Chartbrook directors agree to pay Persimmon’s costs

The two directors of Chartbrook, which last year in the House of Lords lost a £4.1m profit-share dispute with its former development partner Persimmon Homes, today agreed to pay the latter’s legal costs. Norris J approved a consent order agreed between Persimmon and the Chartbrook directors, Robert Reeve and Stephen Vantreen, under which the two men will pay Persimmon’s costs of the proceedings in the High Court, Court of Appeal and House of Lords. The total figure will be assessed at a later date if not agreed between the parties. The judge said that the consent order related to an “expensive set of proceedings”. Julian Greenhill, counsel for Persimmon, said that his client was seeking not only £1.6m in legal costs but also £750,000 that it had to pay in legal costs earlier in the proceedings. In July 2009,  the House of Lords unanimously allowed Persimmon’s appeal against a High Court order under which it had to pay £4.1m to Chartbrook in respect of a multi-million-pound south London housing development. Itoverturned the ruling that a profit-share agreement on the Centre Square scheme in Hardwicks Way, London SW18, meant that Chartbrook should have been paid £4.6m. Chartbrook Ltd v Persimmon Homes Ltd and another Chancery Division (Norris J) 15 April 2010. Christopher Nugee QC and Julian Greenhill (instructed by Mayer Brown International LLP) appeared for Persimmon; Roger Mallalieu (instructed by Sprecher Grier Halberstam LLP) appeared for Reeve and Vantreen.