The client of Schelstraete Equine Lawyers (SEL) is a large Equine Business Owner and organizer of Equine Events all over the world. The client of SEL was negotiating with a Caterer about the catering for an event in Italy.
At some point, the client of SEL was forced to withdraw from the negotiations with the Caterer about the Event in Italy. Because the client of SEL canceled the catering shortly before the event, the Caterer was of the opinion that the client of SEL owed her a very substantial cancellation fee of about € 200.000,-.
The Court of First Instance
The client of SEL was of the opinion there was never an agreement between her and the Caterer and a cancellation fee was not to be paid. The Caterer started a procedure at the Court of Oost-Brabant. On December 21, 2016 the Caterer won the case for the most part.
The Court of Appeal
The client of SEL could not agree with this decision and started an appeal procedure at the Court of Appeal ‘s-Hertogenbosch. The Court of Appeal issued its decision on October 2, 2018 and came to the conclusion that there never was an agreement between the client of SEL and the Caterer. The Caterer needs to pay the amount of about € 200.000,- back to the client of SEL.
Procedure for the determination of the damages
However, The Court of Appeal also ruled that the client of SEL was not yet entitled to stop the negotiations with the Caterer.
The Caterer must now substantiate what her real damages are due to the cancelation. As of the expectations of the client these damages will be only a fraction of the original cancellation fee.
You can find the judgement on www.rechtspraak.nl under number ECLI:NL:GHSHE:2018:4029
The client of SEL was represented by Mr. L.M. Schelstraete en Mr. V. Zitman.