Introduction
David Stockill practices in the Business and Property Courts. His practice is broadly based, with an emphasis on property litigation, contentious probate, and company and business association (e.g. partnership) disputes together with general commercial disputes usually with contractual or equitable considerations. Often the commercial cases involve allegations of breach of fiduciary duty and trust, breach of directors’ duties and the tracing and recovery of assets.
David’s guiding principle is whether value can be added at a particular stage of a case by the instruction of a barrister. This generally means it is to the client’s advantage to involve and meet him early (in conference in person or remotely) to give a steer on future conduct, tactics and progress.
The use of interim injunctions in all guises features regularly, as well as other interim steps leading to a trial. As a trial advocate, David is a confident, and if it calls for it (according to the directories), combative operator who is known for his thorough preparation. He is however someone who always puts the client first, and if this means negotiation and settlement strategies, his experience as accredited mediator counts.
David has now been practising from Birmingham for more than 30 years, although his practice spans geographically from the North to the South, and London. He appears in all appropriate courts from drafting to the Supreme Court, appearing in the Court of Appeal, the Business and Property Courts in the major cities, the County Court and specialist tribunals.
David is an accredited mediator.
A graduate of St John’s College, Cambridge (MA Cantab). In his spare time, David loves his skiing (Val d’Isere is a favourite); and cycling (a half blue at University); and occasionally, but not often, has time for less energetic pastimes.
Company and Partnership
David has a company practice mainly rooted in the contentious particularly with wide experience in Petitions and Derivative Actions. He has been instructed many times in relation to unfair prejudice, share sale (and other acquisition) disputes, and warranty and indemnity claims. The nature and business of the companies’ concerns varies – through retail and trading businesses to more technical professional companies. Particularly in the contentious domain, the use of interim injunctions, and other interim applications, feature regularly. As a trial advocate, David is a confident, and if it calls for it, combative operator who is known for his thorough preparation. He is however someone who always puts the client first, and if this means negotiation and settlement strategies, his experience as an accredited mediator counts. This a prime example of where an early involvement and meeting the client pays dividends.
More Recent Cases:
- Unfair prejudice petition and winding up in the alternative, together with a partnership action in a long running family dispute concerning caravan parks, involving two visits to the Court of Appeal, numerous interim injunctions culminating in a trial after two failed mediations. A settlement, rare these days, was achieved at the door of the court after 3 years and two months of litigation. (Loveridge v Loveridge)
- A dispute for a large care provider over the shareholdings in a joint enterprise subsidiary.
- Several cases involving disputes between GPs retiring from their partnership practices.
- A long running family partnership dispute concerning the family farm with an overlay of proprietary estoppel
Previous cases
- Resisting the winding up of a land-owning company (with assets of £90 million)
- Advising on the various rights and obligations arising in a Share Option Scheme
- A shareholder dispute in relation to care homes; and another one in respect of an engineering firm with misfeasance allegations
- Advised in share warranty claims, of more modest value, in respect of a West Midlands business
- Advising in the pursuit of the personal liability of directors following a disqualification order
- Advising in the resistance of a claim of more than £100,000 by an investor against his co-director shareholder, containing veiled allegations of fraud
- Two freezing injunctions, one worth in excess of £4 million for a worldwide order including passport and movement restrictions (against a former global industrialist); the other a telecoms fraud
Contentious Wills, Trusts and Probate
David started his professional life with good quality pupillages in Lincoln’s Inn, mixing between commercial chancery and specialised traditional chancery (now renamed Business and Property Work). He has practised from Birmingham for 35 years and was the first barrister in Birmingham with a 100% Chancery practice. He has maintained within his practice: probate disputes, questions arising in the administration of estates, issues facing executors and administrators, Inheritance Act applications and claims for breach of trust and fiduciary duty. In an area where experience and wisdom combined with good common sense balanced with detailed legal knowledge count, David will fight hard when necessary; and negotiate when appropriate. David is also an accredited mediator.
Recent Cases:
- A claim under the Inheritance Act for provision for a 16-year-old daughter of the deceased and a net estate of about £2.5 million, involving an application for interim provision of a home and for the care and maintenance of the daughter. The case also involves trust issues.
- Advising on the construction of a will in the events which happened, being the deaths of husband and wife in circumstances it was impossible to tell who died first: the application of the commorientes rule.
