KB-2024-003652 - [2025] EWHC 1900 (KB)

This is a claim for libel and malicious falsehood, commenced by Claim Form dated 25 October 2024. The Claimant is an accountant and businessman, who is involved through the medium of an entity called PCI Corporate Partners in providing business consultancy services, project management, and partnering with or investing in companies. The Defendant is a public relations director, who founded a company called Thoburns Communications Limited in 1986, and has various other business interests. They came into contact with one another in relation to the affairs of a company called Hat & Mitre plc (“the Company”), which was placed in administration on 19 December 2018 and entered into liquidation on 19 April 2021. At all material times, they each had shareholdings in the Company, as did eight other individual beneficial shareholders.

The Particulars of Claim were served on 24 February 2025. The words complained of comprise the entirety of an email that was sent by the Defendant on 25 October 2023 (“the Email”) to (i) the Claimant, (ii) the two joint liquidators of the Company, (iii) six of the other shareholders in the Company, and (iv) the administrators of the Defendant’s SIPP (through which he held his shareholding in the Company). That email was sent in response to an email from the Claimant dated 21 October 2023 (“the 21 October Email”), which had been sent to the Defendant and to the same persons as are identified at (ii)-(iv) inclusive. The Defendant contends that the material correspondence dates back further than the 21 October Email, however, and includes further emails sent by the Claimant on 28 July 2023, 6 September 2023, 3 October 2023, and 18 October 2023.

An acknowledgment of service was filed on 11 April 2025. On 25 April 2025, the Defendant issued an application seeking summary judgment against the Claimant pursuant to CPR 24.3(a), further or alternatively strike out of the entire claim pursuant to CPR 3.4(2)(a). In essence, summary judgment is sought on the grounds that the pleaded causes of action have no real prospect of success because (i) the Email was published on an occasion that is protected by qualified privilege, (ii) the pleaded case on malice is defective, and in any event there is no factual basis for a case on malice, and (iii) the pleaded case on serious harm is defective, and there is no evidence to support a case on serious harm; and, further, there is no other compelling reason for a trial. Strike out is sought on the footing that the pleaded case discloses no reasonable grounds for bringing either the claim in libel or the claim in malicious falsehood.

By Order of Collins Rice J dated 2 May 2025, the Defendant’s application was listed to be heard with a time estimate of one day, and it came before me on 27 June 2025, when the Defendant was represented by Mr de Wilde and the Claimant appeared in person. It was not possible for me to deliver judgment on the hearing date, however, because although Mr de Wilde completed his submissions well before 1pm, the Claimant’s submissions occupied the entirety of the rest of the day until long after 4.30pm, such that it would have been impractical and unfair to the Court staff to give judgment then.