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A Fieldfisher team of Kit Jarvis, Tracey Wright and Galina Borshevskaya have achieved a total victory for the liquidators of Goldtrail Travel, PricewaterhouseCoopers ("PwC"). The judgement handed down by the Court of Appeal has effectively brought to an end the long running claim made by the liquidators of Goldtrail Travel – PwC – against Turkish airline Onur Air.
At first instance (in May 2014) the court found that Onur Air "dishonestly assisted" the director of Goldtrail Travel in breaching his duties to Goldtrail. That caused Goldtrail to go into insolvency leaving many holiday makers stranded abroad. Some £20 million was spent by Air Travel Trust (part of the Civil Aviation Authority) repatriating stranded holiday makers.
The claim against Onur Air was brought at the same time as a similar claim against Phillip Wyatt, Magnus Stephensen, Halldor Sigurdarson and Black Pearl (whose appeal was dismissed in an earlier Court of Appeal judgment).
The judgment states that Onur Air must now pay over £5 million to Goldtrail, with further costs to be assessed. The largest creditor of Goldtrail is the Air Travel Trust (ATT), which is owed about £20 million. The Fieldfisher team is confident that the Goldtrail liquidators will make a substantial recovery.
Ian Oakley Smith, Goldtrail Travel liquidator and director at PwC, said: “We are very happy that this matter has finally been concluded and we are now free to recover monies from Onur Air, which should benefit the creditors of Goldtrail Travel.”
Lead Fieldfisher partner Kit Jarvis comments: "I would like to pay tribute to the excellent teamwork between the PwC team, the Fieldfisher team and the counsel team over a protracted period that has led to this result. We are all looking forward to recovering this judgment sum from Onur Air and are considering our options for enforcement should that be necessary."