the times | Monday April 4 2022 45
Register
A solicitor was entitled to an equita-
ble lien over its fees arising from
funds recovered by a client in making
a successful claim when the solicitor
had provided services in relation to
the claim which significantly contrib-
uted to the recovery of the funds by
the client. For the lien to arise there
was no requirement that there had
been any dispute about the client’s
entitlement to the funds recovered.
The Supreme Court so held (Lord
Leggatt and Lady Rose dissenting) in
allowing the appeal of the claimant,
Bott & Co Solicitors Ltd, against the
decision of the Court of Appeal (Lord
Justice Lewison, Lord Justice Simon
and Lord Justice Lindblom) (The
Times March 19, 2019 [2019] 1 WLR
3375) upholding the dismissal by
Edward Murray sitting as a deputy
judge of the Chancery Division
([2018] EWHC 534 (Ch)) of Bott’s
claim against the defendant, Ryanair
DAC, that it had a solicitor’s equitable
lien over fees arising from compensa-
tion for delayed flights paid by Rya-
nair directly to airline passengers
who were Bott’s clients.
Bott operated a system enabling
passengers to claim delayed flight
compensation via a website. Passen-
gers entered in their personal and
flight details. If the flight had been
sufficiently delayed, Bott accepted
them as clients at a fixed fee, claimed
the compensation to which they were
entitled, deducted its fee from the
proceeds and passed the remainder
on to the client.
After Bott had been operating its
system for some time, Ryanair started
paying compensation directly to the
passengers rather than via Bott, lead-
ing to Bott’s claim against Ryanair.
Nicholas Bacon QC and Ben Smi-
ley for Bott; Brian Kennelly QC and
Tom Coates for Ryanair.
Lord Burrows said that assuming
that the solicitor was acting for a
potential claimant rather than a
potential defendant, the appropriate
test for a solicitor’s equitable lien was
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PIPPA SUZANNE DRACOTT WAS BORN ON MAY 28, 2020,
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020THEN the LORD commanded Isaiah to go
back to Hezekiah and say to him, ‘I, the
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Deaths
BAGNALL Peter Hill passed away at
home on 22nd April 2022, aged 90.
Beloved husband to Diana, he will be
missed by all his family and friends. A
private family cremation will take place on
Wednesday 13th April, with a service of
thanksgiving to take place on Friday 22nd
April 2022 at St Mary the Virgin Church,
Buckland, at 3pm. Family flowers only,
Donations, if desired, for Salvation Army
and Parkinson’s UK c/o J Godfrey and Son
Funeral Service 20 Gloucester Street,
Faringdon, Oxon, SN7 7HY.BLENKINSOPP
Caroline on 26th March 2022, aged 82,
died peacefully at her home after a
long illness.BREEZE Pamela Diane (Newington,
Edinburgh) died peacefully at Braid Hills
Care Home of pneumonia resulting from
frontotemporal dementia on 17th March,
aged 73. Beloved wife of David, much-loved
mother of Simon and Christopher,
mother-in-law of Catherine and Jessica,
grandmother of Jamie, Ailsa, Connie,
Chester, Avery and Keira and sister of
Graham. Funeral at St Peter’s Church,
Lutton Place, Edinburgh, EH8 9PE, at
3.30pm on 12th April. No flowers; donations
to Alzheimer’s Research UK.BRIGGS
Jeremy Meachem Briggs on 23rd
March 2022, aged 85.
The family are sad to announce the
death of Jeremy. A beloved husband
to Jill for 60 years, much-loved father
to Philip and Karen and adored
grandfather.
The funeral for Jeremy will be held at
St John Baptist Church, Cirencester,
on Thursday 21st April at 1.30pm.
Family flowers only please. Donations
if desired to Macmillan Cancer
Support or the Churn Project.
Inquiries to A Slade & Son, 35 Dyer
Street, Cirencester, GL7 2PP.
Tel: 01285 656336.CRESSWELL Lyell on 19th March 2022.
Composer Lyell Cresswell died at home in
Edinburgh after a short illness, with his
loving wife Catherine and friends by his
side. A great loss to the world of
contemporary classical music, his
wonderful creative talent, great humour
and immense kindness will be sorely
missed by family, friends and fellow
musicians. Funeral service to take place on
Tuesday 12th April at 11am, at St Vincent’s
Chapel, Stockbridge, to which all are
invited.
DAVIS Gillian (Jill) Mary, widow of the late
John Davis, died peacefully at home on
23rd March 2022 surrounded by her
wonderful, caring family: Barnaby, Dominic,
Matthew, Sophie, Beth, Kate, Naomi, Chris
and her ten grandchildren. Funeral to be
held at St Mary’s Church, Stoke Bishop, at
2.30pm on Wednesday 13th April. Family
flowers only please but donations, if
wished, to St Peter’s Hospice can be sent
c/o Thomas Davis Funeral Directors, 123
Stoke Lane, Westbury on Trym, Bristol,
BS9 3RW.
HOWELLS J Roger died on 22nd March
2022, aged 82. Wing Commander RAF
retired, husband of Christine, father of
Katherine and James and grandfather of
William, Hugo, Imogen and Sebastian. He
was much loved and will be missed by his
family and friends. Funeral will be on 8th
April 2022 at 12.15pm at Parc Gwyn
Crematorium, Narberth. All inquiries to
W & MJ Rossiter & Sons Ltd. 01834 843160.
SCHOLEY Alexandra (Sandy) Beatrix (née
Drew) on 28th February 2022. Devoted and
adored wife of David, mother of Fiorenza
and Christopher, grandmother of David
and Daniela, after a long illness
courageously borne, died peacefully in her
beloved Florence.
SHAW Dr John Herbert Thorndike died
peacefully on 27th March 2022, aged 90.
John was husband to Patricia, father to
Martin, Stephanie and Hilary, grandfather
and great-grandfather. He will be very
sadly missed. The funeral will be held at
St Peter and St Paul’s, Edenbridge, Kent, on
the 20th of April at 4pm. Family flowers
only and donations in lieu of flowers please
to the Hospice in the Weald and Action Aid.020 7782 7553
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Solicitor was entitled to equitable lien over
compensation to passengers for delayed flights
whether a solicitor provided services
(within the scope of the retainer with
its client) in relation to the making of
a client’s claim (with or without legal
proceedings) which significantly
contributed to the successful recov-
ery of a fund by the client.
That was the best interpretation of
what Gavin Edmondson Solicitors Ltd
v Haven Insurance Co Ltd (The Times
April 25, 2018; [2018] 1 WLR 2052) laid
down. It was a clear and simple test to
apply. Solicitors (and potential de-
fendants) would know exactly where
they stood. Although, given the con-
text, further elaboration of the test
seemed unnecessary, one might add,
lest there be any doubt, that by
“claim” one was referring to a claim
asserting a legal entitlement or, as
one could also describe it, a legal
claim.
Lord Briggs, agreeing, said that all
members of the court were agreed
about the main principles.
First, the animating principle be-
hind the equitable lien was that it pro-
moted access to justice for potential
claimants with insufficient means to
pay lawyers upfront, by enabling so-
licitors to act for them in the pursuit
of their claims on credit, with reason-
able security for their fees, against
recoveries.
Second, the requirement that the
recovery be made through the instru-
mentality of the solicitors’ work set a
low threshold. The work did not have
to pass any test of skill or sophistica-
tion, nor need it be the sole or effec-
tive cause of the client’s recovery. It
was no objection that the carrying
out of the “work” might be largely
automated, with minimal human
intervention.
Third, payment for transactional
work was wholly excluded from pro-
tection.
Fourth, the lien provided security
for the earliest stages of work done in
the pursuit of the client’s claim (such
as the preparation and sending of a
pre-action letter of claim, or the noti-
fication of the claim on a pre-action
portal), and regardless of whether the
recovery eventually made was the re-
sult of court proceedings, arbitration,
mediation, negotiation or any other
method of dispute resolution. It was
in principle sufficient if the intended
defendant agreed to pay in full simply
in response to the solicitors’ pre-
action letter of claim.Fifth, none of the various statutory
definitions of litigation or conten-
tious business assisted. Finally, the
question whether the lien arose had
in principle to be able to be decided at
the time when the solicitors agreed to
act for the client, provided of course
that some recovery ensued, to which
the lien could attach.
The issue which divided the court
was whether it mattered that there
was an “actual or reasonably antici-
pated dispute” about the claim, at the
time when the solicitors agreed to act.
The considerations which had
been in the forefront of his Lordship’s
analysis were the following.
First, the disproportionate cost of
having to engage solicitors (or other
legal professionals) for the pursuit of
small or moderate claims was, if any-
thing, the biggest single impediment
to access to civil justice in England
and Wales. It followed that any
methods by which solicitors could as-
sist in reducing that disproportionali-
ty, so as to make the pursuit of small
and moderate claims a realistic
choice for ordinary people, were in
principle likely to serve the cause of
access to justice.
Bott’s scheme enabled people with
flight delay claims for less than £500
to pursue them with the professional
assistance of solicitors at a capped
cost of (on average) about one third of
the value of the claim, and no cost lia-
bility at all in the absence of a recov-
ery. When launched in early 2013 nei-
ther Ryanair nor any other airline (so
far as the evidence went) had set up
its own online scheme for enabling
passengers to seek recovery of flight
delay compensation.
