A landmark judgment was handed down yesterday (1 February 2023) by the Supreme Court in Fearn and others (Appellants) v Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery (Respondent) [2023] UKSC 4. In its judgment, the Supreme Court has allowed the appeal by the residents of Neo Bankside, meaning that the Tate is liable to them in nuisance. Background The case centred around glass-walled flats high above the South Bank in London ...
February 2, 2023 By: Manuel Fishman In what may turn out to be a lesson on the limits of the application of equitable doctrines supporting rent relief in the face of good lease drafting, a California court of appeal panel in San Diego has taken a narrow view on the application of the doctrines of quiet enjoyment, frustration of purpose, impracticability and impossibility as a defense to the payment of rent under a lease following State and local closure orders issued in response to the COVID 1
Developers have been given six weeks to sign a contract to commit an estimated £2 billion to the repair of unsafe buildings. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) previously announced that over 49 developers had signed a pledge committing to remediate “life critical fire safety works” in buildings over 11m that they were involved in developing and refurbishing in the last 30 years in England ...
There are less than 12 months until new mandatory biodiversity net gain (BNG) requirements are enforced as part of the Environment Act 2021. The legislation will require all new developments in England (bar a few exceptions) to deliver at least 10 per cent BNG – impacting both commercial and residential developers. Although the Environment Act received Royal Assent in November 2021, secondary legislation is set to be introduced to enable the relevant provisions to take effect ...
The key objective of the Building Safety Act 2022 is to improve building safety across the built environment, with a particular focus on the residential sector. The BSA received Royal Assent in April 2022 and will be implemented in stages ...
The Government has published its response to questions regarding “in occupation” higher-risk buildings. Part 4 of the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) contains provision about the management of building safety risks in occupied higher-risk buildings. The draft Higher-Risk (Key Buildings Information etc) (England) Regulations 2023 sets out in more detail the allocation of responsibilities and obligations to be provided under that Part ...
In Case C-633/20 of the European Court of Justice (the ‘Court’) delivered on the 29th September 2022, the First Chamber of the Court produced a judgment (the ‘Judgment’) in response to a reference for a preliminary ruling concerning the definition of ‘insurance intermediary’ in the context of Directive 2016/97 (the ‘Insurance Distribution Directive’ or the ‘IDD’) and Directive 2002/92 (the ‘Insurance Mediatio
On January 18, 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) published a final rule (2023 Rule) revising the definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) as used in the Clean Water Act (CWA). This 2023 Rule follows years of uncertainty as to the scope of CWA jurisdiction that has included nationwide litigation and multiple Supreme Court decisions ...
The end of the first month in 2023 also marks the end of the next quarter in our case law update series. Here we highlight the most significant employment law cases since November 2022 and the lessons that employers should take from them. Redundancy pool Deciding on which employees to include in a redundancy pool is usually straightforward. However, problems can arise, particularly where the pool includes just one person, as the case of Teixeira v Zaika Restaurant Ltd and another demonstrated ...
Following the introduction of similar legislation in Scotland and Wales*, and a consultation exercise by the UK Government (the outcome of which was announced on 14 January 2023), a range of polluting single-use plastics will be banned from use in England from October 2023. What is coming into force and why? Under the Environmental Protection (Plastic Plates etc. and Polystyrene Containers etc ...
What has happened? On 27 October 2022 Sharjah Law No. 2/2022 was issued by Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Ruler of the Emirate of Sharjah expanding the rights of ownership of real estate within the Emirate to foreigners.In this inBrief, we look at the implications of this new law and what the expansion may mean for the real estate market in Sharjah ...
In a landmark decision delivered on the 11th January 2023, in the names ‘Av. Jonathan Abela Fiorentino noe vs Eolia Limited’ (case no. 68/2022 ISB), the Civil Court (Commercial Section) rejected the application filed by defendant company demanding the Court to order a retrial of the liquidation proceedings that led to the company being placed into liquidation ...
Personalized Media Communications, LLC v. Apple, Inc., Appeal No. 2021-2275 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 20, 2023) Our Case of the Week focuses on the doctrine of prosecution laches. Following a bench trial on the issue held shortly after the Federal Circuit’s decision in Hyatt v. Hirshfeld, 998 F.3d 1347 (Fed. Cir. 2021), the district court found Personalized Media Communications’ patent unenforceable under the doctrine ...
On January 10, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia issued a long-awaited opinion which will allow the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to determine the means by which it will repay inappropriate cuts it levied against 340B participating hospitals’ Medicare reimbursement.[i] The District Court’s decision comes on the heels of the United States Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in American Hospital Association v. Becerra, 142 S. Ct ...
The Supreme Court has upheld a summary judgment against a tenant in respect of payment of service charge where the demand was referred to in the lease as being “conclusive" once certified by the landlord - but also held that this does not prevent the tenant from then bringing a counterclaim in relation to its underlying liability. The tenant is therefore required to pay immediately, and then challenge disputed elements of the costs ...
2023 is set to be a landmark year for the real estate industry, with major legal developments expected and new legislation coming into force. These changes are analysed below, with Shoosmiths’ experts examining the legislation and its implications on developers, investors, occupiers and others operating across the real estate sector ...
2022 was a record year for the UK’s living sector. Investment into the sector exceeded £10bn in Q3, fuelled by growth across build to rent, student accommodation and healthcare. While the data for Q4 is yet to be revealed, JLL predicts that the total investment for the year could surpass the £13.8bn recorded in 2021 ...
It has been some time since there has been talk about bonfires in Parliament but the continued debate (albeit largely outside of the Chamber thus far) as to when we should finally say 'farewell' to 'retained' EU legislation is one that many of us are watching with interest. When originally introduced, the suggestion that some 4,000 pieces of legislation would essentially evaporate by the end of this year caused something veering between confusion, concern and, let's be honest, disbelief ...
Grace Instrument Industries, LLC v. Chandler Instruments Company, LLC, Appeal No. 2021-2370 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 12, 2023) In an appeal from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the Federal Circuit vacated the district court’s determination that one of a patent’s claim terms, “enlarged chamber,” is indefinite, and remanded for further proceedings ...
