Case Reports

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

A sheriff has ruled that a shop worker who attempted to sue his employer for right ear deafness he claimed was sustained when a ball was thrown at him by a colleague had not acted unreasonably in bringing a personal injury action and thus was not liable for expenses under the Qualified One-Way Cost

A sheriff of the Upper Tribunal for Scotland has found that a dispute between an Edinburgh woman and a company that let out her flat during the Edinburgh Festival should be remitted to the First-tier Tribunal to allow for evidence to be heard on the nature of the let. The appellant, Factotum (Scotla

An appeal by a party minuter against a sheriff’s decision to refuse a motion for a further diet of debate and proceed to proof in an action of multiplepoinding to determine possession of a fund derived from sale of a fraudster’s property has been allowed by the Sheriff Appeal Court. In a

A Lanarkshire woman who was imprisoned for 12 months for injuring a mother and her children by driving through a red light at a pedestrian crossing has lost an appeal against sentence before the High Court of Justiciary. Counsel for appellant Melanie Grierson argued that a non-custodial sentence wou

A lord ordinary has dismissed a personal injury action by an Aberdeen man who fell off the roof of a portacabin and suffered injuries resulting in tetraplegia after finding that his case under occupiers’ liability law was not made out. Pursuer John Davie suffered the injuries after he had gain

A 20-year-old man charged with having possession of indecent photographs of children has lost an appeal against a trial sheriff’s decision that images recovered from a cloud storage website based in New Zealand accessed using a password found on his smartphone could be led as evidence. The man

The Inner House of the Court of Session has ruled that the Scottish Information Commissioner was correct to determine that the Scottish ministers held information stored in a restricted system for an independent advisor concerning an investigation into whether former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon h

The Sheriff Appeal Court has allowed an appeal by the purported owner of a disputed piece of scrubland on the Ardnamuchan peninsula against a sheriff’s determination that the owners of adjoining land had in fact acquired it in 1992 when they purchased a farm there.