Jack Dillon

Areas of expertise

• Commercial dispute resolution
  • Commercial dispute resolution

    Commercial dispute resolution

    Jack’s commercial dispute resolution practice covers general contractual disputes and mores specialist areas, such as joint venture claims, directors’ and officers’ duties, franchising, banking and finance, insurance work, asset recovery, employment and costs.  He handles claims involving serious allegations such as fraud, dishonesty, duress and intimidation..

    Jack regularly appears as sole counsel in the High Court as well as having acted as junior counsel in high value Commercial Court litigation, and has experience of applications for interim injunctive relief, such as search orders, ‘dawn raid’ injunctions and freezing injunctions.

    Recent work:

    • La Cotte v. Sovereign – substantial fraud claim relating to an alleged scrap metal joint venture
    • Stellison v. Bergmann – complicated dispute concerning defective compacting machinery
    • Sheikh Tahnoon v. Kent [2018] EWHC 333 (Comm) – junior counsel in a four week Commercial Court trial before Leggatt J over dissolution of a joint venture acquiring Mediterranean hotels, involving fiduciary duties, implied contractual duty of good faith in relational contracts, blackmail, and causation requirements in cases of physical intimidation/duress
    • Sheikh Tahnoon v. Kent [2018] EWHC 614 (Comm) – consequential judgment concerning the overall successor in the litigation, proportionate costs order and permission to appeal
    • Robelen Enterprises v. Bluebird – appeal concerning terminartion of social care franchise, including whether termination was in good faith
    • Eerenstein v. Baldelli – successfully opposing conspiracy and fraud claim for lost earnings of £900k
    • Poyser v. Ariadne – two-day trial acting for director claiming significant amounts of unpaid salary
    • Marshall v. Tesco – credit card claim against bank over defective solar panels
  • Professional negligence

    Professional negligence

    Jack’s professional negligence practice primarily encompasses claims against legal professionals, but he also acts in claims involving property professionals (such as surveyors, architects & estate agents), financial & tax advisers, accountants, insurance brokers, directors & officers, and trustees & executors. Much of his work is insurer-backed, but he also accepts instructions from claimants. Jack’s property practice gives him a decided advantage in negligence claims involving property rights and transactions.

    Already ranked by Legal 500 in this area, Jack also regularly advises insurers on coverage matters under professional indemnity insurance policies, alongside his professional negligence practice.  He is a contributor to Contributor to Construction Professional indemnity Insurance (1^st edition, 2018).

    Recent work:

    • Numerous claims against solicitors over financial settlements in divorce cases involving pensions
    • Defending claim against surveyor concerning defects in residential property
    • Claim involving the right to park in a development sale
    • Claim against surveyor over rat infestation
    • Defending claim for £100k for solicitors’ conduct of the defence of various claims against the claimant by former clients
    • AB v. Nationwide – disclosure application before Morgan J in the ‘Right to Buy’ litigation
    • Claim concerning assignment of a business lease without car parking spaces
    • Instructions from insurers in numerous claims following SRA interventions
    • Junior counsel in high value claim against a firm of solicitors and barrister for negligent advice in the course of unsuccessful litigation, resolved pre-action by mediation

     

• Property
  • Real property & mortgages

    Real property & mortgages

    Jack acts for landowners, charities, banks, investment funds and individuals across a wide-ranging real property practice in legal and beneficial ownership, land registration and Land Registry decisions, easements, restrictive covenants, boundary disputes, adverse possession, trespassers, options and property damage.   He also has experience of preventative injunctions cases.

    Jack’s mortgage practice encompasses issues related to priority of interests and defective charges, enforcement proceedings, possession and receivership claims, and injunctive relief.

    Recent work:

    • Groves v. Jones – dispute over beneficial ownership of residential land owned by deceased, resolved at remote mediation
    • Urgent High Court possession proceedings against trespassers, fly-tippers and rave organisers in public and private sites, including the first remote possession hearing under the QBD coronavirus protocol
    • Lagah v. Lagah – ownership case, involving undue influence and forgery
    • Dahou v. Dahou – 5 day trial before HHJ Evans with 12 witnesses over ownership of property going back to the late 1980s
    • Bourne v. Newman – adverse possession tribunal trial
    • Sparquote v. Sangerwal – successfully opposed reinstatement application into banking premises
    • Advice in relation to freehold ownership of a Welsh sports recreation ground spanning 30 years of conveyances
  • Development & planning

    Development & planning

    Jack has a busy practice in development cases, in relation to restrictive covenants including s84 applications, access and other easements, and adverse possession.  His experience spans advice as to feasibility at an early stage and representation throughout the life of projects.

    Recent work:

    • Enforcement proceedings to restrain barn development
    • Adverse possession matter for a residential estate development
    • Interpreting deed granting easement over development land
    • Advising in relation to express and prescriptive rights of access to rear development on private road
    • Claim involving access to development land over highway verge
    • Advice concerning enforceability of restrictive covenant over neighbouring development land
  • Commercial landlord & tenant

    Commercial landlord & tenant

    Jack acts in cases across the breadth of commercial landlord and tenant disputes, including 1954 Act cases, dilapidations, forfeiture and reinstatement injunctions, and breach of covenant cases.  His commercial practice makes him well-placed to handle more complex financial claims, such as business interruption and insurance claims.

    Recent work:

    • Foundation v. M7 – cladding dispute
    • Advising national haulage company about restrictive covenants affecting proposed site for purchase
    • Sunflower v. Willow – claim against management company over electricity disconnection
    • Four Seasons v. Morden Properties Ltd – successfully opposing urgent application to reinstate on two hours’ notice
    • Sangerwal v. Sparquote – opposed urgent application for injunctive relief allowing financial services use
    • Home Bargains v. A – acted for landlord in roof disrepair claim for loss of profits
    • Lookmark v. Attwall – acted for the landlord opposing application for an injunction requiring reinstatement following re-entry
  • Leasehold & leasehold management

    Leasehold & leasehold management

    He has a wide experience of disputes arising out of long residential leaseholds, such as management issues, forfeiture proceedings and relief applications, individual and collective enfranchisement, service charge disputes, and anti-social behaviour and nuisance proceedings.  He acts for corporate and individual landlords and tenants, and management companies.  In addition to the civil courts, he frequently appears in the First-tier Tribunal Property Chamber (Residential Property).

    Recent work:

    • Warwick Mansions v. Snel/O’Connor – string of FTT hearings to determine disputes over major works to upgrade electric services in a residential block and establishment of a sinking fund
    • Marksglade v. Edun – application for determination of breach in relation to roof terrace development
    • Eerenstein v. Baldeli – successful opposition to appeal against applications to set aside default judgments in service charge proceedings issued after the death of one of the lessors
    • Imagine v. Bedwin St – acting for tenant in two-day FTT trial concerning service charges, major works, s.20ZA LTA 1985 dispensation, s.20 LTA 1985 order