Hiscox Wins High Court Injunction

by Stewart Douglas

Story link: Hiscox Wins High Court Injunction

Insurance group Hiscox has today successfully won injunctive relief at the High Court against the contractors building the Pinnacle building over a site access dispute that had arisen between the two parties involved.

The Pinnacle project, which has been billed as creating an iconic addition to the London landscape, has been the subject of much controversy, particularly as regards Hiscox and the disruption caused to access as well as noise and vibration problems that have also been experienced.

An injunction is a remedy designed to prevent a party from acting in a particular way, and can be used as both an interim measure and final remedy for parties aggreived in civil or criminal disputes. With breach of injunction holding criminal penalties for both civil and criminal parties, the remedy prevents certain actions, usually until the matter can be heard by the court fully.

Whilst Hiscox have obtained injunction against site access, they failed to secure the court’s backing for injunction against the noise and reverberation problems, despite the fact that they were offered a guarantee in court by Pinnacle’s developers that they would be treated with respect in the construction process.

A full hearing into the matter is expected to take place early next year, where the extent of the situation will be considered in more depth by a judge following the interim injunction granted by the Chancery Division of the High Court today.

Speaking on the matter, a spokesperson from Hiscox said: “Yesterday Hiscox spent the day in front of the Chancellor, the senior civil judge in England.

“Following a long hearing we were granted an injunction in respect of our access problems and the Pinnacle also gave assurances to the court in respect of vibration/noise levels and water ingress. The Chancellor expressly warned the Pinnacle/Arab Investments about the likely consequences of breach of these assurances. If the injunction is breached the sanctions are criminal and we could apply to have the Directors of Arab Investments imprisoned.”