A High Court judge has likened a bitter legal battle between two club bosses over a strip of land outside a lap dancing club to a deadly “gladiatorial combat”.

Mr Justice Morgan made his comments at the end of a retrial in the High Court sitting in Birmingham between well-known businessmen Laurence Reddy and Allan Sartori over a piece of pavement outside the Rocket Club in Broad Street.

The pair previously had strong business ties after Mr Reddy became a partner in the Rocket Club, formerly Ronnie Scott’s, but later fell out.

Mr Sartori successfully claimed ownership of the land in 2009.

But firm Balevents, owned by Mr Reddy’s family, says the piece of pavement belonged to the club rather than its former general manager.

Mr Justice Morgan said: “One possible outcome of this battle royale is that both gladiators deliver the fateful blow and both expire on the battlefield.”

He added an alternative would be “that Mr Sartori and Balevents go off and agree to split the spoils and don’t kill each other”, adding that if not he would issue a hand-down written judgment in the case.

He said that, following the judgment, both parties could meet to discuss matters.

At an initial High Court trial in 2011 Lord Justice Kitchin ruled Mr Sartori was the rightful owner of the land and as such was entitled to a rental income of around £1,000 a week from a fast food hut on the site. But judges sitting in the Appeal Court later ordered a retrial.

Balevents, the company which owns the Rocket Club and which took the initial High Court action against Mr Sartori over ownership, secured the retrial after new evidence came to light.

John Randall QC, for Balevents, argued the “new evidence would have been material to the fact-finding exercise” of Lord Justice Kitchin’s original decision.

The new evidence related to “documentary evidence forming part of Broomco’s 2003 accounting records”. Broomco was a company set up after Jazz Enterprises (JEL) – the company which ran Ronnie Scott’s Club which had previously operated on the site – went into liquidation and its assets were transferred to Broomco.

Appeal Court Judges said the retrial would decide whether the rent paid for the land belonged to Mr Sartori, which he then lent to JEL and to Broomco, or whether the rent belonged to JEL and to Broomco.

The retrial challenged Mr Sartori’s historic claim on the land and focused on his “fiduciary duty” as an employee of Broad Street Entertainments Ltd (BSEL) which it was said came under the banner of Balevents.

It was argued by Mr Randall that Mr Sartori had a duty as an employee to register the land in the name of the company rather than himself. He said he was in breach of this in claiming the land as his own, registering it as such and pocketing the income.

Addressing Mr Justice Morgan Mr Randall said: “It is crucial in these circumstances whether you are persuaded Mr Reddy knew the application to be in Mr Sartori’s name and whether he also knew it was to be for his personal benefit – not Balevents.”

William Hansen, for Mr Sartori, said there had been an understanding between Mr Reddy and Mr Sartori that the income from the strip of land would be his pension and that registering the land in his name was “something Mr Reddy encouraged”.

 

* Background

The original legal battle played out in the High Court in 2011 followed a falling out between Mr Sartori and Mr Reddy, who were involved in the Rocket Club together until the company which ran it under licence, Broad Street Entertainments, was wound up in 2010.

Mr Sartori bowed out of the business while Mr Reddy continued running the club. Mr Sartori’s claim to the land was based on the fact he said his father Bernard sold sandwiches there from a kiosk as far back as the 1970s.

He said he then continued to operate the business from the 1980s, running it in tandem with the nearby Rep Cafe Bar.

He said his father initially laid claim to the land by erecting a small picket fence and it was in the Ronnie Scott’s era that he turned it into more of a feature with higher fencing and lighting.

From 1991 the terrace became an elaborate extension of Ronnie Scott’s club, a Midlands offshoot of the famous London jazz club of which Mr Sartori was one of the co-founders, until 2001 when Jazz Enterprises went into liquidation with debts of £1.6 million.

Mr Sartori went on to launch the Rocket Club at the venue and he and Mr Reddy forged a business partnership. They had become friends through their wives and when the club was struggling Mr Reddy came to the rescue and invested in it.

He initially invested £100,000 but claims he invested £360,000 in total. The business was eventually turned around and Mr Reddy recouped all of his investment.

Initially rent for the catering outlet on the disputed strip of land was paid to Mr Sartori but from 2003 it began to be paid to the club.

During the initial High Court case Mr Sartori maintained there was an understanding the land in front of the club belonged to him while Mr Reddy said the subject was “never discussed”.