Lord Grabiner QC, Neil Kitchener QC and Alex Polley (instructed by Wragge & Co.) acted for CPC, a company owned by Christian Candy, in its recent action against Qatari Diar relating to the withdrawal of its controversial application for planning permission to develop the Chelsea Barracks site according to a design by leading British architect, Lord Rogers. CPC argued that QD's behaviour was a breach of an agreement under which CPC would receive deferred consideration once planning permission was granted. Both parties alleged that the other had acted in bad faith. On 1 March 2009 His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales wrote to Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al Thani, the Chairman of QD (and Prime Minister of Qatar, a cousin of His Highness the Emir). He complained about the Rogers scheme and asked QD to reconsider it. Later, in May, the Prince met the Emir privately and again discussed the planning scheme. Within days of that meeting QD began to promote an alternative scheme to the planning authorities, and on 12 June 2009 it withdrew the planning application. It did not elect to pay CPC, but claimed that the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, had indicated that he intended to exercise his powers to direct the relevant local planning authority (Westminster) to refuse the application. This would have been one of the conditions entitling QD to withdraw under the SPA without making early payment to CPC. A two week trial was held before Mr Justice Vos in May 2010, of claims by CPC for declarations that QD was in breach of the SPA by withdrawing the planning application and by failing to elect to pay when it did so. By amendment after disclosure, QD also made wide-ranging allegations of bad faith against CPC. In his judgment Mr Justice Vos was not prepared to hold that QD's conduct was in bad faith, although he did find that its witnesses had lied about the extent of the Emir's influence on the decision to withdraw the planning application and that it was this which 'precipitated' the decision. The judge dismissed all QD's claims against CPC, which he described as a conspiracy theory. He found that the Mayor had not indicated his intention within the meaning of the SPA and that QD's withdrawal of the planning application was therefore a breach of contract.
Lord Grabiner QC, Neil Kitchener QC and Alex Polley were instructed by Wragge & Co. and acted for CPC.