New Judgment – Re Pocket Renting Limited [2024] EWHC 2948 (Ch)

Pocket Renting Limited (“the Company”) owned a substantial property portfolio which it valued at £94m. Following a series of contractual defaults, a secured creditor (“the Lender”) appointed administrators. The Company’s director brought proceedings against the Lender alleging that: (i) it was estopped from appointing administrators; (ii) the finance documents could be avoided for mistake or misrepresentation; and (iii) the Lender had an improper motive in making the appointment.

Following a four-day trial, HH Judge Klein (sitting as a High Court Judge) rejected the director’s case on all grounds. After “observing and listening carefully to [the director’s] cross-examination”, the Judge held that the alleged representations which were said to form the estoppel were not made. The Judge rejected the director’s case that there was a common mistake, said to arise out of the operation of a “rule” in the UK Finance Handbook for Lenders, and that the Lender’s security was void. Finally, the Judge found that the director’s pleaded case on paragraph 81 had “no foundation at all” and that the Lender did not have an improper motive in making the appointment.

The judgment is available at https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2024/2948.html