Developer loses case against former advisors
TREVOR Guy, the developer who has been involved in a series of court battles over a north Manchester site caught up in the Lexi Holdings collapse, has lost a bid to sue three of the legal advisors involved in the case.
Mr Guy owned a 47.5 acre site at Ten Acres Lane in Newton Heath, which he claimed had been “fraudulently transferred” out of his ownership to a Gilbratar-based company owned by Lexi Holdings’ former managing director, Shaid Luqman, in return for a bridging loan without his permission.
Mr Luqman later used the site as security for loans with his bank, Barclays, and when Lexi collapsed owing Barclays £100m it sought to exercise its security over the site.
Mr Guy brought a case against three law firms, arguing that their negligence had facilitated the transfer of the site, whose value was said to be £10m, although on Lexi’s forms its nominal value was set at £15m.
However, the Judge, Sir William Blackburne, ruled against Mr Guy, stating that two of the firms had not been negligent and stating that even if there had been a breach of duty by the third, Mr Guy had not suffered any financial loss as a result.
Legal disputes had meant the site’s fate had been in limbo for some years, but as revealed by TheBusinessDesk.com last month Lexi Holdings’ administrators KPMG have now submitted an outline planning application to build more than 400 homes and around 180,000 sq ft of employment space on it.
The new proposals have been designed by architects Taylor Young, with GL Hearn acting as planning consultants.
