ENTERPRISE INN REPOSSESSION CLAIM SUCESSFULLY DEFEATED

Slee Blackwell’s successful defence of repossession proceedings brought by Enterprise Inn Plc against Craig and Inez Ward of Mavericks in Newquay has been widely reported in the national press. Articles featured in the major trade publications as well as the national press. Both The Publican (5 February 2008) and the Morning Advertiser (7 February 2008) http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/ ran stories about the unexpected triumph. In the Observer (10 February 2008) http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/feb/10/creditcrunch.mitchellsandbutlers Richard Wachman highlighted the case in an article about the plight of publicans struggling to cope with the post smoking ban hangover..


Mr and Mrs Ward were referred to Slee Blackwell’s specialist leisure and licensing team after Enterprise had applied to Truro County Court for forfeiture of their lease within 28 days. Solicitor advocate and partner in Slee Blackwell’s litigation department, Spencer Glazsher, successfully obtained a seven month stay of execution enabling Mr and Mrs Ward to continue trading over the busy summer period.

Pub-co tenants are being hard pressed by their landlords at a time of increased legislation, falling trade and mounting competition. This has been described by Mark Brumby of Blue Oyster Securities as “a triple whammy that will cause frustration and pain”.

Along with the smoking ban, the economic slow-down and changing drinking patterns has caused increasing hardship to tenants. As reported in both the Morning Advertiser and The Publican, Spencer Glazsher told District Judge Mitchell in Truro County Court that Mr and Mrs Ward had seen a 30% drop in trade since the smoking ban which came into force last July.

This is the first reported example of the Court seeing fit to grant latitude to tenants, certainly in relation to one of Enterprise’s 7,200 pubs nationwide and quite probably in the Pub-co industry as a whole.

The leisure and licensing team at Slee Blackwell see this as the first in a number of similar actions to come.

Rape victims welcome change in the law

A recent decision by the Law Lords is likely to help victims of rape and sexual assault. 

Mrs A has been given the go-ahead to bring a claim for compensation against Iorworth Hoare, who was jailed for life for attempted rape and sexual assault in 1989.  Shortly after the assault Mrs A successfully applied for damages under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme but was only awarded £5,000, despite her significant psychological injuries.  At the time of the attack Hoare himself was not worth suing as he did not have the financial means to compensate his victim.

But whilst on day release from prison, Hoare purchased a lucky Lotto Extra ticket and found himself £7m better off.  Mrs A learned of his windfall and brought a claim against him for compensation. However, she was outside the strict 6 year limitation period and a High Court Judge and the Court of Appeal rejected her claim. Mrs A didn’t give up. She appealed to the House of Lords and her persistence paid off when the Law Lords reversed the ruling and allowed her case to be reheard in the High Court.

This is a landmark decision for victims of sexual assault. It opens the way for them to bring claims beyond the usual 6 year time period, so long as they act quickly once they learn of any change in the finances of their attacker.

In reality this ruling is unlikely to help most victims as it is relatively rare for an abuser to come into money, but if it does happen the way is now open for victims to make a deserved claim on the windfall. 


Samantha Robson is a partner at Slee Blackwell and is recognised in the Legal 500 as a specialist personal injury lawyer in the sensitive area of rape and sexual assault.