ACL to sue NTFC, what happens now? (1 Viewer)

[StevieM]

Are ACL still proposing to take legal action against NTFC or has this been dropped?

Now that a game has actually taken place at Sixsheds, I'm presuming if any proposed threat of legal action against NTFC has to become a reality and the papers would be served on Monday morning?

Hopefully ACL will be claiming enough back off them to totally negate the "blood money" that SISU have "agreed" to pay to them.

Lets see if their chairman still wants to "come to the aid of a fellow club in difficulty" when it's actually costing him money to accommodate SISU FC thus becoming a major cost implication for NTFC?

I suspect that SISU would have a clause in the deal to stop them from getting booted out and so possibly end up playing there and nothing going into the Cobblers coffers?

 

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[Sutty]

I don't really see how ACL have a case to be honest. If a legal expert could educate me otherwise I'd be grateful, but I really don't see any wrongdoing on Northampton's part.

 

[Paxman II]

Well it's vague at best. I can't help thinking though the football club merely had a lease to play at the Ricoh, they did not have agreements to provide a 5,10 or 20,000 foot fall of revenue producing punters for ACL.
ACL of course claim consistently they don't need the football club so any legal action of this kind assuming loss of earnings will be a mute point if I sat in the judges chair.

 

[kmj5000]

Well it's vague at best. I can't help thinking though the football club merely had a lease to play at the Ricoh, they did not have agreements to provide a 5,10 or 20,000 foot fall of revenue producing punters for ACL.
ACL of course claim consistently they don't need the football club so any legal action of this kind assuming loss of earnings will be a mute point if I sat in the judges chair.

The agreement was to pay rent and the number of fans attending is irrelevant.
There is a loss of income, that's a fact and whether they "need" it is also irrelevant.
Also, I think you mean "moot", not "mute"?

 

[AJB1983]

Only issue I can see with this legal action is that according to the press release at the time NTFC did a deal with Otium, who were only preferred buyers at that stage, potential new owners.
The ntfc deal effectively was set in stone once the FL gave them the golden share and approved the purchase.
Happy to be corrected though

 

[Sky Blue Pete]

Not a law expert but it will depend on a judge ruling otium are the football club as was CCfc limited before them. Quite easy I would think. Then proof of losses! Quite easy too. I think they will win

 

[Manchester_sky_blue]

I believe the crux of the problem lies in the fact that Otium/SISU had done a deal to play at Sixsheds before the administration of Ltd had been resolved and whilst an offer of reduced rent was still on the table from ACL. So essentially Otium broke the lease agreement with ACL and NTFC are complicit in that breach of contract.

It's not my area of expertise really but i'd say on the face of it they have a pretty weak case. I doubt it will even reach court.

 

[sky blue john]

I would have thought there was more mileage in taking legal action against the football league !

 

[DazzleTommyDazzle]

As noted above, I think the key issue will be whether ACL can convince a judge that the SISU companies should be treated as one (because of the way the accounts were in "a bit of a mess", trade and assets appeared to be transferred from one to another etc).

I assume that they believe they have a reasonable case, as I don't think that they'd have rejected the CVA otherwise.

 

[Otis]

I think this will be laughed out of court.

I don't see how Northampton Town could be liable in all this at all.

 

[treenie01]

Obviously as a cobblers supporter this has been our big concern as out of the blue we're getting sued for something that most of us agree we shouldn't even be involved in.

Cardoza has been very good in sticking to the story that we were approached by otium and agreed to help a club with a long history fulfil fixtures. The football league will probably back this up by their priority being that ccfc fulfil fixtures.

Also as people have said on other threads, if acl are looking to get a new tenant in the courts will probably judge that ccfc can be replaced so they dont have an argument.

 

[DazzleTommyDazzle]

Also as people have said on other threads, if acl are looking to get a new tenant in the courts will probably judge that ccfc can be replaced so they dont have an argument.

Not really the way it works.

In a claim for damages the plaintiff has to do what they can to mitigate their losses (i.e. minimise the financial damage), so ACL would have to look for new tenants / uses for the stadium.

This won't impact whether or not there is a case, but would impact on what damages would be awarded, if the case was won.

I would however agree with the general concencus, that I think that a successful case is unlikely.

 

[Cobblers36]

There is no case to answer from NTFC.

Both NTFC & SISU/OTIUM expected this move from ACL and everything was confirmed legally beforehand.

100%.

Next.

 

[chiefdave]

my lawyer thinks there's some mileage in this. according to him when doing commercial deals of this sort there is a need for the person who is making the deal (in our case Northampton) to ensure they are not assisting a breach of an existing contract. ACLs argument will be at the time the deal was made their agreement was still valid and therefore Northampton have assisted SISU in breaching the lease.

the sticking point could be that the FL have transferred the share while Ltd is still in administration.

 

[treenie01]

Surely SISU not paying rent since january breached the lease.

 

[chiefdave]

another point he's just mention is the reason ACL initially wrote to NTFC rather than starting legal action is it will demonstrate to the court that NTFC had full knowledge of the existing deal. had they not done that NTFC could just claim they had asked SISU about the existing deal and been told it no longer existed.

 

[chiefdave]

Surely SISU not paying rent since january breached the lease.

that just caused them to be in arrears. If you remember ACL took SISU to court and were awarded the arrears. ACL probably could have terminated the lease for non payment but just not paying it doesn't mean you're not liable anymore of the lease no longer exists.

 

[Sisued]

Good. Lets hope they are forced to stop helping SISU fuck us over

 

[covcity4life]

council in making shit decision shocker

 

[treenie01]

that just caused them to be in arrears. If you remember ACL took SISU to court and were awarded the arrears. ACL probably could have terminated the lease for non payment but just not paying it doesn't mean you're not liable anymore of the lease no longer exists.

I didn't know that. I only joined this board when the groundshare started being discussed because, as a cobblers supporter, I was interested in the background rather than the bitching that seem to happen on our own forum.

 

[fernandopartridge]

my lawyer thinks there's some mileage in this. according to him when doing commercial deals of this sort there is a need for the person who is making the deal (in our case Northampton) to ensure they are not assisting a breach of an existing contract. ACLs argument will be at the time the deal was made their agreement was still valid and therefore Northampton have assisted SISU in breaching the lease.

the sticking point could be that the FL have transferred the share while Ltd is still in administration.

breach of what contract - the contract has ceased prior to the new contract being performed? Is the case not also against the FL for facilitating the breach?

 

[theferret]

ACL taking legal action against NTFC is just the latest in a long line of ludicrous developments in this sorry mess. It will be laughed out of court. Embarrassing.

 

[fernandopartridge]

ACL taking legal action against NTFC is just the latest in a long line of ludicrous developments in this sorry mess. It will be laughed out of court. Embarrassing.

It will hardly bring the 'football community' onside either.....could be a PR own goal, although helpfully for ACL it's barely been publicised.