News & Events
News & Events
Outer Temple’s Lydia Seymour analyses the recent decision in CRAFT v POPE. Directors’ Duties – remedies when property is taken in breach of duty. Lydia Seymour, who was instructed by Hugh James, acted for the successful Claimant in CRAFT (Ceredigion Recycling and Furniture Team), an important Chancery Division decision on remedies in cases involving misappropriation of company assets by Directors. This is a useful decision on how remedies should be determined in a situation in which company directors have wrongfully converted company property to themselves—should the property simply be returned in full, or is it open to the directors to argue that they should have credit for sums that they would have received had they acted in accordance with their duties? In this…
Commercial, Legal Blog & Publications 26 Sep, 2022
The Court of Appeal has just handed down judgment in Dwyer (UK Franchising) Ltd v Fredbar Ltd & Bartlett [2022] EWCA Civ 889 in which David E. Grant QC and Anson Cheung appeared for the successful respondents. This is the most detailed consideration yet by the courts of the enforceability of post-termination restrictions in franchise agreements. Background to the Appeal The First Respondent, Fredbar Ltd, was a franchisee of the “Drain Doctor” brand licensed by the Appellant, Dwyer, which claimed to be the UK’s largest full-service network of emergency plumbing and drainage operations and part of the world’s largest home service franchise. Fredbar and the Second Respondent, Mr Bartlett (the sole director and employee of Fredbar and guarantor under the franchise agreement)…
Commercial, News 30 Jun, 2022
Following David E. Grant QC’s previous instruction acting for the defendant in Dwyer (UK Franchising) Limited v Fredbar Limited [2021] EWHC 1218 (Ch), he will be appearing in the Court of Appeal leading Anson Cheung, on Tuesday 24th May. Details of the case The Claimant, Dwyer (UK Franchising) Limited, appeals paragraph 3 of the order of Jones J sitting as a High Court Judge at the Business and Property Courts dated 17 May 2021 by which he declared that the restrictive covenants contained in clauses 18.2.1.1, 18.2.1.2, 19.3.1 and 18.3.2 are unenforceable as between the Claimant and each of the Defendants to whom those sub-clauses apply and the Claimant’s claim for injunctive relief is dismissed. The Claimant is the franchisor…
Legal Blog & Publications, Commercial, News 23 May, 2022
In syndicated lending it is common for lenders to delegate functions to an Agent and equally common for companies within a group to authorise the parent to act on their behalf. That has ramifications for the directors of the delegating companies – and for the directors of the delegate. This article, written by Helen Pugh, considers the issues which may arise. A common feature of syndicated loans is the role of Agent and the delegation bycompanies of functions in connection with the syndicated loans. In most cases, delegation will be a lawful and commercially pragmatic act. But there are pitfalls for the unsuspecting director who remains personally responsible for discharging his director’s duties to the company. Delegation should be thoroughly…
Commercial, News 12 May, 2022
We are delighted to welcome Edward Morgan QC to our business team. Ed joins us with a well-established practice focused on employment law, commercial law, disciplinary and regulatory work. He is also an accredited Mediator and Arbitrator. Ed studied in Northern England (LLB and LLM) and Belgium (JCL, PhD and JCD). He was called to the Bar of England & Wales in 1989 and the Bar of Northern Ireland in 2000. He was appointed silk in 2021. His judicial appointments include fee-paid Employment Judge and Assistant Coroner. Ed’s expertise is widely recognised; he regularly writes case reviews for LexisNexis and professional book reviews for specialist journals, including the Ecclesiastical Law Journal and the Canon Law Society of Great Britain and…
Commercial, News, Employment 27 Apr, 2022
The case of Brownlie II highlighted a number of jurisdiction questions. Joshua Cainer acted as a Junior on the case and takes a look at the implications of the decision on commercial law. Joshua Cainer considers some of the outstanding questions about jurisdiction in commercial cases relying on claims in tort following the Supreme Court’s decision in FS Cairo (Nile Plaza) LLC v Lady Brownlie [2021] UKSC 45, [2021] 3 WLR 1011 (‘Brownlie II’). Whilst that case concerned a claim for personal injury, it is likely to have effects on cases involving questions of private international law in a far broader range of practice areas, particularly commercial law. This is a case brought by Lady Christine Brownlie, both in her…
Legal Blog & Publications, Commercial 8 Apr, 2022
