Once Known Never Forgotten
When a Trust comes to an end the Trustees have to pay off creditors and their own administration costs and thereafter pay any assets to the beneficiaries according to the terms of the Trust.
However there can be situations when Trustees are not aware of beneficiaries and/or creditors. In order [...]
Apple sues mobile phone giant HTC over iPhone patents
Apple is suing Taiwanese mobile phone manufacturer HTC, claiming it has infringed 20 patents relating to “the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture and hardware”.
The key element believed to have triggered the lawsuit is that HTC released handsets in February which used ‘pinch to zoom’ functionality resembling that [...]
The Duty to Mitigate
The Court of Appeal recently considered an innocent party’s duty to mitigate its loss and confirmed that it was for a party in breach of contract to demonstrate that there has been a failure to mitigate but that the duty to mitigate was not a demanding one.
Lombard North Central Plc [...]
Disputed Debts – Can the Debtor Company be Wound Up?
It is a legal truism a Winding Up Petition will be dismissed if there is a genuine dispute between a debtor and the petitioning creditor.
However there is Case Law that confirms that the Court does have discretion in exceptional circumstances to place a company [...]
Readers may have noted the case of Dr Christine Gill v The RSPCA and others in the news towards the latter part of 2009, as the High Court have now released the transcript of the case we are able to better understand as to why RSPCA were unsuccessful in their Defence of Dr Gill’s claim.
In [...]
Chancel ‘Cheque’
Chancel Repair Liability dates back to Medieval Times. It derives from the privatisation of Church land following the Reformation. Historically, the obligation to repair the church had fallen on the rector of the parish. After the Reformation, much Church land was passed to lay landowners (who owned what used to be very large estates [...]
Crane owners can not avoid responsibility for their negligence
The owners of a crane have been told they cannot pass on responsibility for their negligence to another company following an incident in which an operator was seriously injured.
The case centred on a dispute between the owners of the crane and a company which had hired it [...]
Landlord loses appeal over repossession of premises
A landlord has lost his appeal to repossess premises that he wanted to use to set up a business.
The court ruled that he had not shown sufficient intention to occupy the building for the purposes of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (the Act).
The premises were occupied by a [...]
Acceptance of offers out of time
During the course of proceedings, it is usual for parties to enter into settlement negotiations, and a good tactician can use this to their advantage to put undue pressure on the other party. Once an offer has expired, provided it has not been accepted by the other party, you would [...]
The High Court has held that the sale of an alcoholic drink, made from vodka and fermented alcohol, under the brand name VODKAT amounted to passing off the product as vodka. Arnold J ruled that the term “vodka” denoted a clearly defined class of goods. He found that the term “vodka” had a reputation giving [...]
