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Area of Law: Private Client Trusts and Probate
The Privy Council today handed down a landmark judgment in trusts law in the cases of ITG Ltd v Fort Trustees Ltd and Equity Trust (Jersey) Ltd v Halabi, holding that a trustee’s right of indemnity gives them a proprietary interest in the trust assets which survives cessation of trusteeship, but, by a 4 to 3 majority and allowing the appeals, that, if the trust assets are insufficient to satisfy the claims of all trustees, the liens of the trustees rank pari passu among themselves rather than on a first in time basis.
Read MoreArea of Law: Insolvency
Lance Ashworth KC and Wilson Leung, instructed by Stephenson Harwood LLP, acted for the successful respondent in Dusoruth v Orca Finance UK Ltd (in liquidation) [2022] EWHC 2346 (Ch).
Read MoreArea of Law: Insolvency
The High Court has found that myriad claims against the former directors of BHS fall to be struck out in the context of the high-value, complex litigation being brought by the joint liquidators of the BHS companies against the former directors of those companies.
Read MoreArea of Law: Private Client Trusts and Probate
In The Executor of HRH the Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh v HM Attorney General and Guardian News and Media [2022] EWCA Civ 1081 the Court of Appeal held that the President of the Family Division had been entitled to conclude that an application to have the will of His Royal Highness Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh sealed should be heard in private, and that he had been entitled to make that decision without inviting submissions from representatives of the media.
Read MoreArea of Law: Insolvency
People facing bankruptcy, and their advisers, will gain more clarity on the long-term legal risks involved thanks to an appeal judgment handed down this morning. In Kennedy v The Official Receiver [2022] EWHC 1973 (Ch), Mr Nicholas Thompsell (sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge) clarified the Court’s approach to determining the length of a Bankruptcy Restrictions Order (“BRO”) under S 281A and Schedule 4A of the Insolvency Act 1986.
Read MoreArea of Law: Company
In a judgment handed down this morning, Deputy (former Chief) Master Marsh dismissed an application for summary judgment made by Dr Rohit Kulkarni, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon who is a minority shareholder in the company which owns St Joseph’s Hospital in Newport, Gwent. The summary judgment application, which has been issued before the defendants had filed defences, was based in part on the compulsory share transfer provisions of a shareholders’ agreement between Dr Kulkarni and the majority shareholder, Gwent Holdings Limited. Dr Kulkarni claimed that Gwent had committed irremediable breaches of the shareholders’ agreement, thus triggering the compulsory transfer provisions. In his judgment in Kulkarni v Gwent Holdings Limited and St Joseph's Independent Hospital Limited [2022] EWHC 1368 (Ch), Deputy Master Marsh refused to order the rectification of the company’s register of members under section 125 of the Companies Act 2006 with retrospective effect. He went on to refuse to grant relief entitling Dr Kulkarni to acquire Gwent’s shares compulsorily, noting at [92] that “the issue of remediability is unlikely to be suitable for determination in most cases on a summary basis because, as in this case, the court does not have all the evidence it needs to make a determination about the proper construction of the contract and whether on the specific facts the breach was remediable”.
Read MoreArea of Law: Charities
On 27 May 2022, The Supreme Court granted permission to appeal to the London Borough of Merton Council from the decision of the Court of Appeal in Nuffield Health v Merton [2022] Ch 1.
Read MoreArea of Law: Intellectual Property
Michael Edenborough KC and Stephanie Wickenden (assisted by Stefano Braschi at trial and Anneliese Mondschein on appeal) acted for easyGroup in a case where for the first time a defendant was held liable for using a non-orange Sign in relation to non-travel services. The appeal on the scope of the declaratory relief and the issue of damage to complete the tort of passing-off was successful.
Read MoreArea of Law: Intellectual Property
Michael Edenborough KC leading outside junior counsel acted for the successful appellants on whether certain advertisements and offers for sale on amazon.com targeted the UK and the EU. The result meant that certain advertisements on the amazon.com site were held to constitute use of the infringing signs within the UK / EU27. Further, sales from the amazon.com site to customers located in the UK / EU27 also constituted actionable use. This result has far reaching consequences on how internet businesses who have customers located in several countries need to conduct their trade in those various jurisdictions. The Supreme Court heard Amazon’s appeal in November 2023.
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