XXIV successfully defend Safeguard World International against overpayment claim

Judgment was handed down today in the case of Janus Capital Management v Safeguard World International [2016] EWHC 1355 (Ch) following an 11 day trial on liability before Mr Justice Arnold in the Chancery Division. The claim was brought by a very wealthy American investment fund against a British company to whom the claimant had outsourced its payroll function. The claimant alleged that it had been overcharged for the cost of exchanging currencies and making payments to its employees over a 5 year period and also that the defendant had made a “secret profit” as a result of exchange transactions that the defendant had entered into.

The court dismissed all of the claimant’s claims, finding that the claimant had failed to identify any breach of a contractual promise and that its suggested interpretation of the contractual agreement in dispute was “commercially absurd”. The court dismissed one of the claimant’s alternative claims as a “non-starter” and held that a claim based on an alleged agency was “circular”.

Francis Tregear QC, Alexander Pelling, and Daniel Warents of XXIV Old Buildings were instructed by James Lankshear of Streathers LLP for the successful defendant.