Dear Colleagues,

During its first year, the UK Supreme Court has not decided many cases on the law of obligations (although some appeals are pending) but it has today decided one which might be of some interest: Star Energy Weald Basin Limited v Bocardo SA [2010] UKSC 35 http://www.supremecourt.gov.uk/docs/UKSC_2009_0032_Judgmentv2.pdf. The Court was unanimous in upholding the claim for trespass against a company that had extended its drilling for oil underneath the claimant's land. Lord Hope endorses the applicability of the maxim cuius est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos: although his Lordship notes that there must be some limit, the broad proposition is that "the owner of the surface is the owner of the strata beneath it, including the minerals that are to be found there, unless there has been an alienation of them by a conveyance, at common law or by statute to someone else". There is also a point about the relevance of possession.

A point which divided the Court was over the proper assessment of the damages. A statutory scheme applied, and so the broader significance of the decision is somewhat limited, but the minority (for whom Lord Clarke gave the main opinion on this point) would have awarded damages on the common law user/wayleave basis.

Another case handed down today is Morrison Sports Limited v Scottish Power [2010] UKSC 37, a Scots case on the relatively short point of whether a private cause of action could be maintained on the basis of a breach of Electricity Supply Regulations 1988: the Court held that it could not.

Best wishes,

James

--

James Lee

Lecturer

Director of the LLB Programme

Birmingham Law School

University of Birmingham

Edgbaston

Birmingham

 B152TT, United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)121 414 3629

E-mail: j.s.f.lee@bham.ac.uk