Company
Seneschall v Trisant Foods Ltd (in liquidation) and others [2023] EWHC 1029 (Ch), [2023] All ER (D) 27 (May)
The Chancery Division allowed the claimant’s claim that he had been the victim of a plan, concealed from him, by which the second to fifth defendants had taken control of a company from him. Further, from about June 2020, there had been an unlawful means conspiracy between the second to fifth defendants to exclude the claimant from executive participation in the company’s affairs. A counterclaim, brought by another company that had invested in the company in issue, was dismissed.
Damages
Smout v Wulfrun Hotels Ltd [2023] EWHC 1128 (KB), [2023] All ER (D) 48 (May)
The King’s Bench Division held that no authority had been put before it that abusive or unprofessional conduct by the representative of a defendant company had previously justified a tripling of the conventional interest rate (of 2%) awarded on damages for pain, suffering and loss of amenity. The court ruled that interest on damages was not awarded to punish for poor conduct in defending a claim,
