Alex Forster

Partner

Alex is a Partner at Roythornes and heads up the Commercial Litigation team. He is also joint head of the Construction and Engineering team.

His workload is predominantly contentious construction matters which includes litigating through Adjudication, Arbitration, High Court litigation (in the TCC and other branches of the High Court) and County Court litigation. He deals with disputes relating to all industry-standard forms contracts (such as JCT, NEC, ACE, RIBA, RICS) as well as informal and/or bespoke contracts – his clients are predominantly engineering companies, developers and main/sub-contractors.

Aside from contentious construction matters, Alex also specialises in:

Professional negligence claims against solicitors, barristers, architects, planning consultants and construction professionals;
Company and shareholder disputes including breaches of Share Purchase Agreements, derivative claims and unfair prejudice petitions.
Contract disputes.
Claims under the Groceries Supply Code of Practice (“GSCOP”).

His recent work includes:

Construction and Engineering

Acting for a mechanical and engineering company in relation to a Final Account dispute in the region of £7m which involved 3 different contracts and aspects of delay, liquidated damages and defects.
Defending adjudication proceedings brought by a large international brand against a main contractor seeking damages in the region of £2.8m as a result of an alleged defective sprinkler installation in a warehouse. This also involves a claim against the sub-contractor who designed and installed the sprinkler system.
Advising a UK based construction firm in relation to a final account dispute in excess of £400,000. This dispute was the subject of arbitration proceedings in Milan, Italy.
Claim for £350,000 relating to the profits of a contractual joint venture/partnership following the renovation and sale of a large house in Stamford, Lincolnshire. This settled at mediation.
Advising on a successful enforcement of an adjudication award in the Technology & Construction Court. This specific case was in relation to whether a second adjudicator’s decision contradicted the first adjudicator’s decision and whether the second adjudicator’s decision was enforceable (Waldeck Associates Ltd V Decomo UK Ltd [2017] EWHC 961).

Professional Negligence

Acting for a Trust in High Court proceedings an £8m professional negligence claim against their planning consultants relating to the failed development of farm buildings under Class Q Permitted Development rights. This also involved issues surrounding insurance coverage.
Advising on a professional negligence claim in excess of £2m against a firm of solicitors. This related to the negligent drafting of a loan agreement and the subsequent failure to register a charge on a property in Knightsbridge, London.
Claim for £2m against a firm of Insurance Brokers relating to a fire at a warehouse in Nottingham and the subsequent revocation of the insurance policy by the Insurer.

Company and shareholder disputes

Acting for the seller of a company in a claim for £36m arising as a result of the buyer of a target company threatening to divert business away in order to reduce the amount achieved by the seller under an earn-out provision (also called a deferred consideration provision) within a Share Purchase Agreement.
Acting for minority shareholders of a family investment company (worth in the region of £5m) in unfair prejudice proceedings, which included relief for enforcement of a de-merger agreement which had been reneged on by the other majority shareholders.
Claim in excess of £1m for breach of a Share Purchase Agreement relating to the purchase of a food manufacturing company.
Claims for relief pursuant to s.994 Companies Act 2006 and for damages under an agency agreement which resulted in a seven-figure settlement.

Insolvency

Claim for £400,000 against the Liquidators’ of a company for sums due to a director and shareholder, which included defending an application for breach of duty pursuant to s112 Insolvency Act 1986. This resulted in a six-figure settlement.
Advising a Trustee in Bankruptcy regarding the effect (on the bankrupt individual) of a Restraint Order under Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and obtaining discharge of that Order, along with proceeds due to the Trustee.

General commercial disputes

Claim for £8m arising from the negligent delivery of pig feed containing meat (which is prohibited). This resulted in a seven-figure settlement.
Claim for £4.4m against a grocery retailer for numerous breaches of GSCOP including; requests from the retailer for a significant payment from the client to stay as a supplier, de-listing without reasonable notice and imposition of unreasonable charges.
Claim for damages exceeding £400,000 resulting from the termination of an agency agreement under The Commercial Agents (Council Directive) Regulations 1993.
Claims resulting from the dissolution of a partnership pursuant to Partnership Act 1890.

Memberships and Qualifications