A City law firm has won an appeal against a previous ruling that it had negligently advised Mohamed Al Fayed when he bought Premier League football club Fulham in 1997.


The High Court had found that Nicholson Graham & Jones (NGJ) - which is now part of US practice K&L Gates - failed to give contractual effect to the parties' intentions over Al Fayed's right to subscribe to extra shares in the joint venture company which was to be the vehicle for the acquisition.



However, while Al Fayed claimed £7.75 million in damages, the court only awarded him £6,750. Both sides appealed.



The Court of Appeal has now ruled that Mr Justice Mann took 'a wrong approach to the evidence' once NGJ had provided a plausible explanation as to why the crucial clause in the contract was deleted. It said the burden of proof should have been on the claimant to satisfy the judge that NGJ's explanation ought to be rejected. Applying that burden of proof, the court went on to find that the claimant had not established that NGJ had been negligent or had deleted the clause by error.



A spokesman for K&L Gates said it was 'a very pleasing result' but declined to comment further.



Neil Rose