Business Law

THE focus of the agricultural world was tuned into a unique event which tackled challenges and opportunities in the sector against the backdrop of an uncertain post-Brexit economy. More than 125 people packed into The Shepherd’s Inn at Rosehill, Carlisle, for the Future Proof Farming event, which was a collaboration between four major organisations. Legal firm Cartmell Shepherd joined forces with accountants Armstrong Watson, The Cumberland Building Society and The…

By Joanne Stronach Head of Employment & HR The government is introducing a new Code of Practice that will place a legal duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. The code will contain several measures including protections for volunteers and interns. The government says it wants to introduce the code so employers better understand their legal responsibilities to protect their staff. The new measures will be put…

By Mark Aspin, Director and Head of Dispute Resolution A tenant has been awarded a refund of more than £18,000 after a wall collapsed at the property he was renting. The court heard that the tenant had signed a two-year lease on a house with no break clause. He paid all the £34,000 rent in advance. After moving in, the tenant contacted the letting agent to draw attention to the…

By Jonathan Carroll Director and Head of Agriculture A married couple have succeeded in having a restrictive covenant modified to allow them to build more than one house on part of their land. The couple had bought the land together with a farmhouse in 2001 for £600,000 from a college.  They then obtained planning permission allowing them to convert two outbuildings, the “Modern Barn” and the “Old Barn”, into a single…

Joanne Stronach, Head of Employment Law & HR considers the Employment Tribunal case of Ms J Rajput v Commerzbank AG (2018). A compliance officer with an international bank who was “side-lined” after having a baby has won her claims of maternity and sex discrimination. Jagruti Rajput joined Commerzbank AG in London as a senior compliance advisor in 2012.  By 2015 she was being considered as a possible candidate for head of…

Mark Aspin Director and Head of Dispute Resolution The High Court has ruled that investors who had been persuaded to place money in a joint venture as a result of deceit should be compensated as if the failed project had not happened. The investment had been undertaken by Kea Investments Ltd, which placed £129m in a joint venture vehicle. The court ruled that as Kea had been induced to make the…

By Peter Stafford , Cartmell Shepherd’s Managing Director A director has been held personally liable to pay the full market value of products that had been supplied to her company shortly before it went into liquidation. The claim against the director arose from her company’s failure to pay for a cargo of sunflower oil sold to it by a supplier in October 2012. The supplier argued that it had entered into…

Scott Garson  Practice Manager Chancellor Philip Hammond has announced increases to the minimum wage rates. During his Budget speech, Mr Hammond said the National Living Wage will rise by 4.9%, from £7.83 to £8.21 from next April.  This amounts to a £690 annual pay increase for a full-time worker. These are the increases recommended by the Low Pay Commission (LPC) and accepted in full by the government.  They will come into…

Elizabeth Crouch Senior Solicitor A landlord has succeeded in legal action to prevent a leaseholder letting out his flat on short-term lets using websites such as Airbnb. The landlord was the freeholder of a building which had been converted into flats. Many of the flats had been sub-let by the leaseholders on assured shorthold tenancies, usually for a minimum of six months. One of the tenants started using his flat…

Mark Aspin, Director and Head of Dispute Resolution The government is urging businesses to highlight their experiences of late payment and put forward ideas to ensure earlier settlement, especially by large companies. One in four UK businesses say that late payments are a threat to their survival.  Research by the Federation of Small Businesses suggests that prompt payments could add £2.5 billion to the UK economy and keep an extra…