Lloyd’s of London has today issued a Public Censure, the first of its kind, against Atrium Underwriting Limited relating to non-financial misconduct by employees and failures by Atrium in the way in which it responded to allegations of misconduct. In regulatory Market Bulletin Y5252, Lloyd’s set out its policy in relation to conduct involving harassment, bullying, discrimination, and consumption of alcohol or drugs at work. The Bulletin makes clear that in addition to the actions of individuals, of “equal importance is the culture of the firm for whom the individual works and whether it supports or tolerates a culture of unacceptable personal behaviour towards others.” The proceedings against Atrium were brought as a result of serious failures by the firm including failures…
Commercial, News 16 Mar, 2022
Helen Pugh acted for the successful applicants, Crimson Flower Productions Ltd and others, who were seeking the maximum extension of 2 years to an existing extended civil restraint order in Re: Glass Slipper. The respondents were various companies within the ‘Glass Slipper group’ and their sole director who had persistently sought to re-litigate a dispute they had with Crimson Flower Productions Ltd arising out of the production of a Film in ‘Swan Lake’ by the Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg. That dispute had been decided definitively in favour of Crimson Flower, one of the applicants, a number of years ago in IPEC proceedings. Trower J’s order extending the ECRO demonstrates the flexibility and breadth of the ECRO jurisdiction. Noting there was…
Insolvency & Restructuring, News 15 Mar, 2022
Andrew Spink QC, Helen Pugh and Chloë Bell have been successful in major bitcoin fraud case Ellis v Digit Europe Ltd. In Ellis v Digit Europe Limited the claimant alleged he had been the victim of a multi-million pound, complex fraud perpetrated by a web of persons unknown and sham companies purporting to offer bitcoin investment and management services. In December and January the claimant obtained worldwide freezing orders against alleged recipients of bitcoin identified following a tracing exercise on the blockchain which led to deposit addresses on the Kraken exchange.A fully contested return date due to be heard on Thursday 3 March by Mr Justice Jacobs raised wide ranging issues including a challenge to the now familiar view that…
Commercial, News 9 Mar, 2022
Lydia Seymour recently acted for the successful Respondent in CRAFT v Pope & Others [2022] EWCA Civ 22, which considered the extent to which a company could subsequently challenge the decisions of sole Directors and Members to award themselves company property. CRAFT brought claims for breach of directors’ duties and breach of fiduciary duty against its former directors/members who had awarded themselves company property in circumstances in which the company’s constitution prevented distribution of its assets. The Defendants had asserted that they could not be in breach of any duty to the company because the interests of the company should be equated to the interests of the sole members/directors, and further that the company could not bring any claim in…
Commercial, News, Pensions 9 Feb, 2022
Outer Temple Chambers is delighted to welcome Henry Reid to our commercial law team. Henry Reid’s practice covers a wide array of commercial, chancery and financial services matters with an emphasis on commercial litigation, contentious and non-contentious financial services, regulatory investigations and banking law. A former pupil of Outer Temple, Henry returns to us after building a career in both legal services and financial services. He recently spent five years at Signature Litigation LLP, a specialist law firm handling major and complex litigation, arbitration and regulatory investigations. During his time there, Henry worked on a number of significant matters, most notably on disputes in the Commercial Court concerning civil fraud, banking and finance and professional negligence as well as advising…
Commercial, News, Financial Services 11 Jan, 2022
Andrew Spink QC will join a panel discussion on recent developments and future trends in the regulation of cryptoassets. The webinar will be held on Thursday 7th October from 5.45pm to 7pm and is open to all FSLA members.The panel event will chaired by Charlotte Hill, head of Taylor Wessing’s UK Financial Services Regulatory group and will feature the following speakers: Andrew Spink QC, Outer Temple ChambersKatie Fry-Paul, Associate at Taylor Wessing LLPRichard Fox, Head of Markets Policy at the Financial Conduct AuthorityJannah Patchay, Director and Founder of Markets Evolution. The 1 hour webinar will focus on the latest developments, future trends and areas of concern in the fast evolving and increasingly important field of crypto-regulation. The webinar will be of interest…
Commercial, News 7 Oct, 2021
