Alan Chatham and Mark Billingham’s Birmingham Mailbox company has taken a former consultant to court in a bid to prevent him from revealing sensitive information to his new company – Mailbox’s opponent in a separate High Court conflict.
David Simons was employed as an associate director by project manager Atkins Faithful & Gould (AFG), which provided litigation support to Birmingham Mailbox over a dispute with contractor Carillion.
The dispute dates back to December 2000 and concerns unfinished work on Birmingham Mailbox’s £150m flagship mixed-use Mailbox scheme in Birmingham.
In January this year, Simons quit Atkins and moved to Halesowen-based Quantex Consulting, which advised Carillion.
The writ, issued on 20 September, said Simons took with him sensitive information gleaned during his work with Mailbox.
He sat just 10ft away from desks used by Chatham and Billingham and, it is claimed, overheard their conversations and had access to confidential paper and computer records.
The writ claimed that Simons was aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the dispute, as well as Mailbox’s strategies, tactics, financial position and remedies against Carillion.
The situation came to a head when Simons attended a two-day meeting in August to discuss the dispute.
When Mailbox objected to his presence, Simons admitted he was advising Carillion on Mailbox’s claims on defects at the Royal Mail Street scheme.
Simons claimed that during his time at Mailbox he had not been involved in advising it on defects regarding the 1.5m sq ft (139,350 sq m) scheme.
But Mailbox claimed Simons had unlawfully made use of confidential and privileged material in advising Carillion, and unlawfully communicated confidential information to Quantex and Carillion.
Both companies knew that Simons had previously advised Mailbox in the disputes.
At a High Court hearing on 30 September, the judge recommended that all three parties agree to compromise.
One of the conditions of the compromise is that Simons continues to work for Quantex, but is not involved with the ongoing litigation between Mailbox and Carillion.
Amrik Kandola at Eversheds, which is advising Birmingham Mailbox, said the claim against Simons was still live and was due to be heard again in the High Court.
A date for the further hearing has not yet been set.
EGi News 18/11/02
