A Scottish law firm has failed in its bid to avoid an alleged negligence claim by arguing that English courts had no jurisdiction over work carried out in Scotland. 

Wright, Johnston & Mackenzie LLP, which has no place of business outside Scotland, was instructed by energy company Cornwall Renewable Developments Ltd to help obtain planning permission for wind farms on two sites in Cornwall.

Planning permission was refused by Cornwall Council and an appeal of that decision was filed and later withdrawn.

Cornwall Renewable Developments claimed that Wright, Johnston & Mackenzie had been negligent in its work. The firm denies the allegation.

Meanwhile the firm argued that the High Court did not have jurisdiction to try the claim as, though the services related to English law contracts for sites in England, the dual-qualified solicitor who acted in the matter was in Scotland when work was carried out.

After the High Court rejected this argument the firm appealed saying the ruling wrongly identified 'the principal “obligation in question” under the…retainer'.

Ruling in the appeal, Recorder Richard Smith, sitting as a judge of the Chancery Division, said: 'This claim concerns the delivery of a defective draft agreement to the claimant in England, for use in England.’ Cornwall Renewable Developments argued that the ‘place of performance’ was where it received the product, which was England, while Wright, Johnston & Mackenzie said it was where the underlying legal work was carried out, which was in Scotland.

In Cornwall Renewable Developments Ltd v Wright, Johnstone & Mackenzie LLP the judge said: ‘On the logic of the defendant’s case, if [the solicitor acting in the matter] happened to have undertaken the relevant work while on a business trip to New York, the “place of performance” would be the United States even though that could not be said to be the intention of either party.’

Smith rejected the appeal, finding that the previous judgment had been considered ‘with appropriate care and without falling into error'.

 

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