In a warning to small businesses managed without the benefit of financial or legal advice, a skip hire boss who claimed that over £300,000 in loans that he had advanced to his father’s company had turned bad has failed to convince a tribunal that he
In a case which signals a judicial crackdown on the enforcement of environmental protection and health and safety rules, the owner of the Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria has failed in an appeal against a £700,000 fine imposed after low-level radioactive waste was sent to
In a case which will stand as a stern warning to property investors, one member of a ruthless gang of conmen – who duped people into buying near-worthless plots of land with false promises of rich rewards from lucrative developments – has failed in an
An Islamic prison chaplain who complained that Christian colleagues were generally paid more than him due to their greater length of service has had his race and religious discrimination claims dismissed by the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT). Until 2002, the only chaplains employed by the
Confectionary giant Nestlé will have to fight its case before the European Court of Justice if it wishes to establish a perpetual monopoly, via trade mark protection, in the distinctive, four-finger, shape of its best-selling ‘Kit Kat’ chocolate bars. The product was first put on
A world-renowned belly dancer who has performed for royalty will have to stomach a costly defeat in her battle with the tax authorities after a tribunal ruled that the private tuition that she gives her clients is ‘recreational’, not ‘educational’, and thus subject to VAT.
A pharmaceutical company that got its fingers badly burned when it entered into an interest rate swap in an attempt to hedge itself against fluctuations in interest rates has ended up with a bill for nearly $6.3 million following a High Court ruling. The company
In a case which makes plain that a single home may have two front doors, the Upper Tribunal (UT) has ruled that it is legally possible for adjoining properties occupied by one large family to be viewed as a single dwelling house. A man and
Google Inc. has failed to block landmark High Court proceedings brought by three disgruntled Internet users who say that they were caused ‘acute distress and anxiety’ due to the tracking and collation of their private information, without their knowledge or consent, for the purposes of
A Turkish manufacturer which failed to deliver a consignment of high-tensile steel to Hong Kong is facing a multi-million-dollar bill after failing to convince the High Court that it had never agreed to a London arbitration clause being incorporated into the contract. The company was
