Reginald Hyde and Others v Simple Skips Ltd (First Defendant) John Corney (Second Defendant) Keith Stiles (Third Defendant)

JurisdictionEngland & Wales
JudgeJustine Thornton
Judgment Date30 November 2017
Neutral Citation[2017] EWHC 3087 (QB)
Docket NumberCase No: HQ16X03022
CourtQueen's Bench Division
Date30 November 2017

[2017] EWHC 3087 (QB)

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE

QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION

DIVISIONAL COURT

Royal Courts of Justice

Strand, London, WC2A 2LL

Before:

Justine Thornton QC

sitting as a Deputy Judge of the High Court

Case No: HQ16X03022

Between:
Reginald Hyde
Nicholas Standeven
ITR Global Limited
Claimants
and
Simple Skips Limited
First Defendant
John Corney
Second Defendant

and

Keith Stiles
Third Defendant

Mr Mark Warwick QC (instructed by Gordon Dadds) for the Claimants

Mr Charles Apthorp (instructed by Robert Simmons) for the Second Defendant

Mr Rajinder Sahonte (instructed by Peter Lynn & Co) for the Third Defendant

Hearing dates: 18, 19, 20, 23 and 24 October 2017

Judgment Approved

Introduction

1

In these proceedings, the Claimants seek monies totalling approximately £992,180 in relation to the management, or mismanagement, of waste recycling activities at a site at Oakfield Farm, Wells Lane, in Ascot between May 2014 and July 2016. The claims are made in contract and in tort (trespass and misrepresentation).

The parties and the claim

2

The First and Second Claimants are the executors of the will of Stephen Hyde and claim in that capacity. Mr Hyde owned the site at Oakfield Farm, until his death on 23 May 2014. The Third Claimant, ITR Global Ltd, had a tenancy of part of the site which it licensed to the Defendants in May 2014. The director and shareholder of ITR Global Ltd, Mr Kas Ali, was closely involved with events at the site giving rise to this claim.

3

The First Defendant is Simple Skips Limited, a company which held the environmental permit for waste activities at the site from 6 October 2014 until 2 February 2017 when the permit was revoked by the Environment Agency for serious non-compliance. The Second and Third Defendants, Mr Corney and Mr Stiles, were business partners who agreed to run a recycling business at the site. Mr Stiles, was the sole director and shareholder of Simple Skips Limited from April 2014 until June 2016. Mr Stiles and Mr Corney appear to have had a bitter falling out over events on site.

4

The contours of the claim changed during the trial. By closing submissions the claim comprised the following elements:

i) A claim for trespass by unlawful deposit of waste on part of the site. The claim is for £605,840. Whilst an element of trespass is admitted, the extent of the trespass, the appropriate measure of damages and quantum are disputed.

ii) Unpaid licence fees arising out of an oral licence which the Claimants say was entered into by Schyde Investments Limited, a company owned by Mr Hyde with the Defendants, whereby the Defendants were allowed to deposit waste in a series of bays at the western edge of the site. The amount claimed is £62,220. The Defendants accept that negotiations were entered into for the licence but deny the negotiations concluded with an agreement for a licence.

iii) Unpaid licence fees under a written licence dated 23 May 2014 between Remarketing IT Limited, the former name of ITR Global Ltd (the Third Claimant) and the Defendants in relation to the use of and clean-up of an area of the site I refer to in this judgment as the central yard area. The amount claimed is £33,720.

iv) Damages for misrepresentation, by way of negligent misstatement, arising from representations by the Defendants that a stockpile in the central yard area contained asbestos. The amount claimed is £19,200, being lost licence fees incurred by the Third Claimant whilst stockpile C was hand picked to remove any asbestos.

v) Damages for the cost of clearing the yard and repairing the damaged bays. The estimated cost of clearing the Yard is £70,000 — £80,000. The estimated cost of removing waste from shipping containers in the yard is £31,200. The estimated cost of repairing the bays is £55,000.

vi) Lost income from July 2016, when the Defendants left the site, to September 2016, by virtue of the site being unusable as a result of the deposited waste. The amount claimed is £53,769 for lost licence fees from renting out the central yard area and £51, 240, for lost rental of a shed referred to as the WEEE Shed and bays.

5

The Second and Third Defendants ask the Court to make broad findings as to their relative responsibility for the unfortunate events on site.

