The Co-operative Group has won the right to a re-trial to pursue a multi-million pound claim against IT provider ICL.
The society took ICL (now part of Fujitsu) to the Technology and Construction court in November 2001 claiming it had breached a contract to upgrade the society’s
EPoS systems to accept Dividend loyalty cards within an agreed timescale and to an agreed standard.
The project was a key part of integrating CRS and CWS.
However, the case was dismissed by Judge Richard Seymour QC on the grounds that senior Co-operative Group executives were trying to undermine the IT project because they were unhappy with ICL’s work for its funeral business and wanted to avoid paying the company uplift fees.
However, the Appeal Court has ruled that Judge Seymour had “fundamentally erred” in his approach to the case and had shown a “consistent preference” for ICL’s evidence.
Appeal Court judges Lord Justice Tuckey, Lord Justice Rix and Lord Justice Jonathan Parker said: “Reluctant as we are to reach these conclusions and mindful as we have been throughout this appeal of damaging and inherently undesirable consequences of the parties having to face a retrial, we nevertheless have decided there is no alternative.”
Co-operative Group secretary Nick Eyre said the ruling vindicated Co-op bosses who were treated “shamefully” by Judge Seymour: “He chose to disregard their testimonies and instead appeared to reconstruct his own theories which we felt had no basis in the evidence before him. The way is now open for us to revisit our grievance with ICL.”
A retrial would re-examine where the blame lay for the failure of the £12m project to upgrade the Co-operative Group’s EPoS system.
A spokesman for Fujitsu declined to comment on its response to the ruling, but said options included appealing to the Lords, waiting for the retrial or settling out of court.
Elaine Watson
The society took ICL (now part of Fujitsu) to the Technology and Construction court in November 2001 claiming it had breached a contract to upgrade the society’s
EPoS systems to accept Dividend loyalty cards within an agreed timescale and to an agreed standard.
The project was a key part of integrating CRS and CWS.
However, the case was dismissed by Judge Richard Seymour QC on the grounds that senior Co-operative Group executives were trying to undermine the IT project because they were unhappy with ICL’s work for its funeral business and wanted to avoid paying the company uplift fees.
However, the Appeal Court has ruled that Judge Seymour had “fundamentally erred” in his approach to the case and had shown a “consistent preference” for ICL’s evidence.
Appeal Court judges Lord Justice Tuckey, Lord Justice Rix and Lord Justice Jonathan Parker said: “Reluctant as we are to reach these conclusions and mindful as we have been throughout this appeal of damaging and inherently undesirable consequences of the parties having to face a retrial, we nevertheless have decided there is no alternative.”
Co-operative Group secretary Nick Eyre said the ruling vindicated Co-op bosses who were treated “shamefully” by Judge Seymour: “He chose to disregard their testimonies and instead appeared to reconstruct his own theories which we felt had no basis in the evidence before him. The way is now open for us to revisit our grievance with ICL.”
A retrial would re-examine where the blame lay for the failure of the £12m project to upgrade the Co-operative Group’s EPoS system.
A spokesman for Fujitsu declined to comment on its response to the ruling, but said options included appealing to the Lords, waiting for the retrial or settling out of court.
Elaine Watson
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