Carlo Taczalski

Commercial

Carlo is regularly instructed as sole counsel, junior counsel, and increasingly in a leading capacity, in commercial matters involving for example: civil fraud, conspiracy, shareholder disputes, directors’ duties, breaches of trust, freezing injunctions, the sale of goods, the supply of goods and services, bailment, franchise agreements, hire agreements and defective products.

He has experience of cases with international elements including issues of jurisdiction and choice of law and can often make himself available at short notice where the case requires it, for example, where an interim injunction is to be applied for or resisted.

Carlo is also engaged to advise on contracts as they are being negotiated and is happy to do so on a public access basis where appropriate.

Selected Cases

• Sanglier v Apollo – Carlo was counsel for Apollo (leading Michael Harper) on a 5-week trial, following which (and before judgment) Sanglier discontinued against Carlo’s clients, and agreed to pay a significant sum in respect of costs. Concerned complex expert evidence as to the formulation of an adhesive, and questions of limitation of liability.
• Ingenious Litigation – Instructed, with Ben Quiney KC and Frederick Simpson for one of the lead Defendants in the Ingenious Litigation.  The litigation concerned the alleged fraudulent and negligent mis-selling of investments in a series of film and game finance schemes.  The Claimants totalled over 600 and brought claims for in excess of £200m.  The case was named as one of The Lawyer’s Top 20 cases of 2018. Carlo and Ben were successful in applying for security for costs from a commercial litigation funder funding a number of the Claimants’ claims.  Carlo later led Frederick Simpson in the Court of Appeal overturning an Order that his client provide a cross-undertaking as the price for obtaining security for costs which would have had significant ramifications for his client’s total exposure.  The overall claim settled shortly before trial.
• Wilson James v MSL Recruitment – Carlo was instructed as sole counsel (against leading and junior counsel) on a claim put at in excess of £2-3m arising out of the supply of temporary workers to a construction site in Belgium.
• Borro v Aitken – Carlo was instructed (with Daniel Shapiro KC) to defend Borro Group’s ex-CEO against allegations of dishonesty and mismanagement, including questions of compliance with relevant regulatory obligations, during his tenure as Borro Group CEO.
• St Vincent v Picton Jones – Carlo, with Ben Quiney KC, successfully resisted the joinder of their client (a UK asset management company) to a long-running claim based upon a conspiracy to sell land in Poland at undervalue, and thereby strip a Polish company of its main asset. The case involved questions of Cypriot and Polish law and limitation periods, reflective loss, and conspiracy to cause loss by unlawful means.
• Property development arbitration – Instructed as sole counsel in an arbitration concerning the amount payable under a joint venture agreement for the development of houses in London; the amount at stake is approximately £2m.
• Water treatment arbitration – Instructed as sole counsel in arbitral proceedings concerning a water treatment plant in Eastern Europe, which is said to have been defectively constructed and / or designed (the claim is put at circa Euro 2m).
• Salt s.r.l. v Frazer-Nash Research Limited – A Mercantile Court claim in respect of the development of a prototype luxury electric vehicle. Carlo acted with Muhammed Haque KC for the developers who were suing for fees due under the development agreement and are defending a counterclaim said to be worth in excess of £20 million for various allegedly lost opportunities and development costs.
• Landmark Limited & Woods Development Limited v American International Bank (In receivership) – This was a Privy Council appeal from the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal; it concerned the basis on which the Appellants were entitled to charge and claim for electricity which they had provided following the inability of the Antiguan statutory provider to meet the Respondent’s needs. Carlo was instructed with Kim Franklin KC for the successful Appellants.
• Antigua Power Company Limited v The Attorney General of Antigua & Barbuda & Others – Claim for approximately £100m in the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court. It arose out of a breach by the Antiguan Government of a Joint Venture Agreement to build a power-plant in Antigua. The Privy Council upheld APCL’s claim for breach of contract in 2013 (the report is at [2013] UKPC 23), and remitted the assessment of damages to the Antiguan High Court. Carlo was instructed on the assessment of damages trial with Kim Franklin KC and Dane Hamilton KC.
• Antigua Power Company Limited v The Attorney General of Antigua & Barbuda & Others – Carlo was also instructed (with Geoffrey Robertson KC and Kim Franklin KC) on a further claim on behalf of APCL claiming substantial damages as a result of a conspiracy to cause loss by unlawful means in Antigua.
• Papa John’s v Doyley – Junior counsel for Ms Doyley, the successful defendant franchisee, at the liability trial of her counterclaim for well over £1/2 m in damages for negligent misstatement and misrepresentation; led by Jason Evans-Tovey, they were successful on virtually all issues argued at trial including a number of technical arguments relating to the incorporation and construction of various non-reliance, exclusion and guarantee clauses. The nine-day liability trial included an application by Papa John’s to adduce further witness evidence midway through the trial. Jason and Carlo successfully resisted the application; the judgment is at [2011] EWHC 2621 (QB).
• Catapult & Lowe v Ariadne – Sole counsel for Catapult & Lowe in a dispute over a consultancy contract. Carlo successfully had the allegedly substantial counterclaim struck out and was successful on virtually all issues fought at trial with the result that Ms Lowe was awarded (a little) in excess of her Part 36 offer made about 2 years before trial, and was awarded indemnity costs for the entire period of the claim.

News

• Carlo Taczalski successfully resists short notice freezing injunction: IBMG Ltd and others v McKeon, Williams and others
• Adjudication decision unenforceable for apparent bias

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Articles

• DIPT v Sanglier v Apollo: the importance of assessing the evidence, settling reasonably, and understanding the terms on which you contract
• Carlo Taczalski and Frederick Simpson are successful in the Court of Appeal Cross-undertakings have little place in the security for costs regime

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Events

• Carlo Taczalski to speak at London Build 2021 Expo
• Carlo Taczalski will be speaking at “Cash Is King – Payments and Changes in Tax Laws” webinar by Decipher Group

Qualifications

• Queen Mother Scholarship, Middle Temple (2010)
• Harmsworth Entrance Exhibition, Middle Temple (2010)
• Lovells Examination Prize, Downing College (2006)
• PricewaterhouseCoopers Scholarship (2005 – 2007)
• MA (Cantab.) (2008)

Memberships

• CLCBAR
• COMBAR
• TECBAR
• PNBA