Forensic accounting analysis for K Line (Europe) Limited

When K Line (Europe) Limited was called to court for a claim made against them for loss of profits in respect of an alleged breach of contract, Ensors were contacted to provide advice throughout the legal process and the quantum aspects of the claim.

The contract in question dictated that K Line (Europe) Limited (K-Euro) would provide a certain minimum number of daily and monthly road haulage jobs to James Kemball Limited (JKL) over a three year period between 2016 and 2019. For a variety of reasons, K-Euro was unable to provide the necessary number of jobs for the last twelve months of the contractual period. JKL alleged that they had lost revenue and profits as a result and brought proceedings against K-Euro.

Andrew Warner, manager of the Forensic Accounting team, was initially asked to provide advice to the instructing solicitor and counsel on the information that should be requested from the Claimant as part of the disclosure process. Subsequently, in order to assist with preparation for mediation, we were instructed to carry out a review of the information and data disclosed and to provide a letter report detailing our initial view on the quantum being claimed by JKL, and our estimate of a more appropriate loss figure.

When mediation failed to resolve the case, we were asked to prepare a formal expert report for submission to court. Finally, in July 2022, Ensors Partner, David Scrivener provided expert evidence in the High Court in London.

As a result of the advice we provided throughout the legal process the Claimant had reduced the value of the damages they were claiming from ~£7.4m to ~£1.9m before the actual trial took place.
The outcome of the trial was that the judge found in favour of the Defendant on liability issues. However his judgement stated that he agreed with the estimate of damages provided by our expert report.

“I just wanted to send you a message at the close of the Hearing to say thank you very much for all of your excellent assistance and very hard work. This morning, as you probably know, the Claimant chose to abandon their expert evidence and adopt yours. That is testament to the quality and rigour of your work. I have not seen it happen in the middle of a trial before! You made my job very much easier and I think those of the rest of the team too. We have just had a conference call with the client and they asked us to pass on their thanks for your hard work too.” – Ben Middleton – MFB Solicitors

“Excellent work. I have not seen a party abandon their own expert like that for many, many years. It is a testament to your skill and effort. Just a quick thank you from us for all your hard work and assistance on the case. It was tremendously important in preparing us to cross examine the opposing expert, and to understand the nuts and bolts of the arguments, and David you came across very well in the box. Seeing the claimant abandon their expert entirely in closing was a testament to that, and the extra input this morning was vital in dealing with their rear-guard action as they attempted to take out bits of David’s report piecemeal.” – Counsel for the Defendant