Mitchell Skilling

A life prisoner seeking a First Grant of Temporary Release as part of securing later release from custody on licence has lost a petition for judicial review challenging the way in which the grants were made by the Scottish ministers. Petitioner Gordon Burns, who had been serving a discretionary life

A French national whose extradition was sought by the French authorities for the offence of denying crimes against humanity has been refused permission to appeal against a decision that his conduct constituted an extradition offence and that it would be proportionate to extradite him. Vincent Raynou

A Kilmarnock sheriff has found that a horse transportation company was liable for injuries sustained to a showjumping horse that reduced its commercial value to zero after it escaped from its transport lorry on a ferry from Northern Ireland to Scotland. Pursuer Derek Rankine had agreed that BG Craig

A lord ordinary has ruled that a case raised by a tenant of flats alleged in a group of actions to have contained harmful gases inhaled by their occupants was not an abuse of process, after it was ruled in the lead case that the defender was not in breach of duty, and allowed her to proceed with her

A sequestrated person has lost an appeal against a sheriff’s grant of summary decree to recover possession of his property in Edinburgh in the Sheriff Appeal Court after an action was raised against him by the trustee in sequestration. Thomas MacLennan, the trustee in sequestration of appellan

An appeal by the owners of a whisky ageing facility in Bonnybridge against a lord ordinary’s decision that a couple in Bonnybridge had pled a relevant case of nuisance against them has been refused by the Inner House of the Court of Session. Thomas and Gail Chalmers originally raised the actio

A man convicted of purchasing an illegal sawn-off firearm in Glasgow has lost an appeal against his conviction for offences under the Firearms Act 1968 in the High Court of Justiciary. Francis Mooney argued that the trial judge was wrong to repel a submission of no case to answer, as while there was

The Upper Tribunal for Scotland has dismissed a repairing standard application raised by two tenants against the creditor of their former landlord after an appeal was made against the First-tier Tribunal’s decision that the creditor could be regarded as the landlord for the purposes of the app

A Perth sheriff has ruled that a clause in a will allowing one of a deceased’s four daughters to reside indefinitely in her home, ownership of which was split equally between all her daughters, was not ineffective after the clause was disputed by two of her sisters. Valerie Scott-May and Maure

The Supreme Court has ruled in three conjoined appeals that persons who witness the death of a close family member in circumstances caused by medical negligence cannot claim compensation for psychiatric injury. The defendants in the cases, two NHS Trusts and a doctor, had applied for the claims to b

A petition by a company seeking review of a decision by HMRC not to allow it a late claim for Research and Development Credit has been refused by a judge in the Outer House of the Court of Session. Bureau Workspace Ltd argued that HMRC erred in law by refusing to process the claim because it was not

A sheriff principal has ruled that it was not necessary for a sheriff to appoint a curator ad litem in a family law case where the defender had a mild learning disability but appeared to be fully capable of instructing a solicitor and understanding the case. It was argued by S, the appellant, that r

An appeal by the owner of an American Bulldog who was ordered to pay a fine and have his dog destroyed after it attacked another dog while off its leash has been refused by the Sheriff Appeal Court. James Murdoch, the owner of a microchipped America Bulldog named Storm, argued that the sheriff was n

An appeal by the Home Office against a sheriff’s decision that it should pay £284,227 to a fishing company after unlawfully detaining three of its vessels has been refused by the Inner House of the Court of Session. It was accepted by the appellant that the vessels had been detained unla

A Jedburgh sheriff has ruled that a homemade will by a woman that was signed only at the front of the document could not be cured by the court of defects that removed its testamentary effect. Pursuers Christopher Knapman and Patrick Wadeson sought to cure defects of execution in the purported will o