*Public Relations Consultants Association Ltd v Newspaper Licensing Agency Ltd and others

Newspaper Copyright. The appellant provided its customers with reports, presenting the opening words of an online articles, published by the respondents, keyword together with several words of either side of them and a hyperlink to the article on the source website. The issue was whether the appellant's customers needed a licence to receive its reports available only on the appellant's website. The Supreme Court referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union the question whether the requirements of art 5.1 of Directive (EC) 2001-29 (on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society) were satisfied.

George v Ministry of Justice

Employment Contract of service. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, upheld a finding that the terms of a collective agreement regarding when the defendant employer should allow prison officers to take time off in lieu of additional hours worked had not been incorporated into the claimant employee's contract of employment. There had simply been no evidence to support the claimant's submissions that those terms had been incorporated.

R (on the application of Abdollahi) v Secretary of State for the Home Department

Immigration Deportation. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, upheld a finding that, whilst part of the period of the claimant asylum seeker's detention had been unlawful because the United Kingdom Border Agency had failed to follow departmental policy to consult the Office of the Children's Champion, the claimant had only been entitled to nominal damages because he would have been detained in any event due to the very high risk of him absconding.

Fortress Value Recovery Fund I LLC and others v Blue Skye Special Opportunities Fund LP and others

Arbitration Stay of court proceedings. The claimant company had been assigned the benefit of a partnership deed. It commenced proceedings against the defendants in respect of mismanagement of the partnership. The defendants sought a stay of the proceedings, seeking to rely on an arbitration clause in the partnership deed pursuant to the . The application was dismissed. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, dismissed the defendants' appeal, holding that they could not rely upon s8(1) of the 1999 Act to compel arbitration of the entirety of the dispute.

Northrop v Reeves (Listing Officer)

Local Government Council tax. The claimant contested a council tax rating for his boat that had been moored at a non-permanent mooring in essentially the same place for two years. The Valuation Tribunal allowed the claimant's appeal and the listings officer appealed to the High Court. The High Court allowed that appeal. The claimant appealed to the Court of Appeal, Civil Division on grounds that the High Court had erred in law. The court found that for a mooring to attract liability for council tax, there was a long-standing requirement for a degree of permanence. Permanence was not measured by a period of time alone, but in the circumstances of the present case, time was an overwhelming factor that the tribunal had failed to address. The judge had been correct to overturn the tribunal's decision.

ACG Acquisition XX LLC v Olympic Airlines SA (in special liquidation)

Contract Construction. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, held that the defendant lessee under an aircraft leasing agreement had been liable for the lease notwithstanding a defect in the aircraft which rendered it un-airworthy, because the defendant had signed a certificate of acceptance. The natural meaning of the documents was that the aircraft had been examined and investigated, that it had been found in the condition required for delivery, and that it had, accordingly, been accepted by the defendant on, or for, lease.

*A and S (Children) v Lancashire County Council

Family proceedings Costs. The Family Division ordered the respondent local authority to pay the applicants' costs of the proceedings in the Family Division, in circumstances where the applicants had been subject to freeing orders in favour of the authority, but were never adopted. The court held that the authority's conduct in relation to the applicants had been blatantly unlawful and unreasonable and had led inexorably to substantial litigation.

*Woolway v Mazars LLP

Rates Separate hereditament. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, upheld a determination of the Upper Tribunal (Lands Tribunal) that two floors occupied by a firm of accountants on the second and sixth floors in a modern office block had amounted to a single hereditament for the purposes of non-domestic rates.

Billington and another v Cole

Debt Judgment debt. The claimant brought proceedings pursuant to a judgment debt owed to him by the first defendant who had been married to the second defendant. The second defendant was the sole owner of a property known as The Orchard purchased at the time when the judgment debt proceedings against the first defendant were pending. The claimant had brought proceedings under s423 of the claiming that the first defendant had put assets beyond his reach by providing funds for the purchase of The Orchard. The County Court found that the first defendant had contributed to the purchase of The Orchard by way of a gift to the second defendant and the court ordered that the property be charged to the value of that sum for the benefit of the claimant. The second defendant appealed on the basis that the judge had wrongly calculated the value of the charge. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, rejected the appeal, holding that, on the evidence, the judge had reached a proper conclusion.

Re T (Children) (contact: application to replace indirect contact with supervised contact)

Family proceedings Orders in family proceedings. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, allowed the applicant father's appeal against a ruling reducing contact with his children to indirect contact and dismissing his application to change the name of his youngest child. The judge had misdirected himself in reaching the conclusion he had reached in respect of contact and the supervised contact order would be restored. The name change application would be remitted to the County Court.