David Niven & David O’Brien review the lessons from Giambrone
Calabria, southern Italy. Sounds like the perfect place for your dream holiday home. Unfortunately, for the claimants in the Giambrone litigation, investing in the Jewel of the Sea development turned into a nightmare—and a protracted one at that, involving nearly 10 years of litigation.
The Court of Appeal’s judgment in Main & Ors v Giambrone & Law [2017] EWCA Civ 1193, [2017] All ER (D) 82 (Aug) provides some comfort for those individuals whose dreams have been shattered. It also provides clear lessons for solicitors on the scope of their duties and on the principles of equitable compensation. It is not, unfortunately, the end of the nightmare—Giambrone’s professional indemnity insurers AIG say there is no insurance money left for these claimants.
Giambrone & Law (a firm of solicitors then practising in England and Italy) represented the claimant purchasers on the Jewel of the Sea holiday home development in Calabria. The claimants paid unusually large deposits to Giambrone: 50% of the individual purchase prices for the unbuilt apartments. Giambrone then paid out those deposits, 62%