Payment was not volunteered by
airlines, which had to have known
which flights were relevantly delayed
and the names and contact details of
the passengers thereby entitled to
compensation. The rapid success of
Bott’s scheme demonstrated that it
served a hitherto unmet demand.
Whether it spurred Ryanair or other
airlines to launch their own online
compensation schemes could only be
guessed at, but did not appear un-
likely.
Accordingly, viewed as at 2013,
Bott’s scheme did serve the cause of
access to justice.
Matters changed when, in March
2014, Ryanair introduced its own on-
line process enabling passengers tomake claims for delay and notified
qualifying passengers of their right to
compensation. It was also a cost-free
way of obtaining compensation in
full.
But that did not stop passengers
from continuing to use Bott’s scheme.
In fact the numbers of passengers us-
ing Bott’s scheme or similar schemes
launched by competitors actually
increased.
For the reasons already given, the
access to justice animating principle
behind the equitable lien was well-
satisfied as in 2013. That being so, it
was counterintuitive and wrong to
conclude that anything changed
when, a year later, Ryanair intro-
duced its own online process for en-
abling passengers to seek compensa-
tion, even if the contribution of Bott’s
scheme to the obtaining of access to
justice for its Ryanair passenger
clients might be said to have thereby
been diminished. It was counterintui-
tive for three reasons.
First, Bott made no change of any
kind in its scheme. Apart from notice,
the conditions for the existence of the
equitable lien turned on what was
agreed between the solicitor and
client, and upon what the solicitor
then did for the client in terms of the
pursuit of the client’s claim.
That was because a lien, including
the present equitable lien, was in
principle an incident of the relation-
ship between the parties, in the
present case the relationship of solici-
tor and client, implied or conferred by
law. If Bott’s scheme qualified for the
protection of an equitable lien
against all relevant airlines when
launched, why should a later change
of practice by one of them lead to the
lien becoming unavailable?
Second, it was by no means beyond
the bounds of reasonable speculation
that Ryanair’s change in practice was
spurred on (as already noted) by
Bott’s scheme.
Third, it seemed at first sight
strange that (leaving aside notice) an
identical scheme might attract the
lien when deployed against one air-
line, but not against another.
Lady Arden delivered a judgment
agreeing with Lord Burrows and
Lord Briggs.
Lord Leggatt and Lady Rose deliv-
ered a dissenting judgment.
Solicitors: Rosenblatt Ltd; Oracle
Solicitors (Holborn).Supreme Court
Published April 4, 2022
Bott & Co Solicitors Ltd v Ryanair
DAC
Before Lord Briggs, Lady Arden, Lord
Leggatt, Lord Burrows and Lady Rose
[2022] UKSC 8
Judgment March 16, 2022
Court Circular
St James’s Palace
2nd April, 2022
The Princess Royal, Patron, the
Royal College of Midwives, this
afternoon visited NHS Grampian at
Inverurie Community Maternity
Unit, Inverurie Health and Care
Hub, Upperboat Road, Inverurie,
and was received by Her Majesty’s
Lord-Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire
(Mr Alexander Manson).
Her Royal Highness, Patron, the
Scottish Fiddle Orchestra, later
attended a Concert at the Music
Hall, Union Street, Aberdeen, and
was received by Mr Graham Guyan
(Deputy Lieutenant of the City of
Aberdeen).Windsor Castle
3rd April, 2022
Mr Kevin Steward was received by
The Prince of Wales, on behalf of
The Queen, today when His Royal
Highness invested him with the
Insignia of a Member of the Royal
Victorian Order.
Mr Timothy Reeves, Mr Robert
Revell and Mr William Taylor were
received by The Prince of Wales, on
behalf of The Queen, when His
Royal Highness decorated them
with the Royal Victorian Medal
(Silver).50%
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subscribersLegal Notices
CR-2021-002327
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
BUSINESS AND PROPERTY
COURTS OF ENGLAND AND WALES
INSOLVENCY AND COMPANIES
LIST (ChD)
IN THE MATTER OF
EDGE PERFORMANCE VCT PUBLIC
LIMITED COMPANY
AND
IN THE MATTER OF THE
COMPANIES ACT 2006
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that an
Order of the High Court of Justice
(Chancery Division) dated 8 March
2022 confirming the cancellation of the
Share Premium Account and Capital
Redemption Reserve of the above-
named Company, Edge Performance
VCT Public Limited Company, and the
Statement of Capital approved by the
Court showing with respect to the
capital of the Company as altered in
accordance with the particulars
required by Section 649(2) of the
Companies Act 2006 were registered by
the Registrar of Companies on the 22
March 2022. DATED this 4th day of
April 2022.
Lester Aldridge LLP
Russell House
Oxford Road
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Solicitors on behalf of the Company