Three cases involving four members of Essex Court Chambers are featured in The Lawyer’s Top 10 Appeals with proceedings set to be heard in court during 2024. The list includes cases with significant sums in dispute as well as disputes involving high profile parties or issues. The cases involving members of Essex Court Chambers are as follows:
Welfare of Chickens
- In the Court of Appeal for one and a half days in April 2024
- Edward Brown KC acting for the appellant Advocates for Animals
In May 2023 the appellant argued that the main breed of meat chicken kept in the UK should not be farmed due to genetic health and welfare issues. As such, the League claimed that Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs had failed to properly enforce welfare regulations, an affirmation the judge refused to uphold. The Humane League are now appealing this decision, on what the RSPCA has called “the biggest issue for animal welfare in this country”.
Celestial Aviation Services v Unicredit Bank AG; Constitution Aircraft Leasing (Ireland) 3 and another v Unicredit Bank AG
- In the Court of Appeal for two days in May 2024
- James Sheehan acting for the defendant/appellant UniCredit Bank
This battle over letters of credit (LCs) will have wide implications for the application of sanction regimes, both against Russia and other countries. The appeal will consider the impact of sanctions not just on LCs but on pre-existing obligations between parties and US sanctions’ on English law governed contracts.
London International Exhibition Centre v Allianz and others
- In the Court of Appeal for four or five days in June 2024
- Jeffrey Gruder KC and Mubarak Waseem acting for the respondents/appellants Hairlab and Kaizen Cuisine
Returning to the Court of Appeal for a second time, following the ExCel Centre being temporarily converted into a Nightingale Hospital in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic and the centre invoked an insurance claim for disease on the premises. ExCel was joined by several other claimants, including bars and restaurants, to eventually win a ruling in their favour in June 2023 and unlocking access for potentially hundreds of thousands of policyholders across the UK whose “on the premises” disease clauses remained unpaid. June’s hearing is set to determine the insurers liability.
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