In an important ruling which distinguished religious vocation from employment, the Supreme Court has ruled by a majority that a Methodist minister who submitted to the church’s discipline for life was not an employee and was thus precluded from making an unfair dismissal claim. In
An artificial tax-avoidance scheme that involved selling shares at massive ‘paper losses’, which would have led to 400 wealthy people saving an average of nearly £1/2 million each in tax, has been defeated by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). The scheme involved buying shares at
In circumstances where a commercial lease imposed no obligation on the landlord to repair those parts of the building which it had retained, no such duty could be implied at common law and the tenants were not entitled to compensation following the repeated ingress of
The local authority-owned company that runs Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre and other venues in the city is in line for a multi-million-pound VAT rebate after the First-Tier Tribunal accepted that it had for many years mistakenly paid VAT output tax on ticket booking fees. National
In the context of a major construction project, the Court of Appeal has emphasised that delay in completion of works will only be sufficient to justify repudiation of a contract if it goes to the root of the agreement between the parties and deprives one
In a ruling of interest to landowners and property lawyers, a gypsy squatting on a plot of Surrey wasteland has failed to convince the High Court that, on a correct reading of section 15 of the Land Registration Act 2002, he is entitled to register
In a salutary warning to employers that they can be held responsible for actions taken by their staff, even if they are carried out contrary to instructions, a company has been held in contempt of court after one of its salesmen breached undertakings to refrain from soliciting
In a triumph of co-operation between the UK and South African tax authorities, the Court of Appeal has dismissed a challenge to the scope of the Joint Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters (the convention) and ruled that £7.8 million held by a
In a major blow to regulators, owners of licensed sex shops in London’s Soho and Covent Garden districts have convinced the Court of Appeal that Westminster City Council had no lawful authority to add to their licence fees the substantial costs of taking enforcement action
The owners of Britain’s largest privately-owned stately home have achieved a major success in their quest for more than £100 million in compensation to repair damage done to its monumental architecture by mining subsidence. The Court of Appeal ruled that the property’s owners had submitted
