JOHAL DAIRIES REFUSED PERMISSION TO APPEAL IN CASE AGAINST J.N.DAIRIES

Yesterday's hearing followed an extraordinary 8 day trial at Birmingham Civil Justice Centre between 10 and 19 March 2009 at which the Court found that Wolverhampton and Leicester based Johal Dairies had paid an illegal immigrant, Gurbir Singh, £40,000 to steal information from J.N.Dairies that contained the volumes, addresses and prices that it was supplying its customers, which Johal Dairies then used in price negotiations to unlawfully win J.N.Dairies' business.

At yesterday’s hearing the trial Judge, His Honour Judge David Cooke, found that there were no compelling arguments in favour of allowing Johal Dairies to appeal against this judgment and no real prospect of the appeal succeeding.

The Judge also ordered that Johal Dairies should pay J.N.Dairies' legal costs with an up-front payment of £200,000 to be made before the Court determines what further payments may be due (both in relation to costs and compensation).A further hearing is due to take place at which the Court will determine what level of damages may be payable to J.N.Dairies in relation to Johals unlawful use of its confidential information.

The Judge decided that the damages J.N.Dairies will be seeking at that hearing will adequately compensate the company for its losses and so declined to grant an injunction prohibiting the ongoing use of the information.