Case No. HT-11-503

244.The various figures by both experts have gone through a number of different iterations. That is not uncommon. However, in the light of my conclusions as to the relevance of the actual figures, I take as my starting point Mr Isaac’s analysis. However, I do so by adjusting the figures to reflect some of the points made during Mrs Rawlin’s oral evidence. 245.Mr Isaacs demonstrated that, on the actual figures, the loss of gross profit during the relevant 7 month period, prior to any consideration of savings, was in the sum of £167,688. Since I have agreed with Mr Isaac’s calculation of the relevant period (albeit for slightly different reasons), that is therefore my starting point.246.From that figure, as both experts agree, fall to be deducted the various savings. The savings agreed by the experts, subject to Mrs Rawlin’s late adjustments (which I accept), produce a total of £146,910. On that basis, Mr Isaac has calculated a net loss of profit of £20,779 for the relevant period (being the £167,688 less the savings of £146,910). Thus, if there were no other savings, Mr Isaac’s calculation shows a net loss of profit of £20,779. It seems to me that this was referable to the second inundation (and therefore the responsibility of the defendants).247.Mr Isaac then identified two further potential savings. One, in relation to various miscellaneous items, was in the sum of £16,667, which would reduce the net loss of profit to about £4000 odd. The other is the saving in relation to the alleged £8,000 per month rent which amounted to £59,077 over the relevant period (7 ½ months x £8,000). These two figures, when added to the agreed savings, mean that the savings outweighed the loss of profit, so that the business would never have made a profit at all. 248.I was not persuaded by Mr Isaac’s analysis that a further miscellaneous category of savings could be introduced in the sum of £16,667. Whilst I accept that there was a possibility that some of these items, in relation to maintenance, motors, entertaining and recruitment, might have generated possible savings, the evidence was too flimsy to suggest that they should be brought into account for the purpose of assessing the net loss of profit over this period. I am inclined to agree with Mrs Rawlin that they were better treated as one-off savings which were not relevant to the calculation of loss of profit. For the purposes of the calculation of loss of profit, therefore, I put them to one side.249.That leaves the question of rent. The evidential position relating to this element of the story was entirely unsatisfactory. 250.Any consideration of rent starts from the premise that, according to Mr Barber, the intention was that Brit Inns would pay Mrs Lawless and himself the sum of £8,000 per month by way of rent. It is certainly right, as Mr Miller pointed out, that the various forecasts produced by Brit Inns indicate this intention. But no agreement to this effect was ever drawn up and there is no other documentary record of any such intention. Furthermore, although Mrs Lawless and Mr Barber did advance a claim for loss of rent, in the second action, as an alternative to the loss of profit claim, that claim was abandoned during the trial. 251.Mr Plewman maintained that, if the rent figure was a saving to be taken into account in the calculation of the loss of profit on the part of Brit Inns, then it was properly the subject of the claim (currently stayed) by Mr Barber and Mrs Lawless for loss of rent in the Brit Inns action. He maintained that although their claims in that action had been stayed, the stay could be lifted to allow them to make this claim. He argued that this would follow, notwithstanding the abandonment of the loss of rent claim in the other action, because it was clarified at the start of the trial that the abandoned rent claim related to a different, later period, and not the 7 months between October 2007 and May 2008. Mr Plewman argued that, if the rent was classified as a saving to Brit Inns then – in fairness – it was a liability which Mr Barber and Mrs Lawless were entitled to claim. He went on to say that the only way in which the rent could be taken into account as part of the savings, but not made the subject of a separate claim by Mr Barber and Mrs Lawless, would be if the liability to pay rent on the part of Brit Inns was waived by Mr Barber and Mrs Lawless, and there was no evidence of that.252.In my view, in order to achieve fairness, the possible loss of rent should be discounted on both sides of the balance sheet. I say that partly because I am not persuaded that there was ever any such agreement between Mr Barber and Mrs Lawless on the one hand, and Brit Inns on the other. And if I was wrong about that, and there was such an agreement, so that the rental was legitimately a saving on the part of Brit Inns then, on the face of it, it would give rise to a liability on the part of Brit Inns to Mr Barber and Mrs Lawless which could not fairly be ignored. For these reasons, therefore, I consider it much better for the loss of rental to be discounted entirely, both as a liability and as a saving.253.Whilst dealing with the question of rent, I should add this. At one point in his closing submissions, Mr Plewman sought to argue that the loss of profit claim in the form advanced by Mrs Rawlin was real and significant because it could be compared with what might have happened if Mr Barber and Mrs Lawless had decided to rent out the property instead. I consider that this suggestion was much too speculative. They were never advised to rent out the premises; they never considered renting out the premises; they never did rent out the premises; and they continue to operate a (presumably successful) business from the premises. Thus there was nothing in this point, and it only confirmed my view that all questions of rent were properly left to one side in the assessment of the loss of profit claim.