A negligence claim against international firm DWF brought by former clients who accused the firm of a breach of duty has been thrown out, after a judge heard the clients changed their evidence mid-trial.
Anthony King, James King and Susan King sued both the firm and their former barristers, Alexander Hall Taylor KC and Peter Morcos.
The Kings alleged in particular that, during the tenth day of a trial in May 2017 before Mr Justice Marcus Smith, DWF and the barristers advised the Kings to apologise in open court and to agree to pay costs on the indemnity basis, even though, the clients argued, their case had a very strong prospect of success. Mr Justice Henshaw said: ‘I state at the outset that I have concluded that there is not the slightest merit in these claims. The extremely serious allegations made against each of the defendants are entirely without foundation.’
The case arose from action taken by the Kings against external investors, Primekings Holdings, to whom they had sold a stake in their family business. The Kings alleged that a share purchase agreement resulted from, among other things, fraudulent misrepresentation and economic duress by Primekings.
The Kings claimed that the DWF legal team and counsel had advised them to discontinue the case in order to cover up a mistake by a DWF solicitor. But the High Court heard that the advice had come after Anthony King, on day six of the trial, changed his evidence on a key issue ‘in a fundamental and unexpected way’. This contradicted his earlier evidence and also introduced an allegation of fraud in the middle of the trial.
Notes made at that Friday’s conference included an entry, attributed to barrister Hall Taylor, which read: ‘The J thinks its over’. The Kings alleged this was not true. But Henshaw said: ‘It seems inherently likely that the judge would indeed have been inclined to view the shift in the evidence as extremely problematic for the Kings’ case.’
The claims in breach of fiduciary duty and negligence were dismissed.
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