Royal Mail Estates is suing solicitors Maples Teesdale for more than £5m, aiming to make the firm foot the bill after a £20m Kensington property sale fell through.
In particulars of claim filed at the high court, Royal Mail Estates says that in 2008 it agreed to sell a property at 24 Earls Court Road, Kensington, for £20m to an offshore company to be nominated by Borzou Shirazi, who instructed Maples Teesdale to act for him.
Contracts exchanged on 19 December 2008, but Royal Mail Estates says that the nominated company, Kensington Gateway Holdings Ltd, was not incorporated until two months later. As a result, it claims that Maples Teesdale were personally liable under the agreement.
Royal Mail Estates says that, within 30 days of it providing a confirmation notice to the effect that it would be able to vacate the premises, the buyer had to pay a £2m deposit, with completion due within six months of the confirmation date.
It claims it first served a confirmation notice on 23 September 2010, a second on 24 November 2010 and a third on 7 February 2011.
However, it alleges that no deposit was paid and the agreement was repudiated.
In November 2012, the property was sold to Minerva Properties for £14.9m, and Royal Mail Estates seeks to recover the difference in the two sale prices from Maples Teesdale, plus interest.
In a defence also filed at the court, the solicitors say that Royal Mail Estates is seeking to use statutory provisions aimed at protecting parties from being prejudiced by contracting with non-existent corporate entities to secure a “windfall benefit” at their expense.
They brand the claim “opportunistic, legally misconceived and wholly lacking in merit”.
Royal Mail Estates Ltd v Maples Teesdale (a partnership)
HC-2014-001096
Claim issued by Benjamin Barrison of DLA Piper UK LLP
