King's / Queen's Bench Division of the High Court

KB-2021-000741 - [2025] EWHC 2096 (KB)

Fecha: 06-Ago-2025

VII The alleged breaches of contract

VII The alleged breaches of contract

80.

The alleged breaches in the statements of case are of two different kinds. First, there are breaches which are common to all of the Claimants. Second, there are breaches on the part of JBL complained ofby each Claimant separately. Some of those are common, but others are not. All of the Claimants then say that the totality of the breaches of contract of which they complain together and individually amounted to repudiatory breaches which they were able to rely upon to terminate their respective contracts.

81.

There will first be summarised the breaches which all the Claimants allege, namely that:

(1)

Mr Benson, the controlling mind of JBL, created an abusive and intimidating environment in which the Claimants were required to work. He would regularly insult and be verbally abusive to franchisees;

(2)

Mr Benson would boast of having sued former instructors and taken their homes or their guarantors homes, and examples were given of posts on the “Just Benson” Facebook account.

(3)

Mr Benson used the Facebook account to make derogatory remarks about female instructors and to publish racist slurs against Gypsies and Irish Travellers and against a former Chinese franchisee.

(4)

Prices were set which were too low making the business less profitable with each year and made no allowance for the costs of travelling to and from a pupil’s home.

(5)

Mr Benson prevented instructors from publicising the cost of their services under threat of sanctions.

(6)

JBL recruited new instructors within particular postal areas without regard to the impact on franchisees having to compete with them or to incur additional expenses in serving pupils outside their area;

(7)

JBL required franchisees to publicise its business in areas outside their own without any benefit for so doing and under threat of sanction;

(8)

JBL required franchisees to distribute leaflets without space for identifying their own contact details.

(9)

Almost all requests to advertise the franchisees’ own mobile phone numbers on cars were unreasonably refused.

82.

Each Claimant made a number of allegations of breaches of their own, some only one allegation and up to as many as seven allegations in the case of the Sixth Claimant, Ms Rusted.