Notable Cases

Franchises

The flooding of factory premises let from a local authority in Wales, the design of the drains and responsibility for maintenance, franchise agreements particularly drain cleaning franchises.

Patents

Patent work including a patent on a pregnancy testing kit; epicerie fine, software copyright, copyright in cartoons and storyboards, bookseller franchises, copyright disputes in connection with books produced in a stock valuation context, general copyright advice.

Art

Various works of art by various artists covering ownership, authentication, fraud, escroquerie and provenance, libel and a jury trial involving four languages (French, Italian, Latin and English), art historian defamation, storage of works of art and damage while in storage

Works by various well known artists including Degas, Rubens, Michelangelo, Vasari, Francis Piccabia, Howard Carter and Baldung.

Contracts

Firearms and related supply contracts, old cannon and their preservation; commercial contracts, warranties, representations, breach, causation and damages, contracts for the provision of military equipment; metro rail systems and contracts for the provision of rolling stock, Formula 1 racing drivers, football clubs and contracts, ransom strips, contracts for the sale of a company, a business, net assets and/or goodwill, contracts for the payment of commissions, agency matters and bribery, professionals’ fees and costs, Road haulage and road freight contracts, warehousemen and their liens; supply of office furniture and related international contracts and arbitration, equity release contracts, software franchise agreements, liability arising from the failure to dispose of shares pursuant to a contract.

FSA and Stock Exchange enquiries; split capital trusts, swaps and swap agreements, pension funds and investments, claim against a PLC and its registrar for failure to distribute dividend,

Debt

Loss of aircraft, schools debt recovery, debt recovery; hotels and restaurants; IPOs, bond issues, yellow book matters.

Property investment in Cambodia, defence of claims for fees by solicitors, negligence claim against solicitors in connection with a failed bond issue, swap agreements, rights of privacy in an espalliered garden, land registration and disputes including ownership of land, boundaries and neighbours, disputes between neighbouring land owners.

Employment disputes particularly in connection with departing employees and Anton Piller or search orders; employment and partnership matters generally including notice of dissolution (aka “disillusion”), discipline and HR issues, discrimination.

Mareva or asset freezing injunctions, and asset tracing; injunctions including mandatory injunctions, claims and injunctions against broadcasters, worldwide freezing injunctions and advising both applicants and respondents to them, committal to prison for breach of injunctions, claims for injunctions for the removal of a building.

Design disputes, trade mark disputes and passing off, the design of hulls with internal propellers (for use on the Sepik River in Sarawak); trade mark infringement, financial services and trade mark and passing off disputes concerning acronyms, algorithms, matrixes and formulae, passing off and trade mark matters concerning champagne, cider, Armagnac, perry, shirts, jeans and related sales and purchase contracts, trade mark registration, trademark infringement and passing off actions against major banks, IMRO (Investment Management Regulatory Organisation) investigations, trade mark infringement and the destruction of offending materials, opposition to various trade mark applications, passing off in the music industry, passing off in the confectionery industry.

Mediations including multi-party mediations, arbitration, mediation, negotiation, litigation, blackmail, extortion, malicious prosecution, professional negligence of solicitors, barristers, actuaries, surveyors, expert witnesses including anaesthetists, insurance brokers, mortgage brokers, applied mathematicians, ceramicists, materials scientists, psychiatrists, gynaecologists, geologists, quantity surveyors, building management, hydrological engineers, breathing equipment and lifesaving equipment, spigots, sockets, compressed air and pneumatic equipment.

Competition issues in relation to the supply (or withholding of supply) of equipment, gambling and competition advice, lotteries and competitions, competition issues (withholding supply and refusal to carry advertisement).

Family trusts and breach and in that context the relevance of premenstrual tension (PMT), disputes between beneficiaries about the provisions in parents’ wills and associated family trusts, trusts and charities and their liability to local authorities.

Professional regulation matters involving the Law Society of England and Wales, the Law Society of South Africa and the Bar Council, English and South African trusts including formal, constructive, accidental and resulting trusts, pursuit of the NHS for payment to a beneficiary in South Africa of the lump sum benefit due on his mother’s death in service in the NHS, harassment of consultant by consultant within the NHS, assisting foreign lawyers and selection of appropriate expert witnesses for their local litigation.

Cross-jurisdiction enforcement of judgments and arbitration awards, sanctions and sanctions busting, coffee and coffee arbitration, asset tracing and enforcement of an arbitration award in an Ethiopian construction arbitration determined with assets found in the UK, South Africa and Botswana, tracing UK assets for South African deceased estates administrators and executors, advising South African curators bonis in connection with asset tracing and proceedings in England, advice about South African ante-nuptial contracts, matrimonial, adoption and maintenance issues, travel industry disputes, shareholders’ actions, the service in England of Edictal Citations from South Africa, advising about the matrimonial regimes respectively in South Africa and in England, warranties dispute where the documents prepared for the sale of nett assets were not corrected to reflect a policy change to the sale of goodwill.

