father is the ...
W (Algeria) (Fc) and Bb (Algeria) (Fc) (Appellants) and Others Vs. Sec ...
Court: UK Supreme Court
Decided on: Mar-07-2012
LORD BROWN 1. From time to time over many years the Secretary of State for the Home Department has been concerned to deport a foreign national on the grounds of national security. Sometimes, indeed with increasing frequency, those facing such deportation decisions have wished to contest them, either by challenging that they present a national security risk, or by invoking the European Convention on Human Rights and contending that they would be at risk of article 3 ill-treatment if returned to their home country. 2. To enable such cases to be properly heard, Parliament, by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission Act 1997 (the 1997 Act) established SIAC and, as will be very familiar to all with any interest in this area of the law, provided for an appeal system which allows where necessary for closed material procedures and the appointment of special advocates. All this has been rehearsed time and again in a succession of judgments “ not least, indeed, in paras 4-15 of the jud...
- ‹ Prev
- Next ›