Summary It was not appropriate to adjourn the trial of a bank's application for an order committing the defendant for contempt of court. If the time for service of the defence was extended the defendant would have adequate time to prepare. Facts The applicant (X) applied to adjourn the hearing...

Summary The First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) had no inherent powers. Any power that might be implied under the Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) (Tax Chamber) Rules 2009 r.5, enabling the tribunal to debar a party from proceedings in order to give effect to the overriding objective to deal with cases fairly and...

Summary Where the statutory insolvency or bankruptcy regimes did not apply, the historic "first past the post" rule applied and the first creditor to obtain a charging order took priority. The court retained a limited discretion in such a case to decline to make an interim charging order final where...

Summary On the facts as pleaded and in light of the decision in Sinclair Investments (UK) Ltd v Versailles Trade Finance Ltd (In Administration) (2011) EWCA Civ 347, (2011) Bus LR 1126, proprietary claims based on an allegation that a company group's former chief operating officer had accepted bribes or secret commissions in the...

Summary The principals involved in a joint venture for the purchase of a major hotel were entitled to recover secret commission paid to agents who had been engaged in negotiating the purchase and price of the hotel. The agents had acted in breach of their fiduciary duty not to profit...

Summary An action against a company was stayed under the Arbitration Act 1996 s.9 where the same matter had been referred to arbitration, but an action against the company's parent on a guarantee was not stayed since there was no arbitration agreement and the claimant bank was entitled to enforce the...

Summary It was appropriate to remove a firm of stockbrokers as CPR Pt 20 defendants where it was apparent that no court would order them to make a contribution under the Civil Liability (Contribution) Act 1978 s.1(1) in respect of an alleged conversion of shares. Facts The applicant stockbrokers firm (C) applied...

Summary The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) determined that a freeholder's application for the modification of restrictive covenants which impeded its proposed housing development should not be struck out as an abuse of process. Although similar applications had been refused in previous years, the freeholder had a realistic prospect of showing...