Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Berntsen v Tait: Court of Appeal affirms CPR 24.2 summary judgment dismissing mismanagement and undervalue claims against administrators; Tomlinson Report concerns insufficient to justify trial (England and Wales)

Published on: 15 October 2015

Published by a LexisNexis Dispute Resolution expert

Legal News

Article summary

Practical implications

Although no witnesses were cross-examined in this matter, the court was able to dispose of it summarily, given the procedural steps already taken and the case management directions both in place, under which the appellants had repeated opportunities to advance their position. Disclosure had also occurred, and the court could rely upon witness material filed in earlier, related proceedings that had failed. While the appellants invoked comparisons with decisions discussed in the Tomlinson Report concerning banks’ lending behaviour, it was not the court’s role to permit a trial merely to ventilate issues of public interest where the underlying claims lacked viability. Accordingly, a summary determination was appropriate notwithstanding the absence of oral testing of the evidence. The court’s task is to assess viability, not to convene a forum for broader debate where the pleaded causes cannot succeed.

Facts

The appellants belonged to an LLP developing a hotel. Finance for the scheme came from NatWest Bank (part of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS)). When the venture encountered problems, the appellants, acting for the LLP, engaged BDO after a meeting with the second respondent, Ms Rayment (a partner at BDO), for that purpose, namely to prepare an independent...

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