Entrepreneur and hotelier Alexander Langsam has lost a £2m professional negligence claim against his former solicitor Beachcroft LLP.
Langsam, owner of the Britannia Hotels Group, had claimed that, based on negligent advice from Beachcroft, he agreed to settle a previous professional negligence claim against his former accountants, Hacker Young, for only £1m.
He said that, were it not for Beachcroft’s alleged negligence, he would have recovered around £3m from Hacker Young at trial, or by way of an enhanced settlement.
However, Roth J rejected Langsam’s claim that Beachcroft had negligently failed to disagree with advice from leading counsel Edward Bartley Jones QC as to the worth of the claim against Hacker Young.
The judge said that Bartley Jones had advised that the case involved a number of permutations, and that while Langsam was likely to recover substantially more than £700,000, there was a risk he could recover less.
He ruled that this advice, though cautious, was not negligent, adding: “I do not think it can possibly be said that no competent and experienced counsel would have taken the same view as Mr Bartley Jones.”
Ruling that Beachcroft was not negligent in failing to disagree, he said: “I have no doubt that he was not clearly or obviously wrong such that even an experienced litigation solicitor was under a duty to dissociate himself from Bartley Jones’ view and advise the client accordingly.”
The judge also dismissed Beachcroft’s counterclaim for £214,000 plus interest it said was still owing under a conditional fee agreement.
Langsam v Beachcroft LLP and others Chancery Court (Roth J) 9 June 2011
John Wardell QC and Rupert Reed appeared for the claimant; Stephen Moriarty QC and Derrick Dale QC (instructed by Reynolds Porter Chamberlain) for the defendants.
