November 2013
26/11/13
MAKDESSI v CAVENDISH SQUARE HOLDINGS BV [2013] EWCA Civ 1539
The judge below had been wrong to hold that clauses in a share sale agreement providing for a reduced price in the event of default were not a penalty. The court reviewed the law on penalties [44].
22/11/13
GABRIEL v LITTLE [2013] EWCA Civ 1513
Although a solicitor had been negligent in failing to pass on information to his client when preparing a loan agreement, the client’s losses were not within the scope of the solicitor’s duty nor caused by the breach.
22/11/13
XYZ v VARIOUS [2013] EWHC 3643 (QB)
Although a request could not properly be made under CPR Part 18 for information about a defendant’s litigation insurance, under CPR 3.1(3)(m) the court can order a defendant to provide a witness statement stating whether it had adequate insurance.
20/11/13
RE A COMPANY [2013] EWHC 4291 (Ch)
The debtor failed to satisfy the court that it had a genuine and substantial cross-claim sufficient to justify restraining the presentation of a winding-up petition.
15/11/3
LEVIN v TANNENBAUM [2013] EWHC 4457 (Ch)
On the facts, summary judgment would not be given to dismiss a claim that guarantees had been executed with the applicant’s actual authority and/or under a power of attorney nor on the basis that the guarantees had been discharged by material variations without the applicant’s consent. Considers when demand is necessary to start time running to bring a claim on a guarantee [23]. Under a guarantee expressed to be payable 14 days after demand, time did not start running until the demand had been made and 14 days had expired.
15/11/13
HUNT v HOSKING [2013] EWCA Civ 1408
A claim by a liquidator to set aside payments made to accountants as transactions at an undervalue under s 236 Insolvency Act 1986 was bound to fail because the payments were taken from the accountants' client account so there was no transaction as such between the company and the accountants. The lower court's decision to strike out the claim was upheld.
15/11/13
GESTMIN SGPS SA v CREDIT SUISSE (UK) LTD [2013] EWHC 3560 (Comm)
An investment company had purchased a high-risk investment because it had
confidence in the skill and judgment of its investment adviser. It had deliberately chosen to proceed with
the investment and could not be said to have been sold an unsuitable
product. A claim that the investment had
been induced by misrepresentation also failed.
The correct approach in commercial cases is to place little if any
reliance at all on witnesses’ recollections of what was said in meetings and
conversations and to base factual findings on inferences drawn from the documentary
evidence and known or probable facts [16-23].
14/11/13
EMERY v WANDSWORTH LBC [2013] EWHC (QBD)
The court refused to discharge a civil restraint order made against a vexatious litigant following numerous unsuccessful applications against a local authority for evicting her.
14/11/13
TFL MANAGEMENT SERVICES LTD v LLOYDS BANK PLC [2013] EWCA Civ 1415
The judge below had been wrong to grant summary judgment dismissing the claimant’s claim that the bank was liable in restitution to compensate a company for legal costs which the company had incurred in seeking to recover monies from a third party which were ultimately held to be book debts charged to the bank. The principle of incidental benefit on which the Judge had relied was not sufficiently established and although there were powerful arguments against the claim, the question whether the Bank benefited from the company’s claim and whether the company took the risk that the book debts might not belong to the company, required investigation at trial.
11/11/13
SIMPOLE v CHEE [2013] EWHC (Ch)
A vendor had ratified the signature in his name on a sale agreement.
11/11/13
WARD HADAWAY v DB BANK LTD [2013] EWHC (Ch)
Disclosure of a lender’s credit process guide was refused in professional negligence proceedings by the lender against solicitors.
8/11/13
Proposed amendments to plead false and fraudulent implied representations made by the bank and implied terms that the LIBOR rate applicable to loan and swap transactions was genuine and the bank had not and did not intend to manipulate it, gave rise to a sufficiently arguable case for permission to amend to be given.
6/11/13
GULATI v MGN LTD [2013] EWHC 3392 (Ch)
MGN was refused summary judgment dismissing phone hacking claims. Considers the extent to which it is relevant on to take into account the fact that the claimant was reliant on the defendant’s disclosure to make out its case in full especially where the defendant’s alleged activities had been covert.
5/11/13
ARTS & ANTIQUES LTD v RICHARDS [2013] EWHC 3361 (Comm)
A claim was struck out as the issues had been decided in arbitration proceedings, even though the defendant had not been a party to the arbitration.
4/11/13
LLOYD v BROWNING [2013] EWCA Civ 1637
Where parties had equal bargaining power, a non-reliance clause in a contract of sale which prevented the buyer from relying on pre-contractual representations, satisfied the reasonableness test for the purpose of s 3 Misrepresentation Act 1967.
1/11/13
Now published.
© Copyright 2013 Neil Levy All Rights Reserved. Disclaimer