UK Supreme Court Blog

EDITORS: Dan Tench, Emma Cross, Zainab Hodgson, Francesca Knight, James Warshaw and Natalie Haefner (CMS)
Hugh Tomlinson KC, Matthew Ryder KC, Dévante Gravesande-Smith and Rebecca Khan (Matrix)

Welcome back – today is the first day of the Michaelmas Term. Sittings will commence on Wednesday 3 October 2012 with Morris v Rae, on appeal from the Court of Session (Scotland). In this matter the appellant owns the rights of a company that is now in liquidation and seeks to recover £70,000 paid by that company for part of a property. The area of land under dispute was originally purchased as part of a property from the respondents, but it was subsequently discovered that title to the relevant area had been transferred to a third party through a conveyancing error.  The £70,000 was paid to the third party for title to the land and the appellant seeks to claim it back for breach of warrandice, and the respondent contends that such a claim requires there to have been eviction or a threat of eviction by a person who, at the time, had an unquestionable title to the subjects. Case details are available here.

On Thursday 4 October 2012 is the appeal of R (Gujra) v Crown Prosecution Service, listed for one day in front of a panel of five, with Lord Neuberger sitting in his first case as President of the Supreme Court. Private prosecutions had been brought by the claimant against three individuals, and the CPS reviewed the evidence and concluded the prosecutions should be discontinued due to insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction. It is for the Supreme Court to determine whether the current CPS policy of reviewing private prosecutions and taking them over for the purpose of discontinuance if they are not satisfied that there is a realistic prospect of conviction is lawful and rational having in particular regard to the right of an individual to pursue a private prosecution under the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985, s 6(1). Here are the case details.

There are no sittings in the Privy Council this week, and there are also no judgments scheduled to be handed down.

The following Supreme Court judgments remain outstanding:

Stanford International Bank Ltd (acting by its joint liquidators) v Director of the Serious Fraud Office, heard 23 – 25 January 2012.

R v Waya, heard 27 – 30 March 2012.

Al-Sirri v Secretary of State for the Home Department, heard 14 – 15 May 2012.

DD (Afghanistan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department, heard 16 – 17 May 2012.

Rubin & Anor v Eurofinance SA & Ors, heard 21 – 24 May 2012.

R v Varma, heard 27 – 28 June 2012.

Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and anor v Yunus Rahmatullah, heard 2 – 3 July 2012.

BCL Old Co Ltd & Ors v BASF plc & Ors, heard 9 – 10 July 2012.

Walton v The Scottish Ministers, heard 9 – 10 July 2012.

Birmingham City Council v Abdulla & Ors, heard 11 July 2012.

Day & Anor v Hosebay Ltd and Howard de Walden Estates Ltd v Lexgorge Ltd, heard 16 – 18 July 2012.

British Airways plc v Williams & Ors, heard 23 July 2012.

The Catholic Child Welfare Society & Ors v Various claimants & Ors, heard 23 – 24 July 2012.