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The Supreme Court has granted permission to appeal in the case of Manchester City Council v Pinnock [2009] EWCA Civ 852.  The case concerns the evidence that can be taken into account to justify a breach of a demoted tenancy at a review panel, the proper role of the County Court in such a circumstance, and the standard to be applied on a judicial review of a review panel decision (see the Nearly Legal case note, here).  The application for permission was lodged on 7 October 2009.  Garden Court North Chambers has announced that permission was granted by Lord Rodger, Lady Hale and Lord Brown on 9 December 2009.   As with previous permission decisions, the Court itself has made no formal announcement of this decision.  It appears that the Court is considering listing the appeal in April or May 2010.

Another appeal to be listed before the Court in 2010 is in the case of Axa Insurance Ltd v Akther & Darby Solicitors [2009] EWCA Civ 1166 where the issue concerns the operation of the Limitation Act in a solicitors’ negligence case and the effect of the recent decision of the House of Lords in Sephton v Law Society [2006] UKHL 22.  The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal 2:1 (Lloyd LJ dissenting) but went on to give permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.

It would be helpful if the Court’s website could include both these cases (along with the other cases in which permission has been granted) in its list of “Current Cases” – which at present only includes (in its list of 28 cases) 5 which are awaiting hearing in 2010.

Our attention has been drawn to a pending permission application – which does not appear to have been decided by the Supreme Court yet.  This is the claim brought against the Government by Northern Rock shareholders, SRM Global Masters Fund v HM Treasury [2009] EWCA Civ 788.  When judgment was given on 28 July 2009 it was said that the unsuccessful claimants would apply to the House of Lords for permission to appeal.  Last week the Government’s independent valuer announced his conclusion that, at the time of nationalisation, Northern Rock had a £5.7bn black hole and that, as a result, the shares had no value.  In response, the shareholders repeated that they were awaiting the decision of the Supreme Court on their permission application.