The dispute resolution team at Debenhams Ottaway, together with counsel Richard Bottomley of Maitland Chambers, acted for Pheasantland Ltd, the successful first defendant in this claim.
The High Court has recently handed down its very lengthy judgment dismissing all claims brought by the claimants.
On the face of it, the matter was a dispute about contractual construction, trespass, and forfeiture. However, in reality, the case reached a welcome conclusion in a trial which significantly overran the original listing, heard over 20 days before Her Honour Judge Walden-Smith, and including a strike-out application on behalf of the first defendant at the end of the trial, involved far more complex issues than just legal ones.
Proceedings were issued in 2022, but the subject matter of the dispute had been a source of increasing tension between the parties for a number of years beforehand—often bubbling over and eventually culminating in three years of exceptionally hard-fought litigation. The litigation itself involved numerous interlocutory applications, heated exchanges between the parties, emotional witness evidence, and a situation where owners of properties at Abbotsley Country Homes were unable to sell, along with a huge emotional toll on many involved, directly or otherwise.
No doubt due to the history, emotional toll, and intensity of this dispute, the judge thoroughly addressed each and every issue before the court in detail including carefully considered the evidence, both documentary and live, resulting in an unusually lengthy judgment for such a case; the judge commenting that “[the] judgment is more than six times the length of a judgment that I would normally expect to be giving in any factually or legally complex matter”.
Legal issues
The case involved Abbotsley Ltd and its sole director and shareholder, Vivien Saunders, who owned land near St Neots in Cambridgeshire—once home to the Abbotsley Golf Course, Clubhouse and Hotel. Part of the land, around six acres known as Abbotsley Country Homes, had been leased in 2003 to a developer for the construction of twenty wooden holiday lodges. Pheasantland Ltd was assigned the lease in 2019.
In short, the claims against the first defendant can be categorised as:
- A water trespass claim, alleging that Pheasantland Ltd, as head lessee, was purloining water from the Abbotsley Ltd supply.
- A claim for possession of land on the basis the lease was forfeit due to breaches of the lease by Pheasantland including allegations of use permanent occupation, use for business, and failure to execute deeds of covenant.
The claimants had already failed to obtain early determination of the possession claim, before a District Judge and later on appeal.
The first defendant brought a counterclaim for damages in relation to the costs and expenses of having to reinstate the water supply on several occasions when it was intentionally cut off by the claimants.
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