Tangoman V Dowie Part 2

bingaddick

Link

This is the judgement of a secondary case brought by Tangoman claiming that Dowie offered £350K to settle the earlier court case. Dowie claimed that he had not made a binding offer. The court found for Dowie, which means that he can now, if he wishes, go to appeal (to which he has been given leave)

There are some interesting references to Charlton in there. e.g

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Later that same afternoon Mr Buckley sent an email Mr Jordan. It is worth quoting it full: -

"Gary Austin came back and said they were thinking that £300K was paid for Peter Taylor and £141K to Bob Dowie less £225 commission that would have been paid on player sales to Iain which comes out at £215K.
I said that was too low and we were starting at £1M.
He then said Charlton won't pay anything towards the settlement because he asked them, that Iain was sacked because of the litigation and he wants to move on with no grudge with you.
I said I would get back to him.
I think he wants to do a deal. Shall I ask for £500K?"

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It's worth a read although a bit turgid.

F-Blocker

Took me a while to read, but got there in the end.

So basically, Dowie was trying to settle (with a confidentiality agreement). The solicitors (especially Jordan's) are shit at keeping notes and remembering things. SJ tried to accept ID's offer as soon as he found out ID could appeal, but the solicitor's omission of the mention of the confidentiality agreement when accepting the settlement meant that ID could withdraw the offer. SJ then sued (which is what this case is about) to try to force ID to pay-up in accordance with the settlement that he'd withdrawn.

So...SJ has lost this battle and it all moves on to the Court of Appeal.

The sums mentioned for the legal bills that are being run-up are incredible...

bingaddick

This is all about the real world of when to cut and run and when to fight. Dowie uncertain of whether he was going to be given leave to appeal the original case was gambling that Jordan would take a low enough offer. He (through his Lawyer) claims that he doesn't have enough dosh to meet Jordans demands and may have to declare himself bankrupt. Jordan holds out for more and then suddenly Dowie's leave to appeal is granted. Jordan then knows he could be in for a serious legal bill, and could lose the whole thing with Dowie deciding to go for broke. It's brinkmanship and as soon as Jordan's team find out that the appeal is being allowed, they hit Dowie's lawyer with a "we accept your earlier offer" letter. Naturally Dowie is now in a much better bargaining position and his lawyer rejects the approach saying that the offer was conditional upon a confidentiality agreement which had not been finalised. The court case was brought by Jordan claiming that Dowie had made a final and binding offer to settle by which was then accepted by Jordan. Jordan lost.

It all potentially goes to Court of Appeal although may well be settled out of court, presumably at a potentially more advantageous level for Dowie than he was previously offering.

F-Blocker

That's a far better summing-up than I managed! )

Ormiston_Addick

that Iain was sacked because of the litigation and he wants to move on with no grudge with you. [QUOTE]

Is this final and complete confirmation that we sacked Dowie because he lied to us when he joined the club about his legal position in leaving Palace? Is that what this is saying?

I guess it would make sense that if Murray/Varney found out that he had misrepresented himself when joining the club that (bearing in mind the fact that the legal case was ongoing at the time) they had no choice but to sack him.

Is this right?

bingaddick

I'm not sure and remember the reference to the litigation which I quoted in my first post is just a lawyers summary of a conversation with another lawyer in the course of a negotiation and could indeed be a bluff or half truth.

I suspect that RM/PV got windy (maybe on advice from their lawyers) and decided that the potential fallout to Charlton if Dowie lost the case might be too much to swallow and pulled the rug from under him. Maybe they started to suspect his credibility. There was the alleged case of Bob Dowie in the dressing room against Fulham when it was clearly agreed that he was not allowed to be involved in team affairs.