Paul Brown

For logistics clients:

Recent Work

• Successfully defending a multi-billion pound logistics company in a summary judgment application overcoming the long-established principle that a defendant is not entitled to raise any counterclaims (including by way of set off) that it may have in order to reduce the freight payable under a contract of carriage (and favourably settling the matter at mediation shortly afterwards);
• Settling a high court claim at mediation, on mutually agreeable terms (including with regard to other commercial interests outside the direct parameters of the claim), for an alleged failure to meet a minimum requirement in respect of volumes of freight brought through the port per year;
• Advising our client on an alleged breach of contract and loses allegedly caused by a failure to follow the First In First Out scheme which was said to have formed part of the contract; and
• Continuing to act for a client in a multi-million pound conversion exercise for the recovery of thousands of its stolen proprietary pallets used in the transportation of its freight.

Other commercial cases:

• Success at trial for a claimant private jets company in an aviation dispute regarding the meaning of certain aviation specific phrases within a contract and the liabilities that would naturally flow from them despite not being explicitly set out;
• Successfully negotiated a settlement in a multi-million pound dispute for a property management company arising from the final payment of deferred consideration under an SPA and our client’s claim for multiple breaches of its warranties;
• Successfully opposing a request for an expedited hearing in the Commercial Court for a declaration and injunction regarding a contract our client, a highly specialised scientific instruments manufacturer, had terminated. The dispute was subsequently settled on very favourable commercial terms for our client;
• Acting for a number of individual landowners in an expert determination process to secure a high seven figure sum in respect of an option agreement with a developer;
• Advising our individual client regarding the repayment of a number of director’s loans in the face of a six-figure claim for alleged multiple breaches of warranty following the sale of the entire issued share capital of the business;
• Successfully defending an individual at trial in a claim for fraudulent breach of trust regarding the sale of land outside the jurisdiction; and
• Negotiating a favourable settlement for a contract management and procurement company following a dispute with an NHS Trust regarding the termination provisions of their agreement.