Michaels v Taylor Woodrow Developments Ltd
Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
Date | 2000 |
Year | 2000 |
Court | Chancery Division |
Landlord and tenant - Leasehold enfranchisement - Tenants' right to acquire reversion - Landlord conspiring with others to evade duty to notify tenants - Whether breach of duty sounding in damages - Whether supporting action in tort -
In 1993 the four defendant companies collaborated to transfer the freehold of a block of flats from the first to the third company, without complying with the landlord's requirement under section 5 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987F1 to give notice to “qualifying tenants”. On a claim brought by the plaintiff qualifying tenants in 1996, the Court of Appeal held that the scheme, which was intended to avoid the tenants acquiring statutory rights to acquire the reversion under the Act, was defective in a number of respects but that relief should be denied on the ground that such relief was discretionary and should be refused by reason of their delay. By a second writ, issued in February 1999, the plaintiffs claimed, inter alia, damages from three of the four defendants for conspiracy to injure them by unlawful means.
On an application by the defendants to strike out the claim—
Held, granting the application and dismissing the action, that in order to support the existence of an actionable conspiracy to injure by unlawful means, those means must be actionable in their own right against at least some of the conspirators; that where a wrongful act consisted of a breach of the provisions of a statute or of subordinate legislation, it would only support such an actionable conspiracy if that were determined to have been the intention of the legislature by way of reinforcement of the statutory provisions, which in the instant case it could not; and that, therefore, since the claim disclosed no cause of action it would be struck out; that, further although the court should exercise caution before striking out a second claim on the ground that it could have been advanced with the first, the claimant's delay in prosecuting the current claim constituted an abuse of process and would be struck out on that ground also (post, pp 246B–D, 248G–249C).
Per curiam. The problems of over-citation of authority must be tackled if the increasing ease with which prior decisions can be accessed is not going to choke the system (p 252D).
The following cases are referred to in the judgment:
Acrow (Automation) Ltd v Rex Chainbelt Inc [
Associated British Ports v Transport and General Workers' Union [
Credit Lyonnais Bank Nederland NV (now known as Generale Bank Nederland NV) v Export Credits Guarantee Department [
Cutler v Wandsworth Stadium Ltd [
Doe d Murray v Bridges (
Grupo Torras SA v Al-Sabah [
Hamilton v Brown (
Henderson v Henderson (
Island Records Ltd, Ex p [
Lonrho Ltd v Shell Petroleum Co Ltd (No 2) [
Lonrho plc v Fayed [
Metall und Rohstoff AG v Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette Inc [
Michaels v Harley House (Marylebone) Ltd [
R v Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall, Ex p Central Electricity Generating Board [
RCA Corpn v Pollard [
Roberts Petroleum Ltd v Bernard Kenny Ltd [
Rookes v Barnard [
Surzur Overseas Ltd v Koros [
Taylors Fashions Ltd v Liverpool Victoria Trustees Co Ltd (Note) [
Watson v Dutton Forshaw Motor Group Ltd (unreported) 22 July 1998; Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Transcript No 1284 of 1998,
Williams v Department of Transport The Times, 7 December 1993; Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Transcript No 1382 of 1993,
Yat Tung Investment Co Ltd v Dao Heng Bank Ltd [
Yukong Line Ltd of Korea v Rendsberg Investments Corpn of Liberia (No 2) [
The following additional cases were cited in argument:
Bradford and Bingley Building Society v Seddon [
R v Secretary of State for the Home Department, Ex p Ejaz The Times, 7 December 1993; Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Transcript No 1569 of 1993,
The following additional cases, although not cited, were referred to in the skeleton arguments:
Belvedere Court Management Ltd v Frogmore Developments Ltd [
Ord v Upton [
APPLICATION for summary judgment
By writ dated 26 February 1999 the plaintiffs, Harvey and Valentina Michaels, claimed against the four defendants, Taylor Woodrow Developments Ltd (“TW1”), Taylor Woodrow Property Co Ltd (“TW2”), Frogmore Estates Plc (“Frogmore”) and Harley House (Marylebone) Ltd (“HHL”), damages for breach of statutory duty, for non-compliance with section 5 of Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 and for conspiracy to injure them by unlawful means. The defendants applied pursuant to
John Mowbray QC, Edward Cousins and Tom Weekes for Mrs Michaels.
John Martin QC and Jonathan Seitler for TW1 and TW2.
Kim Lewison QC and Anthony Tanney for Frogmore and HHL.
19 April. LADDIE J handed down the following judgment.
Introduction1 The original claimants in this action, Mr and Mrs Michaels, are the tenants of Flat 11, Harley House, 28–32 Marylebone Road, London NW1. Since 1996 they have been embroiled in litigation with their landlord and others. That litigation has as its core the provisions of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987. The four defendants to this action are Taylor Woodrow Developments Ltd (“TW1”), Taylor Woodrow Property Company Ltd (“TW2”), Frogmore Estates Plc (“Frogmore”) and Harley House (Marylebone) Ltd (“HHL”). Frogmore and HHL have been sued before by the Michaels in respect of their flat, under the Act, in proceedings commenced in 1996. The nature of those proceedings, the ground upon which the Michaels lost and its relationship, if any, to the current proceedings will all be considered below. The current action was commenced by the Michaels by writ dated 26 February 1999. In it they originally sought damages for breach of statutory duty, for non-compliance with section 5 of the Act and for conspiracy to defraud. The application which is before me has been brought by all the defendants, under
2 The Act gives certain tenants rights when a landlord is minded to dispose of premises. Although it has been said that it gives rise to a right of first refusal, the tenants' rights are somewhat more limited than that. Section 1(1) provides that a landlord shall not make a disposal affecting any premises covered by the Act unless he has served a notice in accordance with section 5 of the Act on the “qualifying tenants” and the disposal is made in accordance with the requirements of sections 6 to 10. A “qualifying tenant” is defined by section 3. The Michaels and a number of other tenants are or were qualifying tenants within that definition. The notice required by section 5 must include the principal terms of the disposal proposed by the landlord including, for example, the price. It is significant that there is no obligation to give notice of all the terms. Section 5(2)(b) requires the notice to state that it “constitutes an offer by the landlord to dispose of the property on those terms which may be accepted by the requisite majority of qualifying tenants of the constituent flats”.
3 The section also sets out a timescale, measured in months, within which the tenants can accept the offer contained in the notice. These references to offers and acceptance might be thought to mean that the tenants acquire a right to purchase on the terms set out in the section 5 notice. That is not so. The terms “offer” and “acceptance” in the Act are defined to mean offer or acceptance subject to...
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