Whitmar Publications Limited v. Gamage and Others [2013] Ch Div, Peter Leaver QC
Last week Lucy Bone, instructed by Paul Maynard of Gaby Hardwicke Solicitors, succeeded on an injunction application for the publishing house Whitmar Limited and obtained costs on the indemnity basis. Despite having granted springboard relief until trial, Peter Leaver QC sitting as a Deputy declined to order an expedited trial.
While Lawrence David v. Ashton [1989] IRLR 22 establishes that ordinarily the court will order a speedy trial, in this case the judge held it was not appropriate to do so. There is no automatic right to a speedy trial, and the interests of the Defendants had to be balanced against the interests of litigants generally. Although the Defendants argued that the effect of the springboard would be to freeze their new business, the judge found that they had not produced sufficiently powerful evidence to support that argument.
This decision will encourage applicants for springboard relief to take a robust approach as to the period of relief, where there is a significant period of unlawful advantage and there is limited exposure on the cross undertaking in damages. It will also increase the evidential burden on defendants to an injunction, and require sufficient evidence of loss to warrant the court ordering an expedited trial.
The judge indicated he would hand down written judgment in late July
