A High Court judge has given the go-ahead for the trial of the City of
Proudman J rejected an application by business information provider Thomson Financial and accountant Deloitte to vacate the trial date of 1 February 2010 so that their separate claim for judicial review could be heard first.
Thomson, which is demanding more than £800,000 from the Corporation, as well as damages and interest, claims that, in 1997, the valuation officer (VO) responsible for the City altered the local lists, changing its offices at Aldgate House, London EC3, from two separate properties to one.
It says that the VO used “transitional arrangements”, which were introduced in 1994 non-domestic rating regulations, that said that rates on any properties merged on or after 1 April 1995 should be increased or decreased in phases.
Thomson claims that its offices were merged prior to these regulations so it should have received the benefit of its new lower rateable value immediately.
A similar £3m claim was filed by Deloitte against the Corporation over its offices at
Last week, the two firms filed a judicial review application challenging the decision of the VO after the latter accepted in a letter that he had used the wrong regulations.
After hearing submissions from the parties, the judge ruled that because the outcome of the judicial review proceedings would not be determinative of the proceedings the trial must go ahead.
