The Court of Appeal in London ruled today that more than 130 investors in Northern Powerhouse property development projects can bring a multi-million-pound claim for negligence against a law firm.
The three-judge panel said the investors can bring their claim against law firm Williams & Co Solicitors as one case, on a single claim form, massively reducing the cost of litigating the dispute.
If they had lost, each claimant would have had to have brought a separate case and would have been obliged to pay a £5,000 court fee to file it. This, according to the ruling, might have forced some of them to abandon their case.
According to the ruling, the case centres on nine development opportunities across England promoted by companies associated with Northern Powerhouse Development between 2017 and 2020.
Investors were to be granted leases of units as part of the project. Northern Powerhouse nominated solicitors to advise the developers. In the investment pack the solicitors said they would explain the effect of any important document and advise of any risk that the solicitors were aware of, or was reasonably foreseeable.
“The claimants’ core case is that the solicitors’ advice failed to warn of the risks of completion not taking place, and of the dissipation of the investment deposits in the meantime. These were the risks which eventuated. The guarantees were mostly provided by associated companies without sufficient assets to honour them,” the ruling said.
According to the ruling, Williams & Co has yet to file a formal defence to the claim.
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