![\"Court](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2.39546259.jpg\")
The Court of Session is Scotland\u2019s highest civil court (Jane Barlow\/PA)<\/p>\nJudges have ruled that a group action against car manufacturers in the so-called \u201cdieselgate\u201d case can proceed in Scotland\u2019s highest civil court.<\/p>\n
The case concerns legal action over allegations that Nissan and Renault fitted prohibited \u201cdefeat devices\u201d to diesel vehicles to get round emissions tests.<\/p>\n
Joseph Mackay applied for permission to bring group proceedings on behalf of about 8,500 people who claim to have suffered loss as a result of the manufacturers\u2019 alleged behaviour.<\/p>\n
The Lord Ordinary sitting in the Outer House of the Court of Session in Edinburgh previously granted permission for the group action to go ahead.<\/p>\n
The Court of Session is Scotland\u2019s highest civil court (Jane Barlow\/PA)<\/p>\n
However, the various Nissan companies, described as the defenders, appealed to the Inner House of the Court of Session to challenge that decision.<\/p>\n
The Lord President Lord Pentland, sitting with Lady Wise and Lord Clark, has now refused the appeal, allowing the group action to proceed.<\/p>\n
In order to begin group proceedings in Scotland, two initial applications must be made to the court, one to appoint a representative party and other for permission to bring the proposed group proceedings.<\/p>\n
Nissan contended that Mr Mackay failed to demonstrate that he was an appropriate person to be appointed as the representative party.<\/p>\n
They also argued that it was not shown that it would be more efficient for the claims to be brought as a group action rather than individually, nor that the proceedings had any real prospect of success.<\/p>\n
In an opinion delivered by Lord Pentland on Tuesday, the judges said the Lord Ordinary was \u201cfully entitled\u201d to conclude that the applicant was a \u201csuitable person to be authorised to act as the representative party in the proposed group proceedings\u201d.<\/p>\n
He wrote: \u201cIn summary, the applicant had no interest in the proceedings other than his own claim; he was wholly independent of the defenders; there was nothing to suggest that he would act otherwise than fairly and adequately in the group\u2019s interests.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ruling notes that the Lord Ordinary\u2019s decision to authorise the bringing of group proceedings was a discretionary decision and that there is \u201cno justification\u201d for the Inner House to interfere with it.<\/p>\n
It also states that the Lord Ordinary was justified in concluding that there were \u201creal prospects of success\u201d and that it would be more efficient for the claims to be brought collectively rather than individually.<\/p>\n
Renault did not contest the Lord Ordinary\u2019s original decision.<\/p>\n
Nissan and Renault have been approached for comment.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Judges have ruled that a group action against car manufacturers in the so-called \u201cdieselgate\u201d case can proceed in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,4884,712,16,1259,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-117341","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-scotland","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-uk-news","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114540781510105939","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}