Directors and Officers Claims Examples

  • The director of a management consultancy is quoted in the press as making some derogatory remarks about one of its major clients, based on the information they held about them. As a result, the client sued the company and the directors alleging defamation and breach of confidentiality. The Information Commissioner’s Office is investigating the company and the directors in respect of their data protection obligations.
  • Engineering manufacturers entered into factoring agreement with the claimant, but following the company going into administration, alleged that they used the monies due to the claimant to pay other creditors. Director sued £300,000.
  • Directors of a clothing manufacturer facing disqualification proceedings issued by the Secretary of State for trading whilst insolvent, together with allegations that they failed to maintain their accounts in a satisfactory manner to enable the receivers to carry out their duties, leaving many creditors (including HM Customs and Excise) unpaid. £56,000 paid in defending the directors named
  • Breach of health and safety regulations – a construction company suffered a near miss when a huge pane of glass fell from the fifth floor of a redevelopment project onto the pavement. Miraculously, no one was injured but the Health & Safety Executive made a site visit the following day. This revealed a number of legislative breaches. A variety of actions were subsequently brought against the directors resulting in costs of £45,000
  • Divorced team take director vs. director action – a husband and wife team equally owned a successful contract cleaning company. Following a messy divorce, the wife accused her husband of deliberately mismanaging the finances to distort the true worth of the business. This is commonly known as a director vs. director action and is on the increase as business pressures mount. Total costs amounted to £75,000


Employment Practices Liability

  • Ex-Chelsea doctor Eva Carneiro settles constructive dismissal claim as club ‘apologises unreservedly’
  • Uber drivers are workers, rules employment tribunal
  • Deliveroo told it must pay workers minimum wage
  • Pimlico Plumbers loses appeal against self-employed status
  • BBC pays out £600,000 dealing with employment tribunals claims
  • Drugs boss who said he ‘only employs beautiful women’ guilty of sexism
  • City boss sues for £1m over claims of ‘unrelenting’ homophobic abuse – A gay asset manager who claims he was sacked by a top City hedge fund after an “unrelenting” campaign of homophobic abuse is suing his former bosses for more than £1 million. Paul Newton, 43 says he was subjected to limp-wristed hand gestures, jibes about his long hair, and he was regularly called “camp” and effeminate while working for Balyasny Europe Asset Management
  • An engineering company dismissed an employee for poor performance without following a fair dismissal procedure. The employee subsequently made a tribunal claim for unfair dismissal and an agreement was reached to pay the employee £50,000
  • Disabled teacher sacked over Halloween film, awarded £180,000 from York Council – A disabled teacher who was sacked for gross misconduct after showing the 18-certificate film Halloween to 16-year old students has won at least £180,000 compensation from York Council
  • Former Alex cancer surgeon investigated over patient deaths loses unfair dismissal case – A cancer surgeon sacked from Redditch’s Alexandra Hospital for gross misconduct after making whistle-blowing allegations about “management failings” has lost his unfair dismissal claim