BAILII is celebrating 24 years of free online access to the law! Would you consider making a contribution?
No donation is too small. If every visitor before 31 December gives just £5, it will have a significant impact on BAILII's ability to continue providing free access to the law.
Thank you very much for your support!
[Home] [Databases] [World Law] [Multidatabase Search] [Help] [Feedback] | ||
England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Decisions |
||
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Decisions >> Hopkinson & Ors v Towergate Financial (Group) Ltd & Ors [2018] EWCA Civ 2744 (06 December 2018) URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2018/2744.html Cite as: [2018] EWCA Civ 2744 |
[New search] [Context] [View without highlighting] [Printable PDF version] [Help]
ON APPEAL FROM THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
COMMERCIAL COURT
Mr Justice Leggatt
CL-2015-000912
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL |
||
B e f o r e :
Vice-President of the Court of Appeal, Civil Division
LORD JUSTICE DAVID RICHARDS
and
SIR PATRICK ELIAS
____________________
(1) MITCHEL HOPKINSON (2) JOANNE HOPKINSON (3) MARK HOWARD (4) TAMASIN HOWARD |
Appellants |
|
- and - |
||
(1) TOWERGATE FINANCIAL (GROUP) LIMITED (2) TOWERGATE FINANCIAL (EAST) LIMITED (3) TOWERGATE FINANCIAL (EAST) HOLDINGS LIMITED (4) TOWERGATE FINANCIAL (EAST) INTERMEDIATE LIMITED |
Respondents |
____________________
Gavin Kealey QC and George Spalton (instructed by BLM Law) for the Respondents
Hearing dates: 21 and 22 November 2018
____________________
Crown Copyright ©
Lord Justice David Richards:
"Those reviews are currently underway and have already resulted in the discovery of a number of cases where advice given to customers was not suitable which is likely to arise [sic] in a payment of redress being made to those customers. Towergate Financial's position is that it is likely that further claims will be identified against Towergate Financial and that a number of those claims are likely to arise from business which was transacted by M2."
"The Vendors and their respective spouses undertake to indemnify the Purchaser and/or the Group in full against all losses, liabilities, costs and expenses which the Group or the Purchaser Group may suffer as a result of or in connection with any claim or claims for professional negligence against the Group including but not limited to claims or complaints arising from mis-selling of mortgage endowment, pension transfer (contracting out), equity release and income drawdown products and policies which relate to actions by the Group at any time before Completion including for the avoidance of doubt all losses, liabilities, costs and expenses incurred in connection with compliance with the FSA under or in respect of the s.166 review conducted by the FSA in respect of the contract between the Group and Peugeot known as Project Picasso subject in all cases to the provisions of clause 5.10."
"Each of the persons giving the indemnity in clause 5.9 should be entitled to require the Purchaser or the Group at the expense of such person(s) to take all such steps or proceedings as such person(s) may consider necessary in order to avoid, dispute, resist, mitigate, compromise, defend or appeal against any relevant claim which will if successful give rise to liability under clause 5.9….To enable such person(s) to decide what steps or proceedings should be taken, the Purchaser shall disclose in writing to the Vendors and their respective spouses all relevant information and documents relating to any claim or prospective liability…."
"The Purchaser shall not make any Claims against the Warrantors nor shall the Warrantors have any liability in respect of any matter or thing unless notice in writing of the relevant matter or thing (specifying the details and circumstances giving rise to the Claim or Claims and an estimate in good faith of the total amount of such Claim or Claims) is given to all the Warrantors as soon as possible and in any event prior to:
6.7.1 the seventh anniversary of the date of this Agreement in the case of any Claim solely in relation to the Taxation Covenant;
6.7.2 the date two years from the Completion Date in the case of any other Claim; and
6.7.3 in relation to a claim under the indemnity in clause 5.9 on or before the seventh anniversary of the date of this Agreement."
"The liability of the Warrantors in relation to any Claim shall absolutely terminate (if that Claim has not previously been withdrawn, satisfied or settled) if legal proceedings in respect of that Claim containing full particulars of the nature and extent of it shall not have been properly issued and validly served on each such Warrantors within nine months of the date of service of any notice under clause 6.7 PROVIDED THAT where the Claim in question relates to a contingent Liability such Claim shall not be deemed to have been withdrawn hereunder until the second anniversary of such Liability ceasing to be a contingent Liability."
"It seems to me to make perfectly good commercial sense, as Mr Butcher QC submitted, to draw such a distinction on the basis that, in the case of claims under the indemnity in clause 5.9, the purchase may well at the time when notice is given not be in the position to specify details and circumstances, or to give an estimate in good faith of the amount of the claim, in the same way as it would be expected to do when making a claim for breach of warranty."
"What is clear from these cases is that there is not, so to speak, a limit to the amount of red ink or verbal rearrangement or correction which the court is allowed. All that is required is that it should be clear that something has gone wrong with the language and that it should be clear what a reasonable person would have understood the parties to have meant."
Sir Patrick Elias:
Lord Justice Underhill: