Appeal granted in Specsavers High Court case

The High Court has granted permission to challenge the outcome of a recent legal case involving Specsavers and one of its former store directors.

Last month the multiple was cleared of charges of conspiracy in a long-running court case involving former shared venture partner, Swarandeep Birdi.

However, according to law firm Akin Palmer LLP, which represents Ms Birdi, a number of issues were unresolved. These include the judge’s finding that Ms Birdi, the former director of the Dartford branch of Specsavers, was “subjected to conduct which was unfairly prejudicial to her position as a minority shareholder.”

Last week (30 October) the judge presiding over the case, Mr Justice Nugee, gave permission for Ms Birdi to challenge the decision, where six points of ‘substantial legal and public interest’ will be challenged in the Court of Appeal.

Akin Palmer’s partner in charge of the case, Dele Ogun, said: “We are delighted that the Judge has recognised that some aspects of his original judgment raise serious issues worthy of reconsideration by the Court of Appeal.”

Commenting on the judge’s decision, a spokesperson for Specsavers told OT: “[Ms Birdi] failed in the High Court to have leave to appeal granted in her primary case of malicious conspiracy, which she brought against Specsavers Optical Group and her former joint venture partner, Kam Singh, last year.”

Specsavers added: “Mr Justice Nugee rejected this on the basis that she had no real prospect of success. The court did, however, grant her limited leave to appeal on some matters that she had lost.”