Supreme Courts roundup 13 to 19 March 2015
Decisions, proceedings and news from the highest courts in common law jurisdictions in the last week are as follows:
Supreme Court of New Zealand
Thompson v Thompson [2015] NZSC 26(13 March 2015, 34 pages). Appeal from Court of Appeal [2014] NZCA 117 allowed. Relationship Property - Classification - Property (Relationships) Act 1976 - Restraint of trade covenant - $8 million payment in return for restraint of trade covenant following sale of family business - Whether relationship property.
Quake Outcasts and Fowler v Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery [2015] NZSC 27 (13 March 2015, 122 pages). Appeal from Court of Appeal [2013] NZCA 588 allowed in part (majority). Administrative law - Decision-making powers - Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Act 2011 - Establishment of residential red zones - Legitimacy of powers exercised - Whether settlement offers made by Crown under section 53 legitimate.
High Court of Australia
No decisions released during the period.
Supreme Court of Canada
R v Araya [2015] SCC 11 (13 March 2015). Appeal from Court of Appeal for Ontario allowed. Criminal law - Charge to jury - Evidence - Admissibility - Limiting instructions - Characterisation of witness's testimony - Accused convicted of manslaughter - Accused's appearance changing between time of offence and time of trial - Whether photographs of accused taken days after offence admissible - Sufficiency of trial judge's instructions to jury on use of photographs.
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
No decisions released during the period.
Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
R v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2015] UKSC 16 (18 March 2015, 95 pages). Appeal from Court of Appeal of England and Wales [2014] EWCA Civ 156 dismissed (majority). Public law - Indirect gender discrimination - Human Rights Act 1998 - Article 14 of European Convention on Human Rights - Subordinate legislation - Cap imposed on amount of welfare benefits which could be received by claimants in non-working households - Statistically more women than men affected by cap - Whether cap discriminates unjustifiably between men and women.
Braganza v BP Shipping Limited and another [2015] UKSC 17 (18 March 2015, 42 pages). Appeal from Court of Appeal of England and Wales [2013] EWCA Civ 230 allowed (majority). Employment law- Disappearance of employee while working on oil tanker in the mid-North Atlantic - Whether a suicide or result of employment negligence - Employer decided employee had committed suicide and not entitled to death-in-service payment - Whether reasonable opinion - Requirements for contractual fact finder when considering possibility of suicide - Whether family qualifies for life insurance.
R v Dorset County Council [2015] UKSC 18 (18 March 2015, 39 pages). Appeal from the Court of Appeal of England and Wales [2013] EWCA Civ 553 dismissed (majority). Land law - Applications under Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 - Whether map accompanying application drawn to prescribed scale - Council surveying the land - Preservation of land in particular area.
Supreme Court of the United States
No decisions released during the period.