Facts The plaintiffs, a family-owned company, Alec Lobb (Garages) Ltd, and its directors, Mr. and Mrs. Lobb, were in severe financial distress. To avoid insolvency, they entered into a complex transaction in 1969 with the defendant, Total Oil (GB) Ltd. The agreement consisted of a lease and lease-back arrangement for...
Facts The appellants, Ailsa Craig Fishing Co Ltd, owned a fishing vessel, the George Craig, which was moored in Aberdeen Harbour. They contracted with the third party, Securicor (Scotland) Ltd, to provide security services for their vessels. The contract incorporated Securicor’s standard conditions of business. Due to the negligence of...
Facts The claimant, AEG (UK) Ltd (‘AEG’), a buyer, entered into a contract with the defendant, Logic Resource Ltd (‘Logic’), a seller, for the purchase of cathode ray tubes. The contract was formed on AEG’s standard conditions of purchase. After delivery to AEG’s premises in the UK, the tubes were...
Facts The plaintiff, Mrs Fay Adler, was a first-class passenger on the P. & O. steamship ‘Himalaya’ for a cruise. Her ticket, which constituted the contract of carriage with the company, contained an exemption clause. This clause stated that passengers were carried at their own risk and that the company...
Facts The plaintiff, Mr. Addis, was employed by the defendant, Gramophone Company Ltd., as their manager in Calcutta, India. His employment contract stipulated a salary of £15 per week and a commission on trade done. The contract was terminable upon six months’ notice. In October 1905, the company gave Mr....
Facts The defendants, wool-dealers in St. Ives, sent a letter to the plaintiffs, who were woollen manufacturers in Bromsgrove, on 2 September 1817, offering to sell them a quantity of wool. The defendants required an answer ‘in course of post’. Critically, the defendants misdirected this letter to ‘Bromsgrove, Leicestershire’, instead...
An adult 'paedophile hunter' posing as a 13-year-old boy on Grindr received sexual communications from Sutherland, who was convicted of sexual offences. The Supreme Court held admitting this evidence did not breach his article 8 ECHR rights. Facts An adult member of a ‘paedophile hunter’ (PH) group called ‘Groom Resisters...
Mrs Villiers, habitually resident in England after separating from her husband in Scotland, applied in England for maintenance under section 27 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 while divorce proceedings continued in Scotland. The Supreme Court held, by majority, that the English court had jurisdiction and no power to stay...
Ms Hilton pleaded guilty to benefit fraud offences and a confiscation order was made against her half-share in a jointly-owned property. The Supreme Court held section 160A of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 did not require third-party representations at the confiscation stage unless a section 160A determination was actually...
A bingo operator sought to reclaim VAT overpaid between 1996-2004 after HMRC changed its guidance from game-by-game to session-by-session calculation. The Supreme Court held the claim was time-barred under section 80 VAT Act, rejecting the argument that a change in calculation method constituted a decrease in consideration. Facts The appellant...
Regeneron's patents claimed transgenic mice with a hybrid antibody gene structure (Reverse Chimeric Locus) spanning a wide range. The Supreme Court held the patents invalid for insufficiency because the disclosure enabled only mice at the least valuable end of the range, not across the whole claimed scope. Facts Regeneron Pharmaceuticals...