This took place in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA… A lawyer purchased a box of very rare and expensive cigars, then insured them against, among other things, loss due to fire. Within a month, having smoked his entire stockpile of these great cigars, the lawyer filed a claim against the insurance company. In his claim, the…
Nestlé has lost the latest round of its seven year battle with rivals Cadbury to trademark the shape of the KitKat bar in the UK. The Court of Appeal ruled that the four-finger design had “no inherent distinctiveness”. Nestlé’s appeal followed a High Court ruling in January 2016 that blocked the trademark attempt. The European…
Accounting firm PwC has been fined a record £5m and severely reprimanded over its auditing of collapsed property services group Connaught by The Financial Reporting Council (FRC). Social housing specialist Connaught had £220m of debt when it went bust in 2010. The FRC found evidence of misconduct by PwC and retired partner Stephen Harrison. Mr…
Taylor Wimpey, one of the UK’s biggest housebuilders, has set aside £130m and apologised to home buyers in a dispute over sharply rising fees. It is the first major builder to apologise after criticism for leaving customers with onerous leasehold deals. The contracts meant that ground rents, which are paid to owners of the property,…
Sports Direct and Newcastle United owner billionaire Mike Ashley has won the latest round of a High Court fight with Rangers Football Club over a merchandise deal said to result in the Rangers getting about 7p of every £1 spent. Sports Direct group say Rangers’ directors wrongly terminated a contract through which branded products, including…
A recent judgement has been made in the professional negligence case of Adams v Atlas International Property Services Ltd which saw many individuals lose their homes which they had purchased during the Spanish property boom. Purchasers in England had bought property in Spain after seeing adverts placed by English agents for the developer and who…
Giovanni Jacovelli, who runs the Conwy Valley Maze in North Wales, says he has been subjected to repeated threats by Terrence Maitland, who lets out a holiday cottage on neighbouring land over a post put on the boundary between the properties. In footage filmed by Mr Jacovelli, Mr Maitland is heard shouting, “That post is…
Bankers Andrew and Penny McSpadden have been involved in a parking dispute with finance company boss Sheriar Bradbury for a number of years over the size of the car parking bays outside the converted church they share in Hampstead. The dispute escalated when art dealers Mary and Yuval Hanina paid £1.45m to buy the third…
Audrey Hepburn’s eldest son Sean Ferrer is being sued by The Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund, the charity he helped establish because it says he is interfering with its attempts to raise money for children. Money was being raised largely by exhibiting her clothing – some created by fashion designer Givenchy. The charity is saying that…
The late actress Audrey Hepburn, who died in 1993, left memorabilia including hats, scarves, jewellery, posters, costumes, photos, scripts and awards, which caused a dispute between her two sons, Sean Ferrer and his half-brother Luca Dotti who each wanted a tangible piece of their late mother. Hepburn had left her sons a 50/50 cut of…