The Supreme Court has this week (8 February 2023) handed down a judgment considering whether landlords have management discretion to vary service charge percentages in residential leases. S.27A(1) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 (the Act) gives the First-tier Tribunal (FtT) the ability on application to make various decisions about service charges in residential dwellings, including whether it is payable or not ...
On 10 July 2023, the Maltese Parliament resolved in favour of several amendments to the Consumer Affairs Act. These amendments serve two purposes. Firstly, the Consumer Claims Tribunal can now hear consumer claims of up to €10,000. This amendment represents a significant increase in the value of the claims that can be heard by the arbiter given the previous threshold of €5,000 ...
In vacating a jury’s award of almost $54 million based on a finding of willful trademark and trade dress infringement, an Illinois federal district court granted the defendants’ motion for a new trial, finding the trial “fundamentally unfair due to the admission of unreliable and prejudicial expert testimony.” The Black & Decker Corporation et al v. Positec USA Inc.,No. 1:2011cv05426 (N.D. Ill. Sept. 11, 2017) ...
The Ninth Circuit recently ruled against the government on jurisdictional grounds in the False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam case, United States v. United States ex rel. Thrower, No. 18-16408, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 24621 (9th Cir. Aug. 4, 2020), holding that a district court’s denial of a government motion to dismiss an FCA action is not immediately appealable under the collateral order doctrine and dismissing the government’s appeal ...
The Supreme Court on 10 May 2023 considered whether damage caused by an oil spill in 2011 could constitute a “continuing nuisance” – and so extend the limitation period for a claim ...
It behooves construction professionals, be they materials manufacturers, general contractors, or lower-tier subcontractors, to carry some form of commercial general liability insurance (“CGL Insurance”). Having such coverage alleviates some of the potential risk and financial exposure a construction professional carries on a particular project. That is, of course, unless the construction professional gets sued and the insurer refuses to pay ...
Irish Shell Limited v JH McLoughlin (Balbriggan) Limited, unreported High Court, 4 August 2005, Mr Justice Clarke This case is a good illustration of the application of the legal principles involved in granting an injunction while a related trial is pending (known as an interlocutory injunction). Facts: The plaintiff (Shell) sold a filling station in Balbriggan, County Dublin, to the defendant company in 2004 ...
Misrepresentations and unfounded assertions of fact made to a party during pre-contractual negotiations can come back to bite you if they induce that party to enter into the contract. The Supreme Court case has emphasised that misrepresentations made to a non-contracting party can also result in liability for the party that made the misrepresentation ...
On April 7, 2023, two federal judges in Texas and Washington State issued dueling opinions about the abortion medication Mifepristone, just hours apart. These two decisions come in the midst of growing tension about abortion laws in the United States after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision released by the Supreme Court in 2022.[i] The Texas and Washington court opinions do not help reduce the confusion among healthcare providers and residents of the United States ...
The Singapore Convention cements the Lion City’s reputation as a dispute resolution hub, making mediation easier to enforce globally. Clients who come to see me about commercial disputes often ask for the same thing: fast resolution. I tell them that there are two tried-and-tested ways to resolve financial claims. First, you can litigate in court and have a judge make a legal ruling on the dispute, in the full gaze of the public ...
Reprinted with permission from the February 7, 2014 issue of Corporate Counsel. © 2014 ALM Media Properties, LLC. Further duplication without permission is prohibited. All rights reserved. On Nov. 12, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to grant a writ of certiorari in Cariou v. Prince, leaving intact the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on copyright fair use in the context of appropriation art ...
Remember Nirvana? There have been reports about an interesting copyright infringement case involving the grunge band Nirvana, a band that is still associated by many with frontman Kurt Cobain. Yet this case does not involve music copyright. Rather it deals with copyright in an artistic work, a drawing. How about Dante’s Inferno? The case has been brought by a lady called Jocelyn Susan Bundy. Bundy is the granddaughter of C.W. Scott-Giles, a heraldry expert who died in 1982 ...
