QRS (on behalf of himself and in a representative capacity for all the individuals identified in Confidential Annex 1 to the Amended Claim Form in these proceedings) v Daniel Charles Beach and Another
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Mr Justice Warby |
| Judgment Date | 11 December 2014 |
| Neutral Citation | [2014] EWHC 4189 (QB) |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division |
| Date | 11 December 2014 |
| Docket Number | Case No: HQ14X03912 |
[2014] EWHC 4189 (QB)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
Mr Justice Warby
Case No: HQ14X03912
Mr Godwin Busuttil (instructed by Brett Wilson LLP) for the Claimant
The Second Defendant in person
Hearing date: 21 October 2014
The second defendant, Rick Kordowski, applies to set aside a judgment entered in default of acknowledgment of service by order of Stuart-Smith J on 16 September 2014, and the final injunction granted by Stuart-Smith J at the same time, which restrains both defendants from further acts of harassment.
The proceedings
The action is brought by the claimant on his own behalf and in a representative capacity for others, described as Protected Parties, for an injunction to restrain the defendants from continuing a course of conduct involving harassment by the publication on websites of serious allegations. The claimant is a solicitor, and a partner in a firm. The Protected Parties are (a) solicitors in the claimant's firm identified on websites complained of ("the Listed Protected Parties"), (b) other solicitors and staff of the firm who are not so named, and (c) the lawyers and others acting for the claimant in these proceedings.
The first defendant, Mr Beach, is a former client of the claimant's firm, which acted for him in various matters between 2006 and 2010. Mr Kordowski, the second defendant, is best known as the former operator of a website using the domain name solicitorsfromhell.co.uk (sfh.uk) which he operated between about 2006 and 2011. The website was devoted to the public denunciation of legal professionals for alleged misconduct and impropriety. At its height over 466 firms were referred to on it in over 1,000 postings. Mr Kordowski was also the registrant in 2008 of another website which, for the purposes of avoiding identification in these proceedings has been called XYZ.net. Mr Kordowski has been the defendant in a very substantial number of civil claims arising from the operation of sfh.co.uk. The evidence put before the court by the claimant stated, without contradiction, that Mr Kordowski had been sued on 18 occasions in relation to sfh.co.uk, and that no case was known in which he had been successful.
One of the claims against Mr Kordowski was a libel action brought by the claimant's firm in 2011 in respect of the posting on the sfh.co.uk site of allegations made by Mr Beach. An interim injunction was granted by Sharp J on 23 May 2011. This later became otiose because the Law Society brought representative proceedings on behalf of the profession in which injunctions were granted. The initial injunction was granted by Langstaff J on 2 November 2011 on a without notice application, restraining the sale, transfer or disposal of any data from the sfh.co.uk site. On 15 November 2011 Tugendhat J entered judgment against Mr Kordowski and ordered him to remove the website from the world wide web, which was later done. A further final order was made by Tugendhat J on 7 December 2011 prohibiting Mr Kordowski from (among other things) harassing any individuals involved in the legal profession by naming or listing or identifying them on any website similar to sfh.uk, and from publishing or setting up any website with a similar name, or inviting members of the public to post negative comments about the legal profession so as to harass individuals. A final order prohibiting sale, transfer or disposal of data from sfh.co.uk was also made against him ( Law Society v Kordowski [2011] EWHC 3185 (QB), [2014] EMLR 2).
XYZ.net was operational from about 12 January 2012 as a successor to sfh.co.uk. Its home page proclaimed it to be " the successor in title to Rick Kordowski's solicitorsfromhell.co.uk." and that " Normal service has resumed under new owners." From and after about March 2012 there appeared on XYZ.net and a number of other websites a substantial number of serious allegations of misconduct about the claimant and the Listed Protected Parties, and in particular their work on behalf of Mr Beach. The websites other than XYZ.net were registered by Mr Beach. They and other websites subsequently registered in his name have been referred to as "the Beach Websites". On 25 April 2012 the firm wrote to Mr Beach complaining of a wrongful use of the firm's name in the domain name of one of the Beach Websites. The letter demanded that the domain name be transferred to the firm, complained of trademark and copyright infringement, and reserved the right to bring a claim for defamation.
