Jack Macaulay

Property Damage

Jack’s experience includes:

• Claims under the Water Industry Act 1991 following escapes of water from pipes, and for compensation for damage caused by the exercise of statutory powers under the Act.
• Advising and drafting proceedings in fire, flood, and other property damage cases, arising from a variety of causes including defective electrical equipment, domestic appliances, inadequately made plumbing, and tradesmen’s works.
• Glenluce Fishing Co v Watermota [2016] EWHC 1807 (TCC), a dispute over the fitness for purpose of a marine diesel engine. The case gave rise to a novel dispute concerning the interaction between the rules on payment of court fees and the provisions of the Limitation Act 1980.
• A TCC case in Liverpool arising out of the collapse of a wall on neighbouring land due to lateral pressure exerted by the defendant’s land; the defendant in turn claimed against a third party which provided a geoenvironmental engineering report on the land which (allegedly) negligently failed to identify the risk to the wall. The client achieved a very favourable settlement.
• Acting for the defendant security company in a six-figure claim for property damage following a series of criminal incidents at the claimant’s car showrooms. The case settled for less than half its pleaded value.
• Smith & ors v South Eastern Power Networks [2012] EWHC 2541 (TCC): junior (to Michael Kent QC and Simon Howarth) for the Claimants in a series of test cases determining the liability of the electricity distribution industry for fires caused by overheating mains cut-out fuses.
• Disputes over insurance coverage and non-disclosure.
• Construction cases, including party wall disputes and cases of defective workmanship by contractors and sub-contractors.
• Pro bono representation of a retired claimant whose investment property required substantial repair work following a hopelessly negligent attempt at a loft conversion.

Selected Cases

Articles

• Finding of fundamental dishonesty in a HAVS case
• Brown v Sestras: accurate hearsay or an unhappy series of unfortunate coincidences?

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News

• Finding of fundamental dishonesty in a HAVS case
• Brown v Sestras: accurate hearsay or an unhappy series of unfortunate coincidences?

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Qualifications

LLB, Law with European Legal Studies (First Class) King’s College London, 2003-7

ERASMUS year at Uppsala University, Sweden, 2005-6

LLM (Cantab) 2007-8

BVC (Very Competent) BPP London, 2008-9

Lord Denning Scholar, Lincoln’s Inn

Languages: French (intermediate), Spanish (improving), Swedish (basic)

Memberships

• PIBA
• PNBA