The legislator acts - Special regulations on, among other things, deferral of claims, insolvency law, tenancy law and loan agreements in Germany to come. At the end of March, the German legislator adopted special regulations in response to the COVID 19 pandemic in fast-track proceedings. The law was passed by the German parliament (Bundestag) on Wednesday, March 25, 2020, and, in a special session, also by the German Federal Council (Bundesrat) on Friday, 27 March, 2020 ...
The international public health emergency due to the new Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has led to the urgent and succession introduction of a range of legislative measures. These measures are an exceptional and temporary response to the pandemic in Portugal and they include the declaration of a state of emergency across the whole country that has already been extended twice ...
On 5 March, the CMVM published Regulation 2/2020 on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, to provide the regulations under Law 83/2017 of 18 August. The CMVM did this as the sector regulator responsible for supervising financial entities including investment companies, investment fund management companies, venturecapital companies, and securitisation companies ...
Following the renewal of the state of emergency, Decree 3-A/2021 of14January of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, determines the closure of various types of establishments. Inthiscontext, the employment support measures were amended by Decree-Law 6-C/2021 of 15 January and Decree-Law 6-E/2021 of15January, which we summarised below. 1 ...
The international public health emergency caused by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization and the Portuguese authorities recently announced of a state of emergency across the country. Against this background, the authorities have been approving various packages of exceptional and temporary measures to respond to the spread of the virus ...
A range of business support mechanisms have been introduced to face the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Among them, the recent Law 75/2020 of 27 November has created a series of measures in the field of restructuring and insolvency procedures. The stand-out among these new procedures is the Extraordinary Business Viability Process (Processo Extraordinário de Viabilização de Empresas referred to here by it Portuguese initials, “PEVE”) ...
Following the World Health Organization’s announcement of a public health emergency caused by COVID-19 and its declaration ofan international pandemic, the President of the Republic declared a state of emergency on 18 March and this lasted until 2 May. On 30April, theGovernment declared a situation of calamity and this was renewed on 15May and 29 May ...
We are facing the growing and exponential spread of COVID-19 and a state of emergency was recently declared in Portugal. As a result, it is important to assess what impact this situation may have on the ability of businesses to meet the obligations they have assumed under the contracts they have made. The current situation is generating tensions in contractual relationships between companies ...
On July 5, 2016 the Chilean Congress enacted Law No. 20,931 (“Anti-crime Agenda”), strengthening the prosecution of robbery, burglary, theft and willfully or negligently receiving or possessing stolen goods. The Chilean Criminal Code sanctions any individual who knowingly or negligently possesses, transports, buys, converts or trades goods proceeding from theft, robbery, embezzlement and/or cattle theft. Negligent behavior can also be prosecuted ...
Introduction Recent years have seen the UAE making regular updates to its laws in order to guarantee a legal regime that is forward-looking, and consistent with international standards and principles. The leaders of the UAE have been particularly cognizant of the need to have a robust criminal law regime to encourage legitimacy in business, and dissuade any unscrupulous activities that could reflect negatively on the UAE as a determined and fast-developing economy ...
Business reorganization is a commonly utilized strategy to enhance efficiency and reduce costs within a business. Reorganization not only impacts corporate changes, but also has an effect on labour relations, which can pose certain risks. We have summarized the key labour issues that illustrate the red flags associated with corporate transactions, along with practical issues that should be taken into consideration. More details here ...
March 25, 2024 By: Daniel C. Silva and Ross Garrett In March 2024, the Northern District of Alabama held that Congress exceeded its Constitutional authority by enacting the Corporate Transparency Act (“CTA”). The CTA requires variety corporate entities—everything from LLCs to trusts—to disclose beneficial ownership information to the U.S. Treasury Department ...
Parties in financial remedy proceedings on divorce need to be alive to the implications that their behaviour may have on their final settlement by way of costs orders. Both parties in the recent case of E v L (No 2 Costs) [2021] EWFC 63 were penalised in costs; the husband for failing to negotiate reasonably and pursuing ‘conduct’ against the wife, and the wife for her litigation misconduct ...
