The appellant bank instructed the respondent solicitors to act in relation to a £3.3m re-mortgage on behalf of themselves and the borrowers. The borrowers’ property (the property) was already subject to a first charge in favour of Barclays. A part of the respondent’s instructions was to redeem the outstanding Barclays mortgage and to secure a first charge against the property in the appellant’s favour.
Due to an oversight, the respondents paid only £1,23m of the outstanding £1.5m Barclays loan and then transferred the balance to the borrowers. Having realised their error, the resp...
Continue reading "Remedies: Hitting the target"
The claimant Arthur Watts (Arthur) sued his brother James Watts (James) in respect of trust transactions in 1998.
In 1967 Geoffrey Watts, the father of Arthur and James, made a settlement in favour of his children and grandchildren. In 1976 this trust fund was split into separate trust funds for each of Geoffrey’s children. James was one of the trustees of Arthur’s trust fund. The main beneficiaries were Arthur in his lifetime and thereafter his legitimate children. Clause 4 allowed the trustees to pay all the capital to Arthur if they considered it to be to his advantage...
Mr Mikhaylyuk (M), a manager for the first respondent, NOUK, with responsibility for negotiating the charters of vessels owned by companies within the Novoship group, the remaining respondents, owed fiduciary duties to all the respondents. M had arranged a series of schemes by which he defrauded his principals and enriched himself and others by the payment of bribes given to him by those who chartered his principals’ vessels. These schemes included one concerning vessels chartered to companies owned and controlled by Mr Ruperti (R) which R then sub-chartered at substantially higher rates...
Abbey National Building Society (now Santander UK PLC) (A) agreed to lend £150,000 to an individual (V) for the purpose of purchasing a property subject to taking a first legal charge. RA Legal Solicitors (R) conducted the conveyancing, acting for both V and A. The vendor’s solicitors (S) were a real firm but acted dishonestly falsely representing that they acted for the vendor. On 17 July 2009 A transferred £150,000 (plus fees) to RA’s bank account. S notified an account to which the completion monies should be sent and on 28 July 2009 S purported to exchange and complete and RA arrange...
In 2007 the defendant Mr Jimenez (J) became involved in the development of a golf course in France and gathered together a number of investors including the claimant Mr Wise (W), then a close friend of his, who provided £500,000 to invest in the project. The money was procured by means of a loan from Coutts and Co of £350,000 together with funds from two other accounts held by W. It was transferred to the account of a dormant company, the second defendant, CD Investments Ltd (CDI) set up by W and now in liquidation, and hence to an account with HiFX in J’s name in the form of €...
In 2006, Drs Ravindra and Salma Sondhi applied to the claimant (AIB) for a loan of £3.3m, to be secured against their private home, in order to provide finance for their business. The application stated that the Sondhis’ home was worth £4.5m but was subject to an existing mortgage in favour of Barclays Bank to secure an outstanding loan of £1.5m. AIB agreed to the loan but required security over the Sondhis’ home in the form of first legal charge. AIB instructed the defendant (MRC) to act for it in connection with the remortgage and provided MRC with a facility letter which s...
The second defendant (Mr Mosley) appealed against the judgment of Deputy Master Bartlett of 9 May 2012 dismissing his application to strike out the claim brought against him by the claimant (Mr Popley). Mr Popley’s father had caused a trust known as the Blue Ridge Trust (the trust) to be settled in St Vincent and the Grenandines. The shares in the first defendant company (Atem) were held by the third defendant corporate trustee on the terms of the trust. In 2000, Atem purchased White Owl Barn, Tenterden, Kent. Atem remained legal and beneficial owner of the property until 2011. In ...
Continue reading "Secret Commissions: Unauthorised profits"
The first defendant (Mr Woodward) and the second defendant (Ms Ilett) were the trustees of two pension schemes (the Pennines and the Mendip Retirement Benefit Schemes) established by deeds of trust dated 23 August and 9 September 2011. A scheme for ‘pensions liberation’ was devised and implemented by and for Mr Woodward and John Davies (Mr Davies) utilising the third, fourth and fifth defendants, which were entities controlled by them. Members of other pension schemes were encouraged to transfer the cash equivalent of their benefits to Mr Woodward and Ms Ilett as trustees of the Pennines...