Knowledge

Many commercial landlords will currently be dealing with issues arising out of their tenants’ financial difficulties, in particular the impact of insolvency proceedings. For tenants who are in administration, a moritorium applies, which will prevent a landlord taking action against the tenant without leave from the Court. Generally, the Courts will have a degree of sympathy for landlords, and will afford significant weight to the landlords’ proprietary rights when deciding whether to allow landlords to commence proceedings against a tenant.

It is a recognised principle of Scottish property law that a person transacting with heritable property is entitled to do so on the faith of what is contained in the public records, and will not be bound by any agreement of which he does not have notice.  In this principle, real rights (or rights in or to use the property itself) beat personal rights (or rights to require another to do something, or refrain from doing something in relation to that property).

The EAT has confirmed that the narrower comparator test established by the House of Lords in London Borough of Lewisham v Malcolm also applies to claims for disability-related discrimination under the employment provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (Child Support Agency (Dudley) v Truman).

A key element of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 is the security of tenure it provides for a tenant.  This means that the tenancy continues until terminated by procedures specified in the Act (as amended).  It is possible for the parties to the lease to agree to contract out of the security of tenure provisions, but an essential component of such exclusion is that the lease must be for a fixed period.
Fixed term lease

In today’s increasingly corporate world, it may come as something of a surprise that there are many thousands of organisations operating in Scotland which are set up as unincorporated associations. The sizes and structures of these organisations can vary enormously, as can their purposes and objects: many of them are voluntary organisations or charities (56% of registered Scottish charities are unincorporated associations), others are member-based organisations formed as clubs and societies which further the interests of the members and are not for profit, such as sports and social clubs.

Shepherd and Wedderburn has appointed an experienced restructuring and insolvency specialist in its London office.
Brenda Harris, who was previously a senior solicitor at The Khan Partnership, has 25 years of experience in the restructuring and insolvency field. She was a partner in the London office of Eversheds for 13 years, where she led the insolvency team. Brenda has acted for a range of corporate clients, major banks and leading insolvency practices.
She will join the firm’s highly experienced restructuring and insolvency team who recently:

On October 8th, the European Commission published its latest proposed consumer rights directive, the primary purpose of which is to harmonise consumer rights legislation across the EU. Essentially the proposed directive consolidates and updates the following existing pieces of legislation:

The Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, has expressed concern about the rising levels of data breaches, and has urged action to counter the current rising trend of cases reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). In light of a soaring number of data breaches reported, along with a series of high profile cases involving government departments, the Commissioner has called upon chief executives to ensure that the amount of data held by organisations is reduced, and that proper governance arrangements are put in place.

With the current economic downturn, many employers have been forced to consider rationalising staff numbers. Given the negative publicity and political constraints that may surround the official announcement of redundancies, particularly in the public sector, some employers offer voluntary severance to employees as a more palatable alternative to compulsory redundancies.

Judgment C-251/07 Gävle Kraftvärme: Background
The decision handed down by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on 11 September 2008 concerned the classification of a Swedish combined power and heating plant as either (i) an incineration plant or (ii) a co-incineration plant, and will be of importance to operators throughout Europe.

A new study commissioned by the Scottish Government for the Forum for Renewable Energy Development in Scotland on the status of the Scottish hydropower potential was published on 26 August 2008. The study reveals that Scotland has enough untapped hydropower potential to supply electricity to a quarter of the nation’s homes.

“Shouldn’t you be at work?” – sports presenter Des Lynam’s famous words during the BBC’s World Cup 98 coverage may well be repeated by many an employer over the next week or so.

For as the Beijing Olympics reach a crescendo, businesses are once again facing up to the challenges posed by a major sporting event.

Background
Niazi and others (the applicants) were persons who claimed to have suffered miscarriages of justice. Bhatt Murphy and others (the lawyers) were solicitors who specialised in advising such persons on making applications for compensation in such circumstances. These cases arose from separate decisions, first, to withdraw a discretionary scheme under which such compensation was payable and, second, to reduce the level of costs payable to solicitors acting in such cases.

The Court of Appeal recently considered the case of Jones v London Borough of Merton [2008] EWCA Civ 660. This case is important to public sector landlords as well as being relevant for the general interest of the property sector, in giving guidance as to when a person no longer has possession of a property.

When a business needs to make redundancies, it can either follow the process by the book or offer employees financial incentives to sign compromise agreements waiving their claims.
As the economic climate becomes tougher, employers tend to be less inclined to offer financial incentives and keener to follow the proper legal process for individual consultation. What procedural traps should an employer avoid? 

Since its inception, the Lisbon Treaty has been controversial: a constitution in disguise? A tidying up exercise, essential to allow an enlarged Europe to operate? The end the national veto? These, and many more issues, have caused much debate. Yet there have been many contested Treaties before: the Single European Act, Maastricht, Nice. Yet none have caused the same level of debate about the method of ratification. The European Constitution failed after it was rejected by voters in France and the Netherlands, before the United Kingdom got the chance to vote in a promised referendum.

A recent case from the Court of Appeal concerning infringement of Crown copyright in Ordnance Survey (OS) mapping data, highlights the importance of ensuring that appropriate licences are in place before undertaking work on third parties’ copyright material.

Cheap credit and a benevolent economy have meant that the past five years have been one of the quietest periods for corporate insolvencies. But as customer spending sinks and the credit markets crunch, the trickle over effect could result in a surge of commercial tenants going under. This is not good news for landlords who have been enjoying the upside UK’s property driven economy.

In Walton Centre for Neurology & Neuro Surgery NHS Trust v Bewley, the EAT has confirmed that a comparator in an equal pay claim cannot be a successor. In doing so, the EAT found that earlier case law (Diocese of Hallam Trustee v Connaughton) was based on a misinterpretation of European law.

In Chief Constable of Lincolnshire Police v Weaver the EAT has held that the operational objectives of an employer and the interests of other employees can be considered when deciding what amounts to a reasonable adjustment under the Disability Discrimination Act 1998.

In Miles v Linkage Community Trust Limited, the EAT has reminded us that compensation under the Working Time Regulations 1998 (“WTR”) is not designed to be punitive. Even where there has been a breach, the tribunal is entitled to award nothing.

Locked gates

TUPE and the Standard Grievance Procedure
In Bottomley v Wakefield District Housing the EAT has held that step one of the standard grievance procedure will have been complied with where following a TUPE transfer, a grievance addressed to the transferor is later copied to the transferee.

Planning reform legislation has been in place for two years and, following a significant level of consultation, the implementation stage is now imminent.