The Hut sucessfully defends court appeal by Cookson
A FOUR-year legal row between high growth online retailer The Hut Group and Manchester entrepreneur Oliver Cookson has finally concluded – with the Court of Appeal dismissing the appeal brought by Cookson.
In 2012, both The Hut Group and Oliver Cookson sued each other in the High Court in relation to information provided in the share purchase agreement and beforehand in respect of each other’s accounts: The Hut claimed damages of £15m for breach of warranty and Cookson and his family trust counter-claimed £12.7m for breach of warranty and deceit.
In 2014, Mr Justice Blair – the brother of former Prime Minister Tony Blair – ordered both parties had to pay damages to the other.
He awarded The Hut £4.3m after finding warranties that guaranteed the accuracy of management accounts’ had been breached prior to the £58m sale of Cookson’s supplements business MyProtein to The Hut in 2011.
Despite this award, the judge found that The Hut Group should pay Cookson £10.8m after he counter-sued for fraudlent breach of warranty in relation to the value of the shares (a 12% stake valued at £28m) he took in The Hut as part of the acquisition settlement.
Setting off the two amounts against each other and providing also for interest, the Judge ordered The Hut to pay Cookson’s family trust £7.5m including costs.
Cookson subsequently appealed the award of £4.3m to The Hut.
The appeal, heard last month, focused on a technical point. It argued that, upon a proper construction of the relevant notification clause in the share purchase agreement, notification of the breach of warranty claimed by The Hut was time barred.
Lord Justice Briggs’ decision to dismiss the appeal, by an order dated March 22, brings the long running dispute to an end. Sources close to the matter reveal that both parties agree on one point – that with the end of litigation it is time to move on.
Cookson told TheBusinessDesk: “We are obviously disappointed by the decision and even more so after reading the judgement as it was clear the court gave serious consideration in granting the appeal.
“The litigation process has been an eye-opening process for me personally and a process I have learnt a great deal from. That was hugely helped by working with some exceptional professionals. Now we are at the end of the litigation, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has worked on the case and delivered a great result of an overall net win in excess of £7m. In short we are very happy with the result of the entire case.”
Cookson was represented by DWF and The Hut Group by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.
