Advice please........

[sheffield61]

Good morning to everybody.......


I write for some advice please......


In June 2016 the FOS instructed Stadia trustees Ltd to repay me my entire life's pension of just over £100,000.

I have hopefully correctly here attached my deliberations for a bit of light reading......

Stadia were given two weeks by my adjudication officer to put forward any possible objections to the findings, no such objections ever came from them.

In fact, Stadia just bravely ran away and folded a couple of months later in order to avoid their direct commitments to me here.

A few weeks ago now I had some information from Griffin's Insolvency as the company now overseeing Stadia's demise.

This being that the SOLE director of Stadia has current live run-on D & O insurance up to the summer of 2023.

My questions are as follows if I may.



1. Are my FOS deliberations legally binding on Stadia/the sole director or BOTH here.

2. Do you think that I may have a claim at the D & O insurance directly linked to my FOS deliberations.

3. Can the insurers or their Solicitors simply airbrush out my FOS deliberations and ignore/block such a claim by me.

4. If push comes to shove, do I have a case to take this sole director to Court in a private prosecution should the insurers turn me away.

5. What is the overall value of my deliberations be it in Court or with the insurers & how seriously will these parties take this document.

6. AS Stadia did not respond to the deliberations am I right in thinking that today these ARE legally binding despite the fact that they were produced by an adjudication officer and not an actual Ombudsman.



MANY thanks in advance for any advice received here from you all........ FOS deliberations (5).pdf


Best regards,



John.

[atticus]

Hello John, and welcome.

I am sorry to read this. You are in a very difficult position, and I can offer you no encouragement.

If nobody else does, I will come back later today with detailed replies to your questions, and attempt to explain why I am not optimistic.

[sheffield61]

Hello John, and welcome.

I am sorry to read this. You are in a very difficult position, and I can offer you no encouragement.

If nobody else does, I will come back later today with detailed replies to your questions, and attempt to explain why I am not optimistic.

Hello Atticus,

If you would respond to me when you can I would be most thankful. Yesterday the Solicitors representing Griffin's insolvency advised that I should claim under the Third Parties rights Act of 2010. I am unsure of the significance of this Act linked to any claim at the insurance company TBH.......


Regards,


John.

[des8]

Whilst waiting for Atticus to add to his earlier comments I would say that I doubt any claim against the DandO insurers would be successful.
From memory I recall such policies do not cover claims against the company but only claims against individuals when acting as directors or officers.
Cover does vary from insurer to insurer and I can't be sure if cover has been widened since I was last involved (too many years ago!)

In any case any such claim might need to proceed to court, and due to the Limitation Act you might be out of time.

[atticus]

Sorry, work got in the way - preparing for the new university year. I will try to put a reply together today.

[atticus]

As I said earlier, I think that you are in some difficulties in this. I can answer your various questions in post number 1 as follows

1. If the instruction/direction was given to the company then while the company may act by its sole director, nevertheless the obligation to act falls upon the company. It may be that under FOS rules the FOS may impose sanctions on the director, but I suspect that this is unlikely if the company has gone into liquidation.

2. When it comes to insurance, you need to remember that insurance is there to benefit the insured person. In order to benefit from this insurance you would need to have a viable claim against the director.

3. If the insurers consider that you do not have an arguable claim against the director, then I would expect them to respond accordingly, possibly through lawyers.

4. I do not think that you mean ”prosecution”, as this suggest bringing a criminal case, but rather that you are contemplating civil action. The question here is what grounds you may have to bring a civil claim against this individual. Remember that it is the company that has been ordered to repay you, and not the individual.

There may be actions that can be brought against this director arising out of his conduct as a director of the company, but for the most part these will be actions that the liquidator can bring for the benefit of creditors generally. If you have not already done so, you should ensure that your claim is lodged with the liquidator.

If you look at companies house website and find the file for this company*, then you will see under the tab for “filing history” the liquidator's most recent progress report filed on 3 August 2020. Section 4 of the progress report (page 7 of the PDF onwards) indicates that legal action against the director is being considered.

On the information provided I am finding it difficult to identify any legal cause of action that you personally may have against the director. However, if you would like this investigated further then you should instruct good solicitors, who will be able to consider the full history and all relevant documents. Be prepared to spend several thousand pounds.

5. I do not understand this question.

6. Others may be able to answer this question.

* https://find-and-update.company-info...filing-history

[atticus]

Also, I see that the FOS decision letter is dated June 2016, i.e. more than 6 years ago. This may make any claim that you bring time-barred under the Limitation Act 1980.

This will not apply to any action by the liquidator as time begins running for the limitation purposes from the date of the commencement of liquidation, Which in this case was June 2018.

[sheffield61]

Many thanks to you both for the most helpful information here supplied.....