Thomas Fletcher

The vast majority of Thomas’s work involves commercial or business disputes, including banking and civil fraud claims. The majority of this work is in the English courts but Thomas also has experience in commercial arbitration. He has a particular interest in disputes involving trusts elements, whether due to the involvement of trustees or the contractual framework in which the dispute has arisen.

His work includes:

• Maroil Trading Inc v Cally Shipholdings Inc (2020). Applications for security for costs in the context of proceedings in England concerning breach of a settlement agreement and separate breaches of duty of confidence. The applications produced two judgments, including an important judgment on the principles for security for the costs of an additional claim ([2020] Costs LR 1697).
• Acting in heavy commercial litigation concerning the validity of claims brought by a substantial number of foreign domiciled claimants in respect of an alleged cartel.
• Acting on an LCIA arbitration concerning a contractual interpretation dispute.
• Acting in relation to a summary judgment application concerning a claim by financial advisers for success fees under various engagement agreements concerning M&A transactions and IPOs.
• Acting on an application in England to lift a stay on proceedings and to enforce an arbitration award, where the stay had been granted due to allegations of fraud tainting the underlying arbitration award.
• Advising on a potential claim for wrongful termination of contract in relation to the supply of tyres to mines in East Africa worth approximately $30 million.
• Advising on a potential group litigation claim for misrepresentation and/or negligence against financial advisers and multiple stock exchanges concerning mistaken description of shares.
• Advising a multi-national bank on potential claims against them by personal representatives arising from wrongful payments out of accounts, including potential claims under the Payment Services Regulations 2009.
• Advising franchisees on potential claims against a high-profile company acting as franchisor for fraudulent and negligent misrepresentation in relation to franchise agreements.
• Advising trustees and personal representatives in relation to potential and actual claims against financial advisers for breaches of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and the FCA Handbook.

Thomas has extensive experience of a range of company and insolvency work. His first case in practice was appearing as junior counsel on a three-month trial of an unfair prejudice petition involving a high-profile company. Thomas’s work still regularly involves company and insolvency law issues.

His work includes:

• Re GHD Group Holdings Ltd (2011 to 2012). Proceedings in England acting as junior counsel (led by two silks) for the trial of an unfair prejudice petition concerning a very high-profile beauty company (GHD) between one of the founders of the company and members of a private equity firm, who were the majority shareholders. The claim settled after three months of trial.
• Skelwith (Leisure) Ltd v Armstrong (2015 to 2016). Proceedings in England acting as junior counsel for one of the partners in a partnership in respect of a claim concerning the validity of contracts for the sale of a property. Two judgments were given by the High Court, including a reported decision ([2016] Ch 345) on important issues as to the interpretation of the Land Registration Act 2002 and mortgagees’ remedies and a further decision on late amendments ([2015] EWHC 3487 (Ch)).
• Campbell v Campbell [2017] JRC 018. Proceedings in Jersey in respect of a long-running dispute arising out of a family partnership concerning the beneficial ownership of shares in a Jersey company owned by the partnership.
• Advising on and appearing in connection with liquidator claims, for example preference claims, transactions at an undervalue, transactions intended to defraud creditors. Have appeared in several trials for both liquidators and directors.
• Advising on and appearing in connection with applications to cross-examine company directors.
• Appearing on contested winding-up and bankruptcy petitions, setting aside winding-up orders and annulling bankruptcies.
• Advising and appearing on claims by trustees in bankruptcy for orders for sale in respect of real property, including appearing on several trials.
• Advising trustees on directors’ duties in respect of trust-owned companies and the removal of directors.

Thomas specialises in trusts matters, both domestic and offshore. The majority of his work in this area is contentious and involves a mixture of both pure trusts disputes (e.g. claims for breach of trust and the removal of trustees) and wider commercial disputes involving trusts elements (e.g. civil fraud claims involving trustees or assets held on trust). However, a significant proportion of his work is non-contentious and he is regularly involved in directions applications (e.g. Public Trustee v Cooper and Beddoe applications), VTA applications and general trust administration matters (e.g. disclosure of documents, Benjamin orders and construction issues). He is very experienced in drafting a range of trust documents, particularly in connection with proposed trust restructurings.

Thomas is also one of very few practitioners with experience in criminal and regulatory matters as they affect trusts and trustees in England and other jurisdictions. He has an extensive understanding of criminal and civil proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, including applications for Unexplained Wealth Orders and civil recovery proceedings.

