Gallagher Benefit Services Management Company Limited v Meagher

The Claimant brought claims in deceit, breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty. The Court held that Mr Meagher had acted in breach of his employment contract and a settlement agreement, but that the Claimant had failed to show that Mr Meagher was its fiduciary or that it had suffered any loss.

The claim is a reminder to practitioners always to consider the case on causation carefully. During the course of trial, the Claimant sought to suggest that it could pursue an alternative case in causation from what it had pleaded. However per Coulson J in Pantelli Associates Limited v Corporate City Developments Number Two Limited [2010] EWHC 3189 (TCC), a plea of causation always requires the claimant to plead what it says would have happened but for the wrongdoing complained of (i.e. its counterfactual allegation). In Building Design Partnership Limited v Standard Life Assurance Limited [2022] 1 WLR 878, Coulson LJ (as he had by then become) made clear that this principle applies whenever causation is an element of the cause of action.

In Gallagher, if the Claimant had wished to pursue an alternative claim in causation, it would need to have pleaded it. That would then have led to a different set of pleadings, different disclosure, different evidence (including most likely expert evidence), and altogether a different trial. No application was made during trial for permission to amend, but it is most unlikely that permission would have been granted if such an application had been made, as it would have led to the trial being adjourned.

Peter Head acted for the successful Defendant.

A copy of the Judgment can be found here.