Procedural matters such as abuse of process, civil restraint orders, representing insurers in connection with defamation and related claims against a university, website abuse and website defamation; injunction restraining broadcaster from broadcasting defamatory material; offensive postings on websites and initiatives to remove them, publication in the UK press of court papers emanating from other jurisdictions.

The use of interpreters in proceedings (including an interpreter for a deaf mute), corrupted and/or forged documents or various types including letters, telexes and faxes, gold mines and related matters, gold diggers, sugar mills and related matters, sugar daddies, racehorses and horse racing establishments.

Claims against retail banks for failure to comply with clients’ instructions, DTI investigations, passing-off claim against a high street bank arising out of an investment in a Lehman Bros product, promissory notes, dishonoured cheques, bills of exchange, shared appreciation mortgages (he succeeded in the only case to go to trial).

Acting for claims handlers in cross-jurisdiction insurance matters including Ciguatera, insurance broking, claims against insurance brokers, schemes of arrangement in the insurance industry, theft and under insurance of classic cars including Ferrari and Aston Martin, representing insurer in holiday insurance claims, representing tour operator, insurance and claim against broker in negligence regarding policy.

Collapsing cranes, medical negligence, claims against the Policyholders’ Protection Fund for clients whose claims otherwise would fail against a company in liquidation, local authority grants and their permitted uses, professional conduct matters before the General Optical Council and Opticians.

Limitation (prescription or statute-barring) period disputes including the commencement of the limitation period against a guarantor or third party or Part 20 defendant.

French property agency, supervision of Anton Piller (search) orders on behalf of other solicitors, the conduct of proceedings on an agency basis for non-London colleagues.

Easements concerning drains and fences, property owners’ claims against railway companies, fresh fruit and vegetables, catering and provisions for aircraft, failure to proceed with planning applications in time.

Acting in deceased estates under CPR 19.8 (where no personal representative has been appointed), probate disputes, property investment disputes, service charges, salmonella in the restaurant industry, insurance claims, edible oils, disputes with HMRC about income tax, inheritance tax, capital gains tax, PAYE, VAT, duties and excise, enduring and lasting powers of attorney, intestate estates.

Changes of name by deed poll, authentication of documents for use in foreign courts, SPVs (special purpose vehicles), enforcement of foreign judgments and awards, notarial execution of documents.

Franchises and dealership contracts, software franchise agreements, buyers and suppliers’ contracts in the travel industry, distribution agreements – whiteboards – registered design rights particularly in the surgical appliances industry, Revenue sharing agreements, universities, parts (genuine, generic, counterfeit goods, and associated claims), loan recovery between members of a family on insufficient security, loans, security and recovery, loan recovery, retail petrol industry, computer systems and forecourt appliances, prototype equipment and malfunction, receiverships, wasted costs, contingency and conditional funding arrangements and third party funding.

Subsidence claims, reconstruction of subsided buildings on stilts, construction disputes (domestic and commercial), cross-jurisdictional construction disputes, property developers and property developments in the UK and abroad, assisting clients with claims brought against them in foreign jurisdictions.

International sporting events tickets sales, taking evidence on deposition, commissions of enquiry, taking evidence on commission, constitutional issues relating to international sporting events, lottery advice, money laundering.

Committal to prison for breach of injunction, committal to prison of Defendants for failure to supply information about assets; asset tracing and representing those resisting asset tracing, advice to a widow and protection from the creditors of her late husband’s estate regarding worldwide assets, assets of morganatic members of a royal family; air cargo, commercial transport by air including passengers on Concorde, day-old chicks, piglets and a pelvis, prosecuting claim in disputed estate against executors for wasting estate assets and their solicitors for failure to comply with a Beddoe Order, liability of trustees, responsibility of potential witnesses and risk of liability, enforcement of matrimonial orders, phone tapping, the design of “draw-bar” commercial vehicles.

Liability of supplier of lubricants and/or installer for incorrectly using vegetable clutch fluid in place of mineral clutch fluid, liability of motor manufacturer regarding defective air bags, liability of a classic car business for destruction of the car entrusted to them.

Representing a liveried company in connection with a claim against solicitors/surveyors in connection with property purchased at auction, restoring companies to the register for the purposes of suing them (including restoring prospective claimant company to the register in order to enable it to sue another company which also had to be restored to the register and all within 3 weeks over Christmas), bankruptcy and winding-up proceedings, changes of Memorandum and Articles and claims arising.

Solicitors’ liability for failure to advise in connection with leasehold enfranchisement, window cleaning equipment (tracks and cradles) and liability of user, LOLER (Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998), building owner, installer and maintainer.

Appeals in the Court of Appeal and House of Lords (and Supreme Court).

Partnership and related disputes, hotel refurbishment, dealings with restaurant and hotel chattels on disposal of the business, dilapidations claims, wayleaves, collapsing buildings near Blackwall, pallets, payments made in error and without consideration.

Data Protection Act advice, enquiries and claims, invoice factoring, forged telexes, forged solicitors’ letters, forged emails, fire engines, turntable ladders, diving equipment, rock crushing equipment, private international law disputes regarding differing interest rates and exchange rate fluctuations.