The founder of estate agent Bairstow Eves has won a key Court of Appeal victory in his ongoing bid to avoid being disqualified from acting as a company director.
John Bairstow, who is also the former chairman and joint managing director of the Queen’s Moat House (QMH) hotel group, has successfully argued that the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry cannot rely upon the findings of a damning 1999 High Court judgment in proceedings to disqualify Bairstow from being a director.
In the 1999 judgment, which ran to 468 pages, Nelson J refused Bairstow’s claim against QMH for wrongful dismissal, ruling that he and three other directors had been guilty of “grave misconduct in their management of the company”.
The Secretary of State had sought to rely upon Nelson J’s findings of fact in disqualification proceedings against Bairstow issued under section 8 of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986. The proceedings were commenced on the ground that Bairstow’s conduct in relation to QMH rendered him unfit to be involved in the management of a company.
A disqualification order would prohibit Bairstow from acting, without the court’s permission, as a director, liquidator, receiver or property manager of a company, or from being concerned, or taking part directly or indirectly, in the formation, promotion or management of a company.
The High Court ruled that the Secretary of State could rely upon the earlier judgment. However, Bairstow yesterday succeeded in his Appeal Court challenge to that ruling. Sir Andrew Morritt V-C ruled that the Secretary of State must prove the “serious allegations” he has made with regard to Bairstow’s conduct.
The judge said that as Nelson J’s ruling had been made in a civil case to which the Secretary of State was not a party, his factual findings were not binding upon the parties to these proceedings.
Secretary of State for Trade and Industry v Bairstow and others Court of Appeal (Sir Andrew Morritt V-C and Potter and Hale LJJ) 11 March 2003.
Charles Purle QC (instructed by Jones Day Gouldens) appeared for the appellant; Michael Todd QC and Philip Gillyon (instructed by the Treasury Solicitor) appeared for the respondent.
References: PLS News 12/3/03
