Directors Beware

The 2007 case of Anderson Antiques (UK) Ltd v Anderson Wharf (Hull) Ltd & another centred upon a development site in Kingston-Upon-Hull owned by Anderson Antiques (UK) Ltd ("Antiques"). Anderson Wharf (Hull) Ltd ("Wharf") was a single purpose vehicle set up to acquire Antiques' land. Its sole director and shareholder was Philip Akrill, the second defendant.

In February 2007, Wharf entered unilateral notices on the title register for Antiques' land on the basis that it had acquired an interest in the land by virtue of a proprietary estoppel.

Wharf claimed that the proprietary estoppel had arisen in its favour as a result of a meeting which took place between Mr Akrill and Mr Anderson, the controller of Antiques, late in the evening of 12 September 2006. Mr Akrill claimed that, in the course of that meeting (at which, according to Briggs J's judgment, it was "common ground that drink flowed on