Caterer in £1million lawsuit with Harewood House estate
A CATERING firm sacked by Harewood House after allegedly failing to pay thousands of pounds in commission is counter suing for almost £1m loss of earnings.
Harewood House, owned by the Queen's cousin, is suing Leeds events company Dine Catering Ltd, claiming it is owed 23,000 in unpaid commission.
The catering firm, owned by Daniel Gill, has put in a counter-claim for loss of earnings, believed to total around 830,000, after its 10-year contract to cater for weddings and other lavish events in the grounds was terminated.
During a three day lawsuit at the High Court in Leeds this week, the court heard relations between the two parties broke down in 2008 when questions about "discrepancies" in payments were raised.
Since 2005, Dine Catering had provided services for outside events and an arrangement with Harewood House saw it receive a 15 per cent commission on all food and drink sales.
There were several written agreements between the two parties, the court was told, but no formal final clear cut contract was ever signed and the two parties conducted their business in a "gentlemanly fashion".
But problems arose in April 2008 following a glitzy 40th birthday celebration party for Suzannah Allard, for which her husband had flown in the band Westlife.
The party's organiser, Lucy Attwood, wrote to Harewood to complain about the catering firm and some of the additional "extravagant" costs she claimed it had included on its invoice.
She provided Harewood with a copy of the invoice and Harewood, already being unhappy at Dine's claim it could not be given copies of invoices for "data-protection" reasons, investigated her concerns.
Neil Berragan, representing Harewood said a new chief executive of the Harewood House Trust, Richard Mansell, had recently been appointed at the time.
"He took the view that he should try to repair the relationship but he was obviously concerned when he saw the invoice," said Mr Berragan.
"Firstly there was a charge of 36.50 for a set menu that had been reduced to 18, but what struck Mr Mansell was that Mrs Attwood had been charged china and glassware stuff, an extra wine butler, linen and mobile kitchen unit."
The court heard evidence from Viscount David Lascelles, the Queen's second cousin and chairman of the Harewood House Trust, who said the revelations of alleged discrepancies "blew out of the water" the previous amicable relationship with the catering firm.
"We asked for an explanation of the figures and no answer came back," said Viscount Lascelles.
"It was clear to us there were considerable discrepancies and we were therefore unable to continue the relationship.
"We believed they were in repudiatory breach (of their contract]. An underpayment over a period of time of 23,000 was reported to me.
"If it had been a few hundred pounds it could have been put down to human error but 23,000 is a significant sum."
On Wednesday, the court heard Harewood House had never asked to audit the files of Dine Catering Ltd.
The Harewood House Trust has since undergone a complete restructure of the way it deals with catering and events, the court was told.
Dine Catering Ltd is counter-claiming for loss of profit and future earnings on the basis of the 10-year contract which still had six years to run. Its case will be heard in April.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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