Formula One team boss drops £150m suit against Vodafone
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Your support makes all the difference.Eddie Jordan announced yesterday that he was abandoning his £150m lawsuit against Vodafone, hours before the judge's ruling was expected to be made public.
The head of the Jordan Formula 1 team had accused Europe's largest mobile phone company of reneging on a sponsorship agreement and misrepresenting its intentions, leading to massive losses for his company.
Yet two days after the conclusion of a long trial in the Commercial Court in London, the company announced that it was discontinuing its claim. It said it had also agreed to pay Vodafone's legal fees.
Lawyers for Jordan Grand Prix Limited tried to keep Mr Justice Langley's ruling confidential, a High Court application that he rejected. But the judge said that he would delay publication until 4pm on Monday to give lawyers an opportunity to seek an appeal.
Last night, Mr Jordan said: "Jordan Grand Prix has decided to withdraw its legal claim against Vodafone. We realise that for the good of the sport it is in everyone's interest to draw a line under this episode and concentrate on the rest of this season and the years ahead."
The court was told that the case centred around a private telephone conversation between Mr Jordan and David Haines, the global branding director of the telecommunications firm, in which the latter said: "You have got the deal."
The short sentence, Mr Jordan's lawyers claimed, meant that Mr Haines had agreed to a £100m, three-year sponsorship contract in which the Formula 1 team would display the Vodafone brand on its cars. The mobile phone giant was later enticed away by Ferrari which, Jordan claimed, amounted to a breach of contract.
Alan Boyle QC, for Jordan Grand Prix, said that the words - spoken on 22 March 2001 - referred to an existing offer that both sides knew had been tabled and negotiated at earlier meetings. He said: "There was clear assent on both sides to the existence of a deal."
Vodafone denied it had committed itself to the team.
The company had narrowed the field to a "starting grid of five" potential teams: Ferrari, McLaren, Jordan, Benetton and Toyota. The company said that no agreement had been reached with Jordan, no terms were finalised and no binding contract existed.
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