The Court of Appeal has decided a bitter dispute between two former partners in a Wiltshire surveying firm, which it described as “a disaster for both”.
Rix LJ dismissed an appeal brought by surveyor Mark Foster against a High Court finding that his former partner, Graham Bryant, had not been in breach of his ‘fiduciary’ duty after he resigned and began working for their firm’s main client.
In 2003, Bryant went into partnership with Foster and to form Foster Bryant Surveying. Their main cient was Alliance Leisure.
Foster and Bryant’s relationship deteriorated during 2004 and Bryant consequently resigned in November after Foster informed him that he was making Bryant’s wife, also a surveyor at the firm, redundant by giving only eight days notice.
Subsequently, the managing director of
She proposed to share the work between Foster and Bryant, but Foster refused and sued Bryant.
At trial, Foster alleged that Bryant was guilty of serious dishonesty in that he had solicited
Foster appealed after Judge Richard Seymour QC, sitting as a High Court judge, rejected that contention and found that Bryant had not breached any duty.
Dismissing the appeal, Rix LJ said: “Bryant’s resignation had no ulterior purpose. In human terms… it was forced on him by Foster’s hostile and truculent manner and the sacking of Mrs Bryant.”
He added: “[Bryant] did not seek to divert to himself any maturing business opportunity or even a possible business opportunity. It was, rather, a customer-led initiative to find a solution to the problem caused to that customer by the departure of the Bryants from the company.”
Foster Bryant Surveying Ltd and another v Bryant and another Court of Appeal (Buxton, Rix and Moses LJJ) 13 March 2007.
Richard Lord QC (instructed by Blandy & Blandy, of
