A supermarket war at Borden, Hampshire, in which Somerfield is taking on competitor Lidl over the building of a rival store on Somerfields own car park, is heading for the High Court.
A writ issued in a long running battle between the two, and just made publicly available at Londons High Court, says the site of the Lidl store at the Forest Shopping Centre in Borden was part of Somerfield’s car park.
In the writ, first issued in July 2000 at Bristol County Court against both Lidl and site landlords The Fairbourne Limited Partnership, Somerfield originally sought to block Lidle building the store. In the light of recent moves the writ has now been transferred to Londons High Court,
Somerfield claims in the writ that it was entitled to 225 car parking spaces on the land and initially sought a High Court order that Lidl restore the car park to the condition it was in before building work began. However, since the writ was issued, the Lidl store has been completed and Somerfield is not seeking a order for its demolition.
Now, agreement has been reached on some aspects of the case, but Somerfield is seeking damages in respect of the impact it says the store has had in respect of the parking problems.
The writ says Fairbourne sold part of the land at the shopping centre to Lidl in May 2000, and Lidl closed off some spaces to start work. However, Somerfield claims that under its 35-year lease it was entitled to use 225 spaces, and that the work done by Lidl reduced its available spaces to fewer than 190.
Somerfield claimed this was a wrongful and unlawful breach of its lease and is seeking damages for derogation of grant.
EGi News 06/02/02
