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Mistakes in contracts – How to assess the parties’ intentions?
18 September 2019The legal remedy of rectification is an equitable remedy that, if granted by the court, may be used to amend a contract that says one thing, but which both parties had intended to say something else – i.e. a common mistake was made. The test to be adopted by the courts in assessing what the parties’ intentions were for the purposes of establishing a common mistake has been unclear and the source of much legal debate for several years. However, the Court of Appeal has now considered the issue and concluded that in certain situations that the correct test is a subjective one.
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Publicity remains the “soul of justice” as Supreme Court rules non-party should be allowed access to court documents
16 August 2019The Supreme Court has found that the courts have inherent jurisdiction under the constitutional principle of open justice to grant public access to documents placed before them or referred to during hearings – but “it is for the person seeking access to explain why he seeks it and how granting him access will advance the open justice principle”.
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Privilege disapplied: the “iniquity” exception
06 August 2019In an application brought by a hotel portfolio company (in liquidation) for a declaration that it was entitled to disclose a number of documents within its possession, the High Court has considered when the “iniquity” exception will apply to legal professional privilege. So what is the iniquity exception and what does a party need to establish in order to rely on it?
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Nottingham Forest FC loses High Court claims following club’s sale but plans appeal
06 August 2019The High Court has dismissed claims arising out of the sale of Nottingham Forest Football Club (“the club”) for breaches of indemnities in the share purchase agreement (“the SPA”) and for the alleged misrepresentation of the club’s liabilities.
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Protecting confidential information – what steps can a company take when information is disclosed to the wrong person?
05 August 2019The High Court has entered judgment in default in favour of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in a claim brought to protect its confidential information and privileged material accidentally emailed by an employee to the wrong person. The Court had previously granted the ASA an interim injunction to prevent disclosure of the information by the recipient, pending a hearing of the claim. This case highlights steps employers can take to protect confidential information in these circumstances.
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Parent company’s limited liability. Not quite so limited?
11 July 2019It is a basic principle of company law that the liability of a shareholder of a limited company is limited to the amount unpaid on the shares it holds in that company. Right? That’s why it’s called a limited company? This is generally true. However, in some cases, a parent company can be considered to have assumed responsibility for the negligent acts of its subsidiary.
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Dispute Resolution Update - July 2019
10 July 2019Welcome to our July 2019 Dispute Resolution Update. We’ve included articles on a range of disputes, including summaries of recent cases and guides on key aspects of dispute resolution. With an increasingly globalised and fast changing environment, disputes are an inevitable part of business. Not only can we help resolve disputes once they arise but we also work with our clients to reduce the risk of litigation.
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Protection of guests: how far does a hotel’s duty extend?
09 July 2019For the first time, the High Court has stated that hotels owe a duty to their guests to take reasonable care to protect them from injury caused by the criminal acts of third parties. But how far does that duty go?
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Unreasonable non-compete clause could be rescued by severance
03 July 2019The Supreme Court (“SC”) has given a landmark judgment about the limits of post-termination restrictions (“PTRs”) in employment contracts. It ruled that although a six-month non-compete clause went too far by restricting an employee from holding a minority shareholding in a competing business, the employer could still enforce the key part of the clause.
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Contract interpretation: a helpful recap by the Court of Appeal
03 July 2019At the end of March 2019, the Court of Appeal handed down a decision which provided a helpful reminder of the modern approach to interpreting contracts.
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Protests against LGBT teaching at Birmingham Primary School
20 June 2019The Public Sector Equality Duty provides that public authorities have a duty to eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation whilst advancing equality of opportunity and fostering good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and people who don’t share it. Primary schools in advancing LGBT rights and fostering good relations have been met with protests and demonstrations which Birmingham City Council sought to restrain by injunction.
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Lachaux: defamation clients must prove “serious harm”
17 June 2019Has a statement about you caused you serious harm? That is the question posed by section 1 of the Defamation Act 2013, which has been the subject of a long running defamation claim brought against the publishers of the Evening Standard, the Independent and the Huffington Post. The Supreme Court has now delivered its judgment on the interpretation of section 1, which has significant implications for the media industry.
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Pensioner sues Wolverhampton Wanderers over design of logo
13 June 2019Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club have succeeded in defending a copyright claim in which the claimant contended that he designed their distinctive wolf head logo over 40 years ago.
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Law Society Report: AI in the Justice System
13 June 2019The Law Society has now published the final report of its Technology and the Law Commission (the “Commission”) investigation into the use of algorithms in the justice system. It follows a year-long exploration by the Commission of whether algorithms’ use within the justice system should be regulated to protect human rights and trust and, if so, how.
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The Trade Secrets (Enforcement, etc) Regulations 2018, one year on
07 June 2019The UK implemented legislation on 9 June 2018 bringing into force the EU Trade Secrets Directive. This article looks at the impact this legislation has had in the employment context where a claim for misuse of confidential information may now also include a statutory claim for misuse of trade secrets.
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Fail to cooperate at your peril! Court finds that contracting party’s conduct was a repudiatory breach of an implied duty to cooperate
04 June 2019In a recent case, the court implied a duty to cooperate where close collaboration between the parties was required to perform the contract. The Court also found that one party’s failure to cooperate was a repudiatory breach that the counterparty could rely on in treating the contract as terminated.
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Employee ordered to pay over £500,000 in legal costs in a dispute involving breach of restrictive covenants and data privacy
24 May 2019Following a trial in the High Court where an employer was successfully awarded final injunctions to prohibit a former employee from breaching post-termination restrictions (“PTRs”), the losing employee was ordered to pay 90% of his former employer’s legal bill.
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Court of Appeal sets high bar for parties defending fraudulent misrepresentation claims and dismisses attempt to broaden transferred loss principle
21 May 2019The Court of Appeal has confirmed the presumption of inducement in cases of fraudulent misrepresentation will be “very difficult” to rebut and rejected a Claimant’s attempt to recover the loss of its subcontracting sister company via the “transferred loss” principle.
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Court of Appeal allows inspection of documents despite the risk of foreign prosecution
07 May 2019The Iranian bank, Bank Mellat, has lost its Court of Appeal bid to withhold customer documents from inspection in the English Courts despite the risk that this may expose the bank to prosecution in Iran.
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Contract law update: Recent developments and practical tips
03 May 2019On 2 May 2019, Mark Lim, Sohrab Daneshku and Nigel Enticknap from our commercial dispute resolution practice group hosted a seminar discussing provisions that commonly feature in commercial contracts. Whilst important, these terms may enjoy limited attention during negotiations. We covered recent case law, offered tips on how to interpret key clauses and discussed how to avoid common pitfalls. Below is a summary of some of the key points.