Employing an impartial contract administrator to oversee major construction projects is vital. In one High Court case where that did not happen, a company was left with an incomplete housing development and an adjudication bill for almost £870,000. The company had engaged a contractor to
Companies are entitled to reap the benefits of their employees’ inventiveness – but patent law does require compensation to be paid to those whose ideas make an outstanding contribution to profits. In an important test case, the Court of Appeal analysed the circumstances in which
One of the advantages of the English legal system is that even the most convincing lies tend to be exposed under rigorous forensic examination in the witness box. In one case that proved the point, a businessman’s dishonesty was laid bare and he received an
Construction contracts are often replete with detailed provisions in respect of time limits and payment schedules and that is one good reason why their administration is best entrusted to professionals. The point was strikingly made by one High Court case concerning a hospital refurbishment project.
Patents provide protection and encouragement to inventiveness and novelty, not to obvious developments of others’ ideas. The Court of Appeal made that point in finding invalid a patent in respect of wind turbine arrays. A company had patented a method of operating pitch-controlled wind turbines
Owners of listed buildings are entrusted to keep them in a reasonable state of repair and a failure to do so can have grave consequences. In one case, a woman whose 17th century manor house had fallen into a state of near-dereliction received just £125,000
Unlawful planning permissions are regularly overturned by judges, and those who pre-empt their decisions by carrying out developments prematurely do so at their own risk. In one such case, however, the High Court found that a council was justified in refusing to take immediate enforcement
Product liability and professional indemnity insurance policies invariably require that any potential claims must be swiftly notified to the insurer, but what exactly does that mean? The Court of Appeal has considered the issue in an important test case. The case concerned a company that
The location of a company’s registered office is not always an indication of where it has its centre of main interest (COMI). The issue can be of crucial importance to insolvency practitioners, as one High Court case revealed. The case concerned three companies that were
Employers are fully entitled to take a very dim view of violence in the workplace – but, when considering what action to take, each case must be considered on its own facts. In one case, a worker who lost his job following an angry office
