DMH Stallard has welcomed the High Court ruling (27/10/21) that a claim against our client, the First Defendant, should be dismissed.
The claim in European Real Estate Debt Fund v Treon & Ors [2021] EWHC 2866 (Ch) was a £15m damages claim for deceit. DMH Stallard’s senior litigation partner, Tim Ashdown, led the First Defendant’s legal team, instructing Bridget Lucas QC from Fountain Court Chambers and Daniel Kessler from 4 Stone Buildings. Expert evidence was provided by Chris Osborne of FRP Advisory.
The First Defendant’s team argued that the Claimant could, with reasonable diligence, have discovered the matters complained of earlier than they did. As such they should have commenced the claim within the usual statutory time-limits. The Judge, Mr Justice Miles, agreed, ruling that the claim was ‘statute-barred and must therefore be dismissed’.
The judgment provides authority for the proposition that the Court must consider events which happened before the cause of action arose when deciding whether to postpone the commencement of the limitation period.
Tim Ashdown, senior litigation partner at DMH Stallard, said:
“This decision has been a long-time coming. The claim was notified in 2014 and proceedings issued in 2018. It was concluded following a 15-day trial in June of this year. The proceedings were hard-fought, but we achieved the result we needed for the client. The counsel and expert team were first-class, as were the DMH team that supported me”.