The plaintiffs were trustees of an occupational pension scheme. It began professional negligence proceedings to recover an expected surplus paid to the employer by the solicitors whose advice had been acted on. The anticipated costs were disproportionate, so the case was assigned with the consent of the court to beneficiaries who sued under legal aid. They then applied to the court to be substituted as plaintiffs.
Held: The application failed. The trustees had not failed in the performance of their duty to protect the trust estate by declining to continue the action and the applicants had no cause of action against the solicitors since they had no legal or equitable property in the subject-matter of the action. They were simply beneficiaries of any property recovered by the trustees. The trust estate would probably be liable for costs if the action failed and there was nothing in the rules of court to justify handing over the conduct of the action against the third party and accordingly he had no jurisdiction to make the orders sought.
Judges:
Baker QC J
Citations:
[1995] 1 WLR 1405
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Roberts v Gill and Co and Another CA 15-Jul-2008
The claimant sought damages in negligence against solicitors who had advised the executors in an estate of which he was a beneficiary. He now sought to amend his claim to make a claim in his personal and in derivative capacities. Sums had been paid . .
Cited – Roberts v Gill and Co Solicitors and Others SC 19-May-2010
The claimant beneficiary in the estate sought damages against solicitors who had acted for the claimant’s brother, the administrator, saying they had allowed him to take control of the assets in the estate. The will provided that property was to be . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Litigation Practice, Legal Aid
Updated: 12 April 2022; Ref: scu.279804
