Tom Beasley and James Fagan successful in the Court of Appeal as challenge to GB Retail Ltd shareholder judgment is dismissed (Singh v Bains & Anor [2026] EWCA Civ 408) 

The Appellant had brought a claim alleging an oral agreement that entitled hm to 50% of the shares in a company owned by the Respondent, GB Retail Ltd. After a nine-day trial, the High Court found that the oral agreement had not been entered into and dismissed the claim.  

On appeal it was argued that the trial judge had adopted an erroneous approach to the fact-finding process, wrongly referring in his judgment to the burden of proof and failing to consider supposedly compelling evidence. It was also said that the trial judge was wrong to have reached a negative view of the Appellant’s own witness evidence. 

The Court of Appeal was unanimous in dismissing the appeal. In handing down the court’s judgment, Lord Justice Miles reaffirmed the high threshold for interfering with a trial judge’s findings of fact, particularly when based on the assessment of witness credibility.  

Tom Beasley and James Fagan acted for the successful Respondent and were instructed by Keith Hague of MD Law. Read the Court of Appeal’s judgment here and the first instance decision here.