Richard Glover and Hannah Lavelle from JMW’s property litigation department were able to successfully defend claims for nuisance, negligence and an injunction against our client.

Our client is the leaseholder in a block of residential flats in Brighton. The Claimant, another leaseholder in the same block issued the claim and injunction against our client in 2021, alleging that in breach of his duty he had allowed water to escape from his flat into hers causing damage. There were also claims of noise nuisance caused by our client and/or his tenant.

How JMW helped?

Our client had instructed different solicitors at the outset and JMW were instructed more than two years after the legal proceedings were commenced. Richard and Hannah conducted a detailed review of the case and identified that the Claimant’s claim was poorly pleaded and due to the failings of the Claimant’s solicitors, JMW’s team were required to take the lead in case management. The Claimant benefitted from Legal Expense Insurance therefore her risks in the litigation were minimal.

The outcome

Due to various procedural failings by the Claimant throughout the case, JMW managed to successfully obtain two interim adverse costs orders against the Claimant before the matter had got to trial.

At trial, the Judge dismissed the Claimant’s claim in its entirety commenting that the Claimant had failed to reach the test for establishing negligence and/nuisance against our client. Due to a combination of the Claimant’s case being poorly managed and her failure to accept our client’s sensible without prejudice offers, the Court awarded our client 83% of the costs he had incurred in defending the claim. It is rare for the court to award such a high proportion of costs and so this represented a significant victory for our client.

JMW’s client said:

“I had intermittent and unsatisfactory legal support from various sources and things were looking grim. On the 28th September 2023, almost 1 year ago, I made contact with Hannah Lavelle, a Solicitor in Commercial Litigation at JMW Solicitors LLP, who are experts on Property Law. Hannah supported by Richard Glover had to get up to speed with this complex case that had been running for 2.5 years. I can report that Hannah was soon up to speed and gave me excellent advice, responding to the claimant’s solicitors very rapidly with accurate legal knowledge, the important point is that Hannah knows the law relating to property disputes and this was the important factor in this case. At court the barrister was outstanding in exposing the shortcomings of the speculative and negative surveyor expert witness evidence. I am happy to report that due to the professionalism and expertise of the JMW legal team that represented me at court the Judge dismissed the injunction claim and the claim for damages. I am really grateful for the excellent work completed by JMW.”

JMW partner Richard Glover said:

“We are delighted with the outcome that we have achieved for our client, the emphatic win was entirely deserved as was the significant costs recovery.  We were instructed two years after the claims were initially issued, which is never an ideal scenario, however our team was able to quickly identify several weaknesses in the Claimant’s various claims securing the correct result for our client and recovering a significant proportion of his legal costs.”

JMW’s team comprised Partner Richard Glover, Solicitor Hannah Lavelle and Barrister Sophie Gibson from Landmark Chambers.