- Two cases for Gloucestershire solicitors involving the interaction between Inheritance Act claims and proprietary estoppel.
- A successful appeal to the Court of Appeal concerning the extension of the section 4 Inheritance Act time limit.
- An unusual family dispute (although they do happen) over the place of internment of ashes and the timing of it.
- A claim for the removal of an executor of the estates of two deceased sisters, with an estate comprising land and buildings in Wales.
- Acting for executors and trustees of the estate of a deceased wealthy entrepreneur with, ironically, issues of abatement of legacies.
Real Estate
The mainstay of David’s practice is property and property development, nearly always of a litigious nature. He regularly acts for property developers and housebuilders of varying sizes, often involving disputes over contracts for the sale, development and funding of property purchase and land acquisition. The contracts can be simply for the sale and purchase of land or conditional contracts, options or other arrangements. He has for some time had a particular speciality in overage and clawback (and disputes arising therefrom). In addition, the disputes in which David has acted include issues relating to mortgages and other financial charges, land charges, and title queries and the omnipresent boundary problems.
Some of David’s cases involve the avoidance of hindrances to development and associated litigation (with such topic headings of restrictive covenants, easements (rights of way, rights to light, service media, legal and equitable easements, registrations and claims for interference), towns and village greens and commons. He is particularly well versed in restrictive covenants, their enforceability and construction, applications for discharge and modification in the Lands Tribunal.
Staple disputes featuring include claims for the possession of land, adverse possession; beneficial interest disputes – constructive and resulting trusts, proprietary estoppel; and common law nuisance and trespass.
David’s practice has traditionally been aired in the Business and Property Courts of the High Court, various County Courts and increasingly in the Tribunal Service (Upper Chamber and the FTT) as well as the Court of Appeal.
He has a developing practice in the area of Telecoms, generally, for the landowner. The new code rights and its relationship to the former code, and its interaction with the security of tenure regime of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 has particularly featured in David’s practice recently.
David is enthusiastic about alternative dispute resolution in this area to avoid cost delay and stress – which occur to various degrees whether the dispute is between property developers or neighbours and everyone in between. He is an accredited mediator; has taken part in early neutral evaluation (and would be more than prepared to work as an ‘evaluator’) and he has given several binding opinions as expert on points such as the construction of documents (for example, rent review clauses) which have resolved matters.
Recent Cases:
- Seeking the removal of Restrictions, and substitution of a rephrased Restriction so as to enable the development of a residential care home (at the drafting stage).
- Seeking summary possession of University Campuses against persons unknown protesting about something ( the nature of the protests has varied).
- Disputed charging orders.
- A dispute over the precise terms, and the identification of the dominant tenement, of a right of way between two busy London hotels.
- Various current issues relating to enfranchisement for leaseholders of blocks of flats.
Previous cases
- Extricating (through litigation) clients from a lease under a break clause where the continuing rental and other claims would be in excess of £1 million
- Resisting a winding up (by obtaining an injunction) for a property portfolio owning client (£90 million of assets) where the underlying dispute was over the quarter’s payment of rent just before a break took effect
- Advice on whether a joint tenancy has been severed (by course of conduct)
- A boundary dispute and right of way dispute (two disputes for one loyal client) in the North West
- Advising on a construction of a will which would determine whether a piece of land belonged to one family member or another
- A couple of cases for well-known estate agents and property professionals, seeking commission on central London properties sold for in excess of £10 million
- Obtaining an injunction and steering a settlement of a dispute for a local ennobled Landowner
- Countless cases advising on boundaries, easements and restrictive covenants
- Involved in several recent determinations within the ever enlarging jurisdiction of the Land Adjudicator
Reported Cases
Company and Partnership
Loveridge v Loveridge [2021 EWCA Civ 1697
Loveridge v Loveridge [2022] EWCA Civ 1104
Sharma v Farlam Limited [2009] EWHC 1622 (Ch) Claim for breach of trust, recovery of shares and benefits therefrom
Nadeem v Rafiq [2007] EWHC 2959 (Ch)
Clark v Cutland [2003] EWCA Civ 810; [2004] 1 W.L.R. 783; [2003] 4 All E.R. 733; [2004] B.C.C. 27; [2003] 2 B.C.L.C. 393; [2003] O.P.L.R. 343; [2003] Pens. L.R. 179; [2004] W.T.L.R. 629; [2003] W.T.L.R. 1413; (2003) 147 S.J.L.B. 781; Minority protection, misappropriation (breach of fiduciary duty) recovery of assets, tracing, pension funds and set off. An important case in the area, particularly of remedies for minority protection.
