P & O European Ferries (Dover) Ltd
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Judgment Date | 13 July 1992 |
| Date | 13 July 1992 |
| Court | Value Added Tax Tribunal |
VAT Tribunal
The following cases were referred to in the decision:
Britwood Toys Ltd VAT(LON/86/280) No. 2263; (1987) 3 BVC 512
Wallman Foods Ltd VAT(MAN/83/41) No. 1411; (1983) 2 BVC 208,012
Input tax - Supply - Whether solicitors' services were supplied to the company or to individual employees - Whether services of solicitors were used for purposes of the company's business - Value Added Tax Act 1983 section 14Value Added Tax Act 1983, sec. 14.
The issues were whether the solicitors' services were supplied to the company or to the individual employees and whether the services were used for the purposes of the company's business.
In 1989 the appellant, together with seven individual members of its staff, was charged with manslaughter as the result of the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster at Zeebrugge on 6 March 1987. The company spent approximately £3.5m on the defence of the seven individuals which was successful. At the end of 1987, shortly after the inquest which resulted in verdicts of unlawful killing, and at the time when the DPP instructed the Kent Police to investigate the circumstances of the disaster with a view to the possibility of instituting criminal proceedings, the company was advised that there was a real threat of its being charged with corporate manslaughter. This would necessarily be associated with individual prosecutions of the seven employees for manslaughter. The liability of the company would depend on the liability of the individual employees as directing minds and if they were found to be in breach of certain duties the company could be guilty of recklessness amounting to manslaughter. Alternatively, the corporate manslaughter charge could be founded on the aggregation of the acts or omissions amounting to gross negligence of the seven individual employees or any two or more of them. Consequently a decision was taken that it was essential to ensure that all seven employees were effectively represented. Thereafter the legal director of the group took it on himself to ensure that each defendant had professional representation of a standard approved by him and to that end he investigated each solicitor acting for each potential defendant and instructed the firm on behalf of the company, giving an undertaking to pay the costs incurred.
There were other reasons why it was necessary to ensure that all defences were co-ordinated and properly presented. Because the name P & O was...
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