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Judge urges compromise in bitter property dispute over Cumbrian zoo

A High Court judge hearing a bitter property dispute between the current and former operators of South Lakes Safari Zoo in Dalton-in-Furness, Cumbria, has urged the parties to overcome their differences and stop spending money that could be used for animal welfare on a court battle motivated by personal animosity.

The owner of the zoo, Cumbrian Zoo Company, is in dispute with company connected with the zoo’s former operator, David Rivera. As part of the 2017 transfer of the zoo, Rivera leased the new owner some of his land. In 2018, the company that formerly ran the zoo went into administration. This led to corporate recovery agents drawing up an inventory of assets, many of which Rivera claimed.

Specifically, Rivera claimed ownership of a narrow-gauge steam engine called Thomas 2 and a yellow digger. He sought entry to the land under the terms of the lease to recover them, at one point using the police.

The case escalated into a High Court dispute, aspects of which went to trial in Manchester in October.

The ruling, handed down late last month by HH Judge Pearce, found the new owner “probably” sold the engine and scrapped the digger. He found the new owner had “probably” not acted dishonestly when it did this, but “probably” later lied about doing it.

And he urged both parties to put the dispute behind them.

“I finish this judgment with a plea to the parties and others involved in the case to try to bridge their remaining differences without the expense of further litigation,” he said.

“Any observer of this dispute cannot fail to be horrified by the course of this litigation. Large amounts of time and money, which could be put to the cause of animal welfare, are instead being spent on the pursuit of obscure legal argument, seemingly motivated by bad feeling between various people.”

He continued: “Added to the unnecessary waste of time and cost is the human price of this kind of dispute.”

He said some of the litigants have clearly been “badly bruised by the dispute”. “If this litigation proceeds, those involved are only likely to be more severely affected by it,” he said.

The zoo previously made headlines in 2013 when a Sumatran tiger mauled 24-year-old keeper Sarah McClay to death. The zoo admitted health and safety breaches, while individual charges against Rivera, then known as David Gill, were dropped.


Cumbria Zoo Company Ltd v The Zoo Investment Company

Business and Property Courts in Manchester (His Honour Judge Pearce) 21 December 2022

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