Following the controversial consultation exercise that ran earlier this year the Permitted Development right authorising conversions from uses falling within Use Class E to residential uses will be added to the statute books this week. What is coming into force is significantly pared down from what was proposed in the consultation exercise and David Mathias sets out some of the headlines below. The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development etc ...
For most of the last decade, creative plaintiffs attorneys and their clients — states, municipalities and environmental groups — have pushed novel, untested tort theories designed to hold energy companies, and sometimes, those same state and municipal interests, liable for climate change. Plaintiffs have concentrated their efforts in West Coast forums. But New York and Baltimore saw some action too. Florida, by and large, has avoided the fray. No longer ...
Raytheon Techs. Corp. v. General Elec. Co., Appeal No. 2020-1755 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 16, 2021) In its only precedential patent decision this week, the Federal Circuit issued an important ruling about the issue of enablement as it applies to prior references used in an obviousness analysis. Raytheon owned a patent related to gas turbine engines ...
Dear valued clients, colleagues and friends, We are pleased to bring you the March 2021 issue of our quarterly Newsletter, we hope that you will continue to find its contents of value to you. Real Estate PJD Regency Sdn Bhd v Tribunal Tuntutan Pembeli Rumah: Calculation of Liquidated Agreed Damages commences from the Date of Payment of Booking Fee A case note by Alexis Yong Mey Ling … read more ...
The UK will host the UN’s COP26 climate change conference in November 2021, but what is a COP – and what happened at the previous 25 COPs? 15 April 2021 marks 200 days until COP26 is due to start. Taking place in Glasgow from 1-12 November 2021, COP26 is the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) ...
What options does one have when they discover that a term in a previously executed contract or written instrument was worded poorly, or incorrectly drafted? Generally, parties in this scenario may seek the remedy of rectification, which gives a court the equitable jurisdiction to rectify or correct the document so that it accords with the parties’ true agreement ...
On March 26, 2021, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) published Announcement 2021-7, which notifies taxpayers that certain amounts paid for personal protective equipment (such as masks, hand sanitizer, and sanitizing wipes) for the primary purpose of preventing the spread of COVID-19 (“COVID-19 PPE”) may be an eligible expense that can be reimbursed from certain health care account based plans ...
Key Points The California Department of Housing and Community Development has released new guidelines for implementing the Surplus Land Act, which clarify when leases are subject to the terms of the Act. Pursuant to the new guidelines, leases are not subject to Surplus Land Act when the lease involves "land on which no development or demolition will occur" or leases with "a term that is less than five (5) years (including any extensions, amendments or options) ...
The recent Court of First Instance decision in Li Yiqing v Lamtex Holdings Limited [2021] HKCFI 622 (11 March 2021) is a landmark decision in cross-border insolvency law in Hong Kong, in which the Court held that when it is considering the recognition of foreign insolvency proceedings, regard should not simply be had to the place of incorporation of the relevant company, but that in a departure from previous practice, the location of the company’s centre of main interest (COMI) is
In the recent case of AB V CD, HCCT 27/2020, 18 February 2021the Court granted the application of AB Engineering, to set aside a HKIAC arbitral award made against it in Hong Kong, finding that it was not a party to the relevant agreement containing the arbitration clause (Agreement) ...
In recent days, the CFPB has taken significant actions that will have a lasting impact on mortgage servicers. First, on April 1, the CFPB issued Bulletin 2021-02, warning servicers that being “unprepared is unacceptable.” This bulletin provides important insight into the CFPB’s supervision and enforcement priorities related to servicers’ handling of the COVID-19 crisis ...
On April 9, 2021, the IRS released Private Letter Ruling (PLR) 202114002 (January 13, 2021), which provides additional context to taxpayers worried about whether their Fintech or Insurtech shares represent Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) section 1202 ...
The South African Supreme Court of Appeal (“SCA”) recently delivered judgment in the matter of FirstRand Bank Limited v The Spar Group Limited. The SCA held that: A customer with no entitlement to money deposited into its account and who knows that it enjoys no such entitlement, may not pay out money against the credit to the account. Doing so amounts to theft ...
On March 26, 2021, the Superior Court rendered a decision dismissing a class action against the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (“IIROC”) on the loss of personal information of thousands of Canadian investors.1 The lack of evidence of compensable injury and IIROC’s diligent behaviour are the main reasons for the dismissal of the class action. The Facts On February 22, 2013, an inspector working for IIROC forgot his laptop computer in a public place ...
In the recent judgment of Divine Inspiration Trading 205 (Pty) Limited and another v Katherine Gordon and 2 others, the Western Cape High Court found, in essence, that the rules of court override the interests protected under the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (“POPIA”) and ordered that personal information be disclosed. In this matter, the applicants sought an order for the disclosure of Ms Gordon’s medical records from her medical practitioners ...
On April 8, 2021, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) announced a proposed rate increase of 1.3 percent for skilled nursing providers in fiscal year 2022. It is estimated this will result in approximately $444 million increase in payments to skilled nursing facilities (SNF) under Medicare Part A for the fiscal year. This increased payment rate does not incorporate the SNF Value-Based Program (VBP) reductions that CMS estimates to be $184 ...
The protracted legal battle between software giant Oracle America Inc. (“Oracle”) and technology behemoth Google LLC (“Google”) has truly been one for the ages. The Supreme Court of the United States of America (“SCOTUS”) on 05 April 2021 delivered its judgment in the writ of Certiorari filed by Google against Oracle ...
The Court of Appeal (CoA) has allowed a SIPP investor’s appeal in Adams v Options UK Personal Pensions LLP (2021) EWCA Civ 474 and provided important guidance on the interpretation of Article 25 and 53 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 Regulated Activities Order 2001 ...
The HKIAC’s statistics for 2020 reveal that in 2020 the HKIAC received a record number of arbitration filings (the highest number received in over a decade) and the total amount in dispute in the arbitrations was another record high. Most hearings were fully or partially virtual, which is unsurprising given the pandemic outbreak last year. The following are some of the more notable statistics: 483 new cases were submitted to the HKIAC in 2020 ...
In our previous article, we reported on the Supplemental Arrangement Concerning Mutual Enforcement of Arbitral Awards between Mainland China and the HKSAR (Supplemental Arrangement) made on 27 November 2020, which made certain revisions to the Arrangement Concerning Mutual Enforcement of Arbitral Awards between Mainland China and the HKSAR, as follows: Recognition of arbitral awards -The Supplemental Arrangement clarified that the procedures set out in the Arrangement shall be in
In DR Jones Yeovil Ltd v The Stepping Stone Group Ltd [2020] EWHC 2308 (TCC), England’s Technology and Construction Court ruled in favour of a contractor in its claim for unpaid retention under a JCT contract and dismissed the employer’s counterclaim for alleged defects. Certificates of Making Good were never issued and one of the questions before the court was whether that meant there could be no recovery of the balance of retention ...
The appeal in ABC Electrification Ltd v Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd [2020] EWCA Civ 1645, concerned the proper construction of a Target Cost Contract based upon the standard Institute of Civil Engineers Conditions of Contract, Target Cost Version, First Edition (ICE Conditions) and subject to standard amendments commonly used in the rail industry, known as Network Rail 12 (N12 Amendments) ...
