Betfair duo get their day in court

Betfair co-founder Mark Davies and his wife Miranda, in their capacities as trustees of the Giselle Davies Family Trust and the Davies Family Trust, will have their day in court on July 8 in London in a GBP4 million suit against legal firm Speechly Bircham.

The claim, filed last August alleges negligence and/or breach of retainer for advice the law firm gave them when they tried to sell Betfair shares in the weeks immediately following Betfair’s IPO.

The trusts they represent both hold shares in Betfair and claim that losses incurred by following Speechly Bircham’s advice ran to around GBP 4.48 million.

According to the writ, the couple instructed Speechly private client partner Charles Hutton that they wanted to sell their shares when Betfair went public in October last year, with the intention of selling when shares reached at least GBP13 each.

When the company listed on 22 October, shares were trading at GBP 15.50, at which point Davies was told that selling was not possible because the shares had not been registered properly.

However, the share prices fell before the difficulties in selling the shares were sorted out, with the price per share standing at GBP 6.08 at the time the claim was issued.

“Neither trust has sold the Betfair shares given the loss that each would thereby sustain,” the writ complains. “Insofar as may be necessary the claimants will say that the defendant is liable for the totality of the losses sustained because the defendant’s breach of retainer/negligence placed the trusts in a position where they were unable to sell at the price that was available.”

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