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26 November 2020 / Andrew Francis
Issue: 7912 / Categories: Features , Property
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Avoiding the stigma of cynical breach

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What can we learn from the Supreme Court’s judgment in Alexander Devine Children’s Cancer Trust v Housing Solutions Ltd, asks Andrew Francis
  • The Supreme Court has just emphasised the importance of the applicant’s conduct in applications to discharge, or modify restrictive covenants under s 84(1) Law of Property Act 1925. What can we learn from the judgment of that Court?

On 6 November 2020, the Supreme Court handed down its judgment in Alexander Devine Children’s Cancer Trust v Housing Solutions Ltd [2020] UKSC 45, [2020] All ER (D) 37 (Nov).

This article suggests that some lessons can be learnt from that judgment. It concentrates on those lessons and does not set out the facts in any detail. For those, reference can be made to the judgment itself, as well as to the other commentaries on the decision.

In this case the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal in November 2018 which had allowed the Trust’s appeal against the decision of the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber)

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London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

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NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
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