Arnold & Porter Secures Commercial Dispute Victory for Estera Trust Limited and Herinder Singh

Arnold & Porter's London Commercial Disputes group recently delivered a major victory for clients Estera Trust (Jersey) Limited and Herinder Singh in a section 994 unfair prejudice petition brought by them against respondents Jasminder Singh and Edwardian Group Limited.

The long-running shareholder dispute involved the Radisson Edwardian group of hotels in London and culminated in an order for a buyout of the petitioners' shares at approximately £140 million, beating the respondents' publicly disclosed settlement offer of £50 million.

The Judge found that there had been "an attempt to cause the petitioners to incur very substantial costs" and, in order to win the case, the clients had to overcome what the Judge described as "obstruction of the disclosure process and an unduly attritional approach to the litigation."

This is also the first and only case to deal with the extent to which documents created to obtain litigation funding are privileged.

The Arnold & Porter team included partner Hilton Mervis, counsel Charlotte Mallorie and associate Josie Greener.