Inntrepreneur Beer Supply Co Ltd and Inntrepreneur Pub Co (CPC) have successfully challenged a High Court decision in which the tenant of a Hampshire pub was awarded £20,930 in damages and interest for breach of a contract to renew a lease.
Robert Walker LJ said that he allowed the challenge “with considerable regret”.
“The appellants’ conduct in 1991 marked a deplorable deterioration in standards of fair dealing that ought to have prevailed in relationships between landlords and tenants in the licensed trade,” he said.
In January 1992 Barry Plummer tried to exercise an option under his five-year lease of the Deers Hut, Liphook, Hampshire, to renew for a further five years, subject to conditions. This was refused by Inntrepreneur and Plummer subsequently accepted the offer of a 20-year lease.
Plummer took a five-year lease in 1986. In 1992 he sought to exercise his option to renew for a further five years.
Aldous LJ ruled that the effect of Plummers surrender of the five-year lease had been to relinquish his right to occupy the property under its terms.
He added that, in the circumstances he had compromised his claim to a renewal and that the High Court judge was wrong to award damages. He said the fact that no claim had been made for four years implied that Mr Plummer himself thought that his rights had been compromised.
Plummer v TIBSCO Ltd and another Court of Appeal (Aldous, Robert Walker and Keene LJJ) 31 January 2002
PLS News 05/02/02
