There was a long standing dispute concerning the occupation of agricultural land. In 1985 a notice to quit was served on the occupier and one of the occupants claimed a life tenancy. Negotiations continued until the occupant died in 2000. The occupant’s children claimed adverse possession. The court held that the occupation was with the implied permission of the owner and he was entitled to possession.
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Duty of Care: Foreseeability of Suicide: A widow was not entitled to claim damages from her late husband’s former employer where her husband had committed suicide during a depressive episode following an accident at work in which he had suffered personal injury. On the facts, it had not been reasonably foreseeable that the claimant’s husband would commit suicide and, as a matter of law, the reasonable foreseeability of the suicide had to be established both in respect of the duty of care and the ...
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Health & Safety At Work: It was held that the recorder had been wrong to find that an employer had negligently exposed an employee to harmful vibrations from hand-held vibration tools throughout the whole course of his employment. In fact, the exposure became negligent part-way through his service. However, where an employee did not develop symptoms of vibration white finger until some years after the date of negligence, he could properly argue that he should receive damages in full on the basis ...
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Application for Summary judgment / Strike out: The court dismissed the claimant's application for summary judgment or to strike out the defence because if the defendant's allegations were established at trial they would in fact provide a defence.
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No order as to costs where insufficient material to decide apportionment on the basis of the parties’ success on issues in dispute: Although costs ought to have been apportioned to reflect the appellant's success on a number of the allegations made in the respondent's defence and counterclaim, it had not been possible for the court to reach a view as to an appropriate amount to apportion since there was inadequate material upon which to form such a view. Accordingly, it was held that the appropr ...
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Negligence & Apportionment: Driver injuring child pedestrian: A driver, whose vehicle struck and injured a child pedestrian, had been negligent in not seeing the child on the kerb and/or crossing the road, and/or by not slowing down, and/or by not sounding his horn. However, on the facts, the child ought to have realised the need to look out carefully for traffic coming from his right on a busy road and his contributory negligence was assessed at 20%.
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Reasonableness of CFA success fee for detailed assessment: When called upon to assess the reasonableness of a success fee, the court must have regard to the facts and circumstances as they reasonably appeared to the solicitor at the time that the CFA was entered into, and not the facts and circumstances viewed with the benefit of hindsight. The court did not have the power under para.11.8(2) of the Costs Practice Direction to direct that a success fee in a CFA was recoverable at different rates ...
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Appropriateness of no order as to costs: Following a successful personal injury claim, the judge’s decision that there should be no order as to costs, on the basis that the claimant’s case had materially changed, was held to be wrong. There had been no material change in the case. The main issue had always been whether or not the claimant’s injury resulted from a breach of the defendant’s statutory obligations and/or negligence.
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Where a letter of credit, opened in London, contemplated payment of the beneficiary there in sterling by the English negotiating bank authorised to make payment against the confirming documents specified in the credit, the contracts between the beneficiary and the Indonesian issuing and confirming banks were governed by English law.
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Permission to appeal injunctions made in children proceedings granted where a court had had no power to attach powers of arrest, the orders had no return date and the evidence on which the orders were made had not been sworn or served.
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