The letter of 25 April 2012 was sent by post and email. The response was an email from Mr Kordowski of the same day enclosing a letter from Mr Beach to the claimant's firm rejecting the complaint, inviting the firm to sue for defamation, and appointing Mr Kordowski to act as his agent in respect of these matters. In his covering email Mr Kordowski wrote that " all further communications regarding Mr Danny Beach of [address] should be directed through me." Mr Kordowski thereafter engaged in correspondence on behalf of Mr Beach in and between April 2012 and late July 2013, dealing with the domain name complaint, in respect of which proceedings were later issued in the Patents County Court, and with other matters raised in the correspondence including the possibility of a settlement of the dispute between the firm and Mr Beach.
On 28 March 2013 the claimant's firm sent Mr Beach a pre-action letter complaining of the content of websites operated by Mr Beach. The letter complained that the website content was being published with the assistance of Mr Kordowski in breach of the Law Society injunction of 7 December 2011 and in some respects in breach of copyright. It demanded the removal of all content relating to the firm, its staff and partners within 7 days. A copy of the letter was emailed to Mr Beach and to Mr Kordowski. Neither made any reply.
On 30 July 2014 the claimant's solicitors sent by post and email to Mr Beach and Mr Kordowski detailed pre-action letters of claim complaining that by publishing on XYZ.co.uk and the Beach Websites offensive and vilifying content relating to the claimant and others each of them had pursued a course of conduct amounting to harassment against the claimant and others contrary to s 1(1) of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, and that they threatened to pursue that course of action. The letters required, among other things, the removal from the websites of content relating to the claimant and others, the delivery up of off-line data, and undertakings not to harass in future, to cease publication of the websites and to be bound by an injunction accordingly. A deadline of 5 August 2014 was set. Neither Mr Beach nor Mr Kordowski replied.
On 6 August 2014 the claimant issued these proceedings. Mr Beach is sued in his personal capacity. Mr Kordowski is sued in his personal capacity and in a representative capacity on behalf of all others who may be involved with him in the operation and publication of XYZ.net. The principal remedy sought by the claim form is injunctions to restrain harassment of the claimant and Protected Parties. There is no claim for damages.
The case pleaded by the claimant in the particulars of claim refers to Mr Kordowski's operation of sfh.uk including the posting on that website of Mr Beach's allegations. It is alleged that since June 2008 Mr Kordowski has been the operator and publisher of XYZ.net, and that prior to the injunction granted in the Law Society proceedings he operated XYZ.net as a mirror site to sfh.co.uk. The claimant alleges that Mr Beach and Mr Kordowski became acquainted by no later than December 2011. It is alleged that from about January 2012 Mr Kordowski operated XYZ.net as a successor site to sfh.co.uk, and published or caused or permitted to be published on it content similar to that which had previously appeared on sfh.co.uk. Mr Kordowski is said to have done this either alone, in concert with others or via agents. It is said that Mr Beach then registered or procured the registration in his name of the Beach Website complained of and that he and Mr Kordowski worked together to set up those sites, keep them functional and operational, and to optimise their searchability. Further and alternatively it is said that the defendants had reached a common understanding between about December 2011 and March 2012 that they would target the claimant and the Listed Protected Parties, and carried out acts of harassment pursuant to that common design such that they were joint tortfeasors.
The acts of harassment complained of are the publication since around March 2012 and the continued publication via XYZ.net and the Beach Websites of allegations of and concerning the claimant and the Listed Protected Parties, in juxtaposition with names and/or images of those persons, in circumstances whereby the websites are interlinked, and their searchability has been successfully optimised by the defendants. The allegations include corruption, dishonesty, lack of integrity, acting improperly and incompetently for Mr Beach, and a host of other allegations. It is alleged that such publication has caused and causes alarm and distress to the claimant and Listed Protected Parties and that the defendants knew or ought to have known that their conduct amounted to...
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