Doyle Clayton wins praise in High Court pensions matter

Our Pensions team has acted on a reported pensions case in the High Court decision of Radley College Pension and Assurance Scheme and Others [2024] EWHC 2765 (ChD). Led by Andrew Campbell, with support from Partner James Saddler, the team acted for the defendant in a claim brought under Part 8 of the Civil Procedure Rules by St Peter’s College, Radley, and the Trustees of the College’s defined benefit pension scheme.

The claim was brought in order to assist the College and the Trustees to determine the validity of certain historic changes made to the defined benefit pension scheme’s governing rules, and in particular a series of changes made which changes the rate at pensions paid to members would increase. If the College and Trustees’ interpretation of the rules was incorrect, this would have created significant additional funding liabilities for the scheme and so a claim under Part 8 was brought under which the Court could provide a ruling on how pensions increases under the scheme should operate. In order to oppose the claim, a Representative Beneficiary was sought from the scheme’s membership and Doyle Clayton was appointed, along with Nick Hill of Outer Temple Chambers, to advise the Representative Beneficiary as defendant in the case.

In its judgement, the Court has settled the question of any ambiguity in the scheme’s rules by directing that the relevant documents should be rectified in the form requested by the College and Trustees. As a “non-hostile” Part 8 claim, this has delivered a great outcome for all parties as it means that the scheme has been operated and administered correctly, and in the longer term, will be better placed to meet its funding obligations to all its members.

In a particularly pleasing feature of the judgment, Mr Justice Thompsell chose to "pay tribute"  to how our team managed the case, stating that both Counsel and ourselves had “defended the claim in an entirely appropriate way, taking points that had a real prospect of success, whilst avoiding unnecessary cost and delay by accepting late amendments to the Claimant’s case where it was obvious that the Claimants would succeed on these points but where a more aggressive litigant might have objected for the sake of it. This approach was entirely appropriate, and was the in the interest of the Defendant, and those which the Defendant represents”.

Andrew Campbell, Head of Pensions at Doyle Clayton, commented, 

“we are delighted to have been able to assist such a well respected institution as Radley College in addressing and resolving some very important commercial and legal issues relating to its pension scheme. It was especially pleasing to receive such stellar recognition from Mr Justice Thompsell, in terms of how we handled the case, and special thanks must go to our barrister, Nick Hill of Outer Temple Chambers for all of his invaluable assistance. This case shows the depth and expertise of our flourishing pensions practice, and we look forward to working on more High Court matters in the future”.

For further information on how we can support you on pension related matters, please contact a member of our Pensions team or submit an enquiry form, below.