Marshall v Bullock [1998] 3 WLUK 569
Coca Cola Co v Gilbey [1995] 4 AllER 711
Secretary of State for Trade and Industry v. Bannister [1995] 2 BCLC 271 – director’s disqualification
Contentious Wills, Trusts & Probate
Begum v Begum [2019] EWCA Civ 1794
Re Weetman deceased [2015] EWHC 1166 (Ch)
Re White deceased, Barker v. Gribble [1991] Ch 1, [1990] 3 AllER1 i(one of the leading cases on the alteration of wills).
Real Estate
Smith v Smith [2017] 9 WLUK
British Malleable Iron Co Ltd v Revela (IOM) Limited [2013] EWHC 1954 (Ch)
Quirkco Investments Ltd v Aspray Transport Ltd [2011] EWHC 3060(ch); [2012] L&TR 19 Break clauses
Wilkinson v Farmer [2010] EWCA 1148 (Civ); [2010] NPC 105 Interpretation, rights of way
Wright v Wright [2010] EWHC 1808 (Ch) [2011] 1 FLR 387; Property ownership and breach of trustee obligations
Gilbert (Woods Farm Christmas Trees) v British Waterways Board [2005] EWHC 3094 (TCC) Losses for trespass to land, including future losses, and loss of profits
Woods v Riley [2005] EWCA (Civ) 1129; [2006] EnvLR 12; [2006] P&CR 29 Breach of restrictive covenant, nuisance
Severn Trent Water v Barnes [2004] EWCA Civ 570; [2004] 2 E.G.L.R. 95; [2004] 26 E.G. 194; [2005] R.V.R. 181; (2004) 148 S.J.L.B. 693; [2004] N.P.C. 76 ‘Negotiating damages’, damages in lieu of an injunction for alleged trespass by the building of a water main
Inglewood Investments v Baker (2002) EWCA Civ 1733 – adverse possession
BJ Aviation v Pool Aviation [2022] EWCA Civ 163
Di Luca v Juraise Springs [1998] 2 EGLR 125 – option agreements
R v Trent RHA ex parte Westerman (1996) 72 P. & C.R. 448 the Crichel Down Rules
Bannocks v Secretary of State for Transport [1995] 2 EGLR 157 – Compensation for Compulsory Purchase
Covent Garden Group Limited v. Naiva (1995) 27 HLR 295 – leasehold enfranchisement
Snell &Prideaux Limited v. Dutton Mirrors Limited(CA) [1995] 1 EGLR 259 – easements
Re Fisher and Gimson (Builders) Limited’s Application(1993) 65 P&CR 312 – restrictive covenants
Hammond v. Allen [1994] 1 AllER 307 – agricultural holdings
R v Hereford and Worcester CC ex p Inde Coope (Oxford and West) [1994] 10 WLUK 275
Alternative Dispute Resolution
As an accredited mediator, David is committed to exploring practical solutions to legal disputes. As well as appointments as mediator, he frequently advises on mediation strategies and attends as counsel. As an alternative methods of dispute resolution, he has provided binding expert opinions; and he is more than prepared to sit as an early neutral evaluator.
Education
MA Cantab (St John’s College)
Appointments and Memberships
Midland Chancery Bar Association (founder member and one time secretary)
Testimonials
“A very sensible counsel, who provides practical advice and is good with clients.” Chambers UK
“The highest skills and capacity and is sound as a bell. He has the gravitas and knowledge that is required.” Chambers UK
“Wealth of experience in commercial Chancery matters.” Chambers UK
“David Stockill is [a] barrister who ‘rolls his sleeves up and immerses himself in the case,’ his preparation ‘is always of the first order.’ He ‘never fails to impress clients with his immediate grasp of the problem at hand.’” Chambers UK
“A real company flavour … with great experience in minority shareholder disputes and section 459 matters and is praised as a very strong writer.” Chambers UK
