A couple who were fired from their jobs as wedding planners but refused to leave the country estate where the business was based must pay more than £200,000 for more than four years of trespass, a High Court judge ruled.
Nihal and Andrew Brake had built an exclusive wedding and event business which they ran from West Axnoller Farm near Beaminster, Dorset. They sold the estate and business to medical cannabis entrepreneur Geoffrey Guy in 2017. They continued to run it as employees, and Guy allowed the couple to continue to live on the farm in between events .
However in November 2018, the relationship between Guy and the Brakes broke down. Guy dismissed them but the Brakes refused to leave the main house, refused to remove their horses from the riding area on the grounds, and refused to pay for the use of the estate.
This led to more than four year of litigation and during most of that time the Brakes “roamed widely over the whole property,” trial judge Judge Paul Matthews wrote in his ruing on damages, handed down on Friday. He said the case was about “trespass of a rather unusual nature”.
While litigation is still ongoing between the parties, the Brakes finally left the house in April 2022 in response to a court order.
In his ruling, the judge said Guy was claiming payment for 1,263 days’ use of the house and 1,218 days’ use of the riding arena.
The judge ordered that they pay £236,818 plus interest calculated at 8% per year.
“Although the award of interest is a matter of discretion by the court, to be determined judicially, I am satisfied that in the present case it is entirely appropriate,” the judge said in his ruling.
“They had the benefit of the use of the property from almost the end of 2018 to the spring of 2022, during which they had no need to pay for anywhere else to live or indeed for the utilities needed to run it. The evidence is that they drove, walked and rode horses over it as they wished. They deliberately deprived the claimant of the use of the house and the arena during the same time,” he said in his ruling.
“Lastly, the defendants kept the claimant at bay during this time by obtaining repeated adjournments of the trial, eventually making an entirely unsuccessful case to remain, buttressed by what I found to be ‘a web of lies’ at trial… this in my judgment is a clear case for interest to be awarded as sought,” the judge said.
Chedington Events Ltd v Nihal Mohammed Kamal Brake and Andrew Young Brake
Business and Property Courts in Bristol (HHJ Paul Matthews) 10 November 2023
