CBRE may have to enlist a band of scurvy cut throats [or press gang some unfortunate surveyors] to go looking for their former head of international hotel brokerage and hotel valuations David Harper who is currently taking part in the Round the World Clipper Race 2009-2010 hoping to raise £10,000 for Cancer Research.
Harper, who is director of consultancy Leisure Property Services, is needed urgently by his previous employer in order to give crucial evidence in its battle with a group of Danish investors who are claiming £7.5m in damages over allegedly negligent valuation advice that CBRE gave in 2005 on the £41m acquisition of eight Ibis hotels from London & Regional.
Ruling yesterday on interim applications made by both sides, High Court judge Mr Justice Coulson described Harper as a central witness and accused CBRE and its advisers of "tootling around" when they should have contacted Harper sooner to obtain his evidence before he left in advance of a pre-trial review in March.
Lawyers for CBRE complained that they were only made aware of Harper's round-the-world plans on 8 December, by which time it was too late to get evidence from the now "uncontactable" Harper.
I thought it best not to point out that Harper had sent round a widely circulated e-mail asking for sponsorship, had been writing about his round-the-world plans on Property Week's blog site for months before setting off, and indeed seems to still be doing so [despite being 'uncontactable'] as recently as 6 January in a posting entitled "Cyclones, volcanos and pirates".
If you want to make a donation go to http://www.justgiving.com/davidharper2.
Photo by Michal via Flickr.
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