Society of Lloyd's v Laws & Ors

In assessing whether a claim could arguably equal or exceed a statutory demand, the court must use the properly supported figures for the relevant underwriting loss, allowing for applicable profits, losses, releases and expenses. A material calculation error, including a misplaced decimal point, must be corrected. On the corrected figures, the claimant’s loss remained substantially below the statutory demand figure.

This judgment records a further determination by Mr Justice Cooke after his judgment of 28 January 2004. The court had invited further submissions on the arguable quantum of Mr Drysdale’s loss because the figures advanced by Society of Lloyd's and Mr Drysdale differed markedly. The further calculations showed that the principal discrepancy arose from a misplaced decimal point in the calculations for one syndicate. The court therefore reconsidered the aggregate loss for the 1982 underwriting year.

1. The court corrected the calculation of Mr Drysdale’s 1982 underwriting loss. The revised figure advanced on his behalf was £30,436, while the court’s earlier provisional maximum assessment, allowing for the decimal-point error, was £39,289.
2. The closed-year figures produced a profit of £13,088.50. For syndicate 126, the court accepted a loss of £38,786, taking account of the Equitas release and allowing for personal expenses. For syndicate 700, the court adopted the figure most favourable to Mr Drysdale, namely a profit of £8,142. For syndicate 89, correction of the misplaced decimal point reduced the claimed loss to £21,973.50.
3. Adding the closed-year profit to those syndicate figures produced a maximum aggregate loss of £39,425. This was adopted for the purpose of the argument, although the lower figure of £30,436 might be more accurate.
4. Whatever rate of interest was allowed, Mr Drysdale’s claim could not arguably equal or exceed the statutory demand figure of £310,504.