The claimant seeks declarations:
i) That he is the beneficial owner of 50% of the shares in Glass Express Midlands Ltd (‘Glass’). Glass has two issued shares, one of which is registered in the name of the first defendant and the other in the name of the second defendant, his wife, and
ii) That he is the beneficial owner of 45% of the shares in GEM Blinds Ltd (‘GEM’). GEM has 100 issued shares, of which 90 are registered in the name of the first defendant and the remainder in the name of Runxi Chen. The claimant seeks his declaration in relation to the former only; he does not seek to disturb Runxi Chen’s holding.
There are also claims for consequential relief.
Cooke HHJ discussed the useof covert recordings: ‘I have the direct evidence of the recordings made by the claimant. It is true to say that these must be approached with some caution, as there is always a risk that where one party knows a conversation is being recorded but the other does not the content may be manipulated with a view to drawing the party who is unaware into some statement that can be taken out of context. But there can be great value in what is said in such circumstances, where the parties plainly know the truth of the matters they are discussing and are talking (at least on one side) freely about them.’
David Cooke HHJ
[2016] EWHC 1432 (Ch)
Bailii
England and Wales
Company, Litigation Practice
Updated: 18 January 2022; Ref: scu.565854