Levicom underlines the pivotal role
of causation in professional negligence cases, says Simon Love
The recent case of Levicom International Holdings BV and another v Linklaters, [2009] EWHC 812 (Comm), [2009] All ER (D) 158 (Apr) highlights the importance of causation in successful professional negligence cases.
The Levicom Group had telecom businesses throughout the Baltic states. The claimant Levicom companies entered into shareholder agreements with Swedish companies (S), which governed S’s equity investments in two Estonian subsidiaries of Levicom.
The shareholder agreements regulated the relationship between the shareholders in the two companies.
One of the agreements (the CSA) contained a covenant by S not to carry on any cellular network business in any of the Baltic states which was the same as, or which competed with, any business carried out by Levicom. S subsequently acquired a Latvian mobile phone operator called Baltcom which Levicom considered placed them in breach of the covenant in the CSA.
Levicom instructed Linklaters to advise on its dispute with S. In due course, Levicom brought arbitration proceedings which were ultimately settled on terms which it felt to be unsatisfactory. Levicom alleged that
