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The Supreme Court will hear one appeal this week.  This is the Scots civil appeal in the ease of Farstad Supply AS v Enviroco Limited will be heard on Tuesday and Wednesday by a bench consisting of  Lords Phillip, Hope, Rodger, Mance and Clarke. The appeal is from a decision of the Inner House in relation to a claim arising out of a charterparty agreement, and the interpretation of s.3(2) of the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1940 in relation to contributory negligence.  Our case preview can be found here.  The case details on the Supreme Court website can be found here.

Two judgments have been announced for next Wednesday.  First, in the case of Agbaje v Akinnoye-Agbaje – the first matrimonial finance case to be heard by the Supreme Court, heard on 3-4 November 2009 and the oldest outstanding case.  Our case preview can be found here. Second, there is the case of  RTS Flexible Systems Limited v Molkerei Alois Muller Gmbh & Company KG – a case concerning a letter of intent.  The case was heard on 2 December 2009. Our case preview is here.

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (“JCPC”) remains strangely free of work.  No appeals are listed this week and no judgments have been announced.  Mr Benjamin Pell points out that in the period 2000-2009 the average number of appeals heard by the JCPC in Hilary Term has been 18 – with 16 being heard in 2009.  In 2010, on the assumption that no further appeals are listed, the JCPC will have heard just 3 appeals.

The minutes of the latest Supreme Court Management Board meeting, held on 26 January 2010, have been posted. There have been no parliamentary questions and a steady flow of FOIA requests and, in relation to the “core business” of the Court, a steady volume of applications.  We noted the following item:
“[Sian Lewis’s] communications update (paper MB 10/08) highlighted case coverage and commentary in the media. The Jewish Free School case had received international coverage whilst the first Scottish cases had been covered in the Scottish press. Visitors to the court and the website had remained steady in December with a surprisingly large number of visitors on Christmas Eve, 30 and 31 December”.
We hope that the paper gave a passing mention to the coverage and commentary on cases in the blogosphere.
Judgments outstanding
The following Supreme Court judgments remain outstanding:
R (JS Sri Lanka) v Secretary of State for the Home Department, heard 13-14 Jan 2010
R (Sainsbury’s) v Wolverhampton City Council, heard 1-2 Feb 2010
R (JF) v Secretary of State for the Home Department, heard 3 -4 Feb 2010
R (SK) (Zimbabwe) v Secretary of State for the Home Department, heard 10-11 Feb 2010
ZN (Afghanistan) v Entry Clearance Officer, heard 15 Feb 2010
Roberts v Gill, heard 22-23 February 2010
British Airways v Williams, heard 24-25 February 2010
Inveresk PlC v Tullis Russell Papermakers Ltd (Scotland), heard 1-2 March 2010
The following Privy Council judgments are awaited:
Prime Minister of Belize v Vellos, heard 18 January 2010
Tibbetts v A-G of Cayman Islands, heard 21 January 2010
Larry Winslow Marshall v Deputy Governor of Bermuda, heard 22-23 February 2010