On 5 May 2023, Lord Ericht of the Scottish Outer House, Court of Session, handed down his judgment in a significant, multi-million pound claim against TLT Solicitors. Lord Ericht ruled in favour of the claimant Centenary 6 Limited (C6), funded by Woodsford.
Woodsford’s cases are often successfully resolved in confidential settlements, which means that details of our many successes, and the significant time and effort, as well as our funding, that we invest in our cases, don’t usually make it into the public domain. We are delighted with the success in this case.
Lord Ericht held that TLT’s negligent advice to C6 in a case against insolvency practitioners at Grant Thornton caused a loss in that case, which C6 otherwise had good prospects of winning.
C6 obtained an award of approximately £12.5m by way of damages for the loss of a chance of success in an underlying litigation relating to the Ark office development in Hammersmith, west London . The Defendant, TLT Solicitors, had admitted negligence by failing to give proper advice to the client regarding an order for caution for expenses, leading to the dismissal of the underlying claim.
We note that the evidence of our Chief Investment Officer Charlie Morris was a key part of the success. Lord Ericht praised Charlie, “a qualified solicitor who gave his evidence in a professional, straightforward and balanced manner… a credible and reliable witness… compelling…“. In contrast, Lord Ericht did not find the competing evidence on litigation funding presented by the losing Defender “to be of much assistance”.
Charlie went on to comment: “This fantastic result has been long time in the making. Woodsford started supporting C6 in this classic David v Goliath fight back in June 2017. On the one side, C6 with no meaningful assets, on the other a well-resourced law firm backed by deep-pocketed PI insurers. Despite having a meritorious claim (negligence was ultimately admitted), the defendant and its insurers dragged this out for far longer than they should have. They now have to pay the price for that. Woodsford is delighted to have been a part of this successful team.”
C6 was represented by Andrew Mackenzie and his colleagues at Harper Macleod, and counsel Andrew Smith KC and Timothy Young.
You can read the full press release here.