Factual background in brief

The site

6

Oakfield Farm sits within the Green Belt and is surrounded by trees, which appear to have screened the waste activities from public viewpoint. Access to the site is by a private road into a rectangular yard with hard standing. In the centre is an inner yard area with a roof cover. Wooden bays flank the western edge of the yard whilst an office and canteen area is located on the opposite side. A shed, referred to as the WEEE Shed (waste from electrical and electronic equipment), is at the northern edge of the site, adjacent to the entrance. Gates lead from the yard to an area referred to by the parties as the Mound.

Historic waste activity

7

Waste processing and dumping has taken place on the site since about 1997. In 2010 a Planning Inspector's report describes the site as follows:

"On the south and south-eastern parts of the site are heaps of various kinds of materials including soils, demolition wastes, green wastes, rubble and miscellaneous single items of waste. Beyond the site's southern eastern boundary the materials on the site merge into a much larger heap of similar materials several metres high…

…the simple and undisputed fact that still on the site are many thousands of tonnes of waste materials …"

Mr Hyde (deceased) purchases the site

8

Mr Stephen Hyde purchased part of the site in 2008, initially through his company, Schyde Investments Ltd, followed by the remainder of the site in December 2010. Mr Hyde granted a tenancy of part of the central yard area to a company called Recycle Recycle Ltd. The director of the company was Mr Ali who subsequently became a director of ITR Global Ltd, the Third Claimant. In June 2010, the Environment Agency granted an environmental permit to Recycle Recycle Ltd for the operation of the site as a household commercial and industrial waste transfer station, with treatment, for non-hazardous waste.

Unlawful deposit of waste in 2014

9

In 2012 Recycle Recycle Limited granted a licence to a company called Ecologique Limited to operate its waste business at the site. Ecologique Limited breached the conditions of the environmental permit held by Recycle Recycle Limited with the result that the Environment Agency served an enforcement notice on 5 March 2014 on grounds that mixed skip waste, partly sorted mixed skip waste and wood waste had not been stored, as it should have been, in a building or a secure container. The Agency subsequently prosecuted Mr Ali in relation to the unlawful activity.

The Yard licence

10

The waste unlawfully deposited by Ecologique Limited needed clearing. To do this, Mr Ali entered into an arrangement with the Defendants whereby the Defendants would rent the central yard area of the site for waste recycling operations whilst clearing up some of the waste left by Ecologique Limited. A fixed term licence, dated 23 May 2014, was entered into between Remarketing IT Ltd and the Defendants ("the Yard licence").

The discovery of asbestos in July 2014

11

Almost immediately, operations under the licence ran into difficulties. There were delays whilst Mr Ali finished clearing the piles of waste he had taken responsibility for under the licence. Then at the end of July 2014, asbestos was discovered in a stockpile in the central yard area which the Defendants were responsible for clearing. Under the terms of the Yard licence the presence of asbestos meant the pile became the responsibility of Remarketing IT Limited and the pile was laboriously hand picked by Mr Ali's staff during August and into September 2014.

The Bays licence

12

On 6 October 2014 the Environment Agency transferred the permit for the site from Recycle Recycle Limited to Simple Skips Limited, and Simple Skips Limited started trading from the site on 13 October 2014.

13

Around this time Mr Ali, Mr Corney, Mr Stiles and Mr Patel engaged in discussions about the Defendants taking over the remainder of the site, in particular the wooden bays and the WEEE shed. An exchange of emails records discussion about the terms of a licence to this effect and the rent payable.

Matters start to deteriorate

14

Not long after Simple Skips Limited started trading, the operational complexities of simultaneously attempting to operate a waste transfer station; clear previously deposited waste and obtain planning permission to put a roof over the central yard area (as required by the environmental permit) started to become apparent. Emails in January and February 2015 show Schyde Investments Ltd chasing for rent; Simple Skips Limited experiencing cash flow problems and arguments between the parties about delays in waste clearance.

15

By the end of March 2015, the problems had started to become apparent to outsiders. An email from Mr Edmund, director of Schyde Investments Ltd to Mr Patel on 30 March describes a site visit by local councillors:

" More concerning from the site visit was Councillor Hinton going on and on about the increase in waste in the bays. This has increased regardless of your intention not to utilise these…The bays you were vacating have now spilled out so far that the one way system for vehicles is no longer possible and there was vehicle chaos during the planning committee site visit"

Environment Agency concerns

16

The Environment Agency was also becoming concerned. On 24 August 2015, an officer with the Environment Agency visited the site and produced a compliance report. He concluded that Simple Skips Limited was not complying with its permit. Simple Skips Limited was issued with a warning and required to submit a voluntary action plan...

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