Essex fox hunt punished with £100,000 court fees after booting farmer off land
A HUNT has been slapped with crushing court fees after booting a farmer off land his family had worked for generations.
Terence Grimes and his father before him had farmed near Burnham-on-Crouch, in Essex, as tenants.
But the trustees at the Essex Farmers and Union Hunt wanted more cash and granted the lease to someone else in September 2012.
The hunt sent crucial papers to the wrong address, where Mr Grimes hadn't lived for seven years.
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Mr Grimes left the land “under silent protest”, but later took legal action and has now won his appeal case at the Court of Appeal in London.
It follows that the notice to quit was not validly served on him and his tenancy was not validly terminated
Now top judges have ruled his tenancy had not been validly terminated and he had been “wrongfully dispossessed”.
The trustees of the hunt, which now operates as a “country riding club”, must now pay £31,500 in damages.
And, on top of the that, they must pay £100,000 towards Mr Grimes’s lawyers' bills by 2 June.
Lord Justice Henderson ruled he had never been validly served with notice to quit the land.
That was because the notice was sent to a property where Mr Grimes had not lived since 2005.
He had given notice in writing of his move to Maple Way, Burnham, but the crucial document had been served on the wrong address.
The judge, sitting with Lord Justice Beatson and Lady Justice Macur, allowed an appeal against an earlier ruling in the trustees' favour.
Lord Justice Henderson concluded: “It follows that the notice to quit was not validly served on him and his tenancy was not validly terminated.”
