Tesco is suing its solicitor Berwin Leighton over failed plans to build a superstore near Liverpool.
The supermarket is claiming more than £850,000 from the firm, now renamed Berwin Leighton Paisner, for breach of duty in its handling of Tesco’s purchase of a block of land in Ash Road, Litherland, in 1999.
Tesco was trying to secure permission for a scheme in nearby Hawthorne Road, and bought the Ash Road site to prevent it “having to compete with an alternative application” that was proposed there.
Tesco agreed to buy the Ash Road land from John Deveney for £650,000, with a further £850,000 payable if, by 2009, Tesco itself obtained permission to build a foodstore at that site.
But Tesco claims the agreement drafted by Berwin Leighton failed to stop Deveney from seeking permission for a store at Ash Road, which he got in 2002.
As a result, the secretary of state refused to grant Tesco consent for Hawthorne Road. Tesco is also seeking damages reflecting the fall in value of the Hawthorne Road land.
References: EGi News 05/07/04
