An Aberdeen oil boss who was previously blocked from bidding for a $210million lawsuit over the collapse of his business has won an appeal against the decision.
Bob Kidd founded ITS Tubular Services (ITS) which went into administration in 2013 – but a previous court of session ruling blocked him from bringing the lawsuit, which alleged a lawyer conspiracy led to a raw deal that saw the collapse of his business and the value of his shares becoming “worthless”.
Two years on from another suit against Burness Paull which settled for £20million, Mr Kidd had continued his attempt to recover the full value of his ITS shares from different parties, which he claims were aware of the conflict of interest and were working both sides of a sale of part of the business.
Mr Kidd argued he never would have sold a 34.5% stake in ITS in 2009 to private equity group Lime Rock, had he known of his own lawyer’s conflict of interest.
Unknown to him at the time, his representative at Paull and Williamsons (now Burness Paull) was alleged to be advising both ITS and, in an unofficial capacity, Lime Rock in the sale, leading to the first $210m lawsuit back in 2015.
That conflict of interest led to the case being settled for £20 million previously, before going to trial.
Mr Kidd then claimed that Lime Rock and another law firm, Ledingham Chalmers, were aware and “conspired to facilitate” the lawyer’s breach of fiduciary duty, leading him to bring this second $210m lawsuit – damages for the estimated lost value of his ITS shares.
But now that decision has been overturned on appeal.
In court documents, Lady Dorrian, the Lord Justice Clerk, stated: “I am of opinion that the reclaiming motion should be upheld; the commercial judge’s interlocutor dismissing the action should be recalled; and the whole matter remitted to the commercial roll for further procedure.”
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