Sisu suffers legal blow as bid for judicial review on Ricoh Arena sale is dismissedThe Court of Appeal today dismissed an application for a judicial review into the sale of the Ricoh Arena to Wasps in 2014.
The appeal was brought by Sky Blues Sports and Leisure and 'others' against Coventry City Council and 'others' but the decision upheld the order of Mr Justice Singh, who rejected the case in July last year.
Lawyers for the Sisu-controlled firms that make up the football club wanted a full judicial review over the controversial sale of the Ricoh Arena.
They claimed Coventry City Council undervalued the stadium by almost £30million when it was sold to Wasps Rugby Club for £21million back in 2014.
But Mr Justice Singh said the council had obtained an independent valuation which included extending the stadium's lease and his order was upheld today.
Speaking at the Court of Appeal in London today and dismissing the appeal, Lord Justice McCombe said: “For the reasons given in this judgement I now hand down the appeal in this case is dismissed and the order of Mr Justice Singh of the 20th of July 2017 is upheld.”
In the 20-page written judgement, Lord Justice McCombe said in conclusion: “I would dismiss this appeal and would uphold the order made by the judge, refusing permission to apply for judicial review.
“As I have said above, I consider that the judge was correct to refuse permission to apply for judicial review, on the basis that Sky Blue’s case was based essentially on a comparison between “apples and pears”.
“Nothing has been revealed since then about the essential structures of the transactions approved by the Council in the decisions under challenge.
“Further, however heavily disguised, the amended claim required Sky Blue to challenge the value of the consideration paid for the council’s ACL shares, a challenge which Sky Blue themselves eschewed before the court on 28 November 2017 and which they were prevented by the court from resurrecting.
“The amendment of the claim has turned out to be nugatory.”
No lawyers for any of the parties were in court today.