Summary A master had erred in not considering the practical effect of his refusal of permission to parties seeking to rely on a new expert where the initial expert had expressed an unwillingness to continue. The fact that that expert was no longer willing to act, and that one side...

Summary The circumstances in which a contemnor should not be heard by the court were not confined to cases in which the contemnor was bringing an application. It could also extend to cases in which the contemnor was a respondent to another party's application. Accordingly, the court refused to hear...

Summary In awarding costs under the Arbitration Act 1996 s.61, an arbitrator was not under obliged to compare a Calderbank offer with a valuation under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 s.34 as of the date of the offer, but rather retained a broad discretion to award costs under s.61 which was...

Summary On an application by administrators for directions the court gave permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal on the issue of the extent to which rent and service charges falling due both before and after the appointment of administrators were to be treated as expenses of the administration....

Summary Where a charity acquired property, the exemption from stamp duty land tax provided by the Finance Act 2003 Sch.8 applied in respect of that proportion of the beneficial interest that was attributable to the undivided share held by the charity for qualifying charitable purposes. Facts The appellants (P and K),...

Summary The defendant surveyors had not been negligent in failing to identify compression failure as the cause of cracking in the brickwork of a 19th century mill building purchased by the first claimant. Facts The claimants (X) brought a claim in negligence against the defendant surveyors (P). X were institutional...

Summary A transaction whereby a farm worker transferred two agricultural holdings to the proprietors of a farm where he had lived all his working life had not been procured by undue influence and was not an unconscionable transaction. The farm worker regarded the proprietors as members of his family and...

Summary A defendant was entitled to indemnity costs in circumstances where an enormous amount of time, costs and court resource had been wasted as a result of the claimants' unwillingness to accept an amount, offered by the defendant in settlement, that they had been prepared to settle at only a...

Summary In determining the price to be paid by a nominated purchaser under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 for intermediate leases between the freehold and the leases of the participating tenants, the tribunal was to take into account the development value that could be realised if a...