Thomas’s work usually has an international dimension. As a result, he has been instructed in trusts matters in jurisdictions such as Bermuda, the BVI, the Cayman Islands, Isle of Man, Gibraltar and Hong Kong. He also has particular experience litigating in Jersey and Guernsey, most notably in the Tchenguiz litigation in Guernsey which has been ongoing for over a decade.

Thomas is one of the editors of Lewin on Trusts. He also regularly speaks at conferences on trusts issues and contributes articles to leading journals such as Trusts & Trustees.

His recent work includes:

• Advising on proceedings concerning the removal of trustees of several family trusts and claims for breach of trust.
• Advising on claims for misrepresentation arising from contributions to a pension fund totalling tens of millions of pounds.
• Advising on proceedings to determine the proper interpretation of the trust deed and for directions as to the scope of the trustees’ powers in respect of an EBT.
• Advising on claims for breach of trust for breach of the Bartlett duty for sums running into hundreds of millions of pounds.
• Acting for beneficiaries in proceedings in England concerning directions to wind up a will trust.

NOTABLE CASES

• Investec Trust (Guernsey) Ltd v Glenalla Properties Ltd (2012 to Date) (“the Tchenguiz Litigation”). Multiple proceedings in Guernsey, Jersey and England. The first set of proceedings produced 12 judgments from the Guernsey Court of Appeal between 2014 and 2016 (see e.g. (2015-2016) 18 ITELR 1 and (2015) 18 ITELR 30) and the Privy Council gave judgment on 8 appeals in 2018 (see [2019] AC 271). The second set of proceedings has produced 4 judgments from the Royal Court of Guernsey ([2019] GRC 064; [2020] GRC 020; [2021] GRC 007; [2022] GRC 003) and a further judgment from the Privy Council is pending.
• Bicester Rugby Union Football Club Ltd v Payne and Malins (2021). Proceedings in England concerning the validity of a trust established in the 1930s in respect of sports grounds.
• Campbell v Campbell [2017] JRC 018. Proceedings in Jersey in respect of a long-running dispute arising out of a family partnership concerning the beneficial ownership of shares in a Jersey company owned by the partnership. Judgment held for the first time in Jersey that the principles of common intention constructive trusts could apply outside a real property context and also included some of the first discussion of claims in unjust enrichment in Jersey.
• Re Barclays Private Bank & Trust (Isle of Man) Ltd (2014). Proceedings in the Isle of Man seeking permission by trustees to pay monies into court under the Manx equivalent to section 63 of the Trustee Act 1925. Instructed to provide an expert opinion on the scope of the Manx legislation which was accepted in full in the judgment (CHP 2014/56).

Thomas has a strong interest in charities work and his trusts and estates practice regularly involves elements of charities law. His work includes advising unincorporated associations (e.g. sports and social clubs) on their trust arrangements, rules of membership and possibility of seeking charitable status.

His estates work also regularly involves advising on will disputes and administration issues involving gifts to charities. He is also one of the editors of Theobald on Wills including the chapter on charitable gifts.

Thomas has acquired a substantial amount of experience in property matters. This includes cases involving trusts of land and proprietary estoppel in addition to pure real property matters. He also has a particular interest in the administration of settled land and has given talks on the topic. Separately, Thomas has been involved in several significant rights of way disputes, including appearing in the Supreme Court.

His work includes:

• R (on the application of Trail Riders’ Fellowship) v Dorset County Council [2015] 1 WLR 1406. Appeal to the Supreme Court as junior counsel for the successful respondents (the Trail Riders Fellowship) on the requirements for an application under section 53 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to modify the definitive map and statement.
• R (on the application of Trail Riders’ Fellowship) v Devon County Council [2013] EWHC 2104 (Admin). Acted in judicial review proceedings challenging the imposition of a Traffic Regulation Order under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984.
• Skelwith (Leisure) Ltd v Armstrong (2015 to 2016). Proceedings in England acting as junior counsel for one of the partners in a partnership in respect of a claim concerning the validity of contracts for the sale of a property. Two judgments were given by the High Court, including a reported decision ([2016] Ch 345) on important issues as to the interpretation of the Land Registration Act 2002 and mortgagees’ remedies and a further decision on late amendments ([2015] EWHC 3487 (Ch)).
• Advising a local authority on its powers in connection with the organisation of a major national annual event.
• Advising on a local authority’s failure properly to exercise its powers under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.