A judge in Oxford has ruled that the eviction claim being brought against the cafe by the vicar, the Revd Will Lamb, must be heard in the High Court in London.
The decision is a victory for the founder of the cafe, Will Pouget, and the operating company, Fresh Connection Ltd. They asked for the transfer on the grounds of the value of the business, the complexity of the law and the public interest.
After making his ruling in Oxford county court, Judge Peter Devlin, asked how many people had signed the petition. When informed that the figure was more than 14,000, he commented that he had read about it in the press and that the cafe was "much frequented and much loved" with many livelihoods dependent on it.
The church had asked the court to evict Will Pouget and Fresh Connection Ltd from the Old Congregation House in only 14 days from the hearing. They also asked for legal costs of £38,000 to be awarded against the defendants but no order was made for costs.
Documents before the judge included a bank statement showing £143,000 of rent returned by the church over the last 11 months because acceptance of it would deny the vicar’s claim that Will Pouget and the company were trespassers.
The barrister for the church, Evie Barden, urged the judge to make an immediate eviction order and refused to accept the legal arguments against on the grounds that evidence that the cafe business turned over £2.9 million in its last filed accounts was “only a small business.”
The cafe’s barrister, James Fryer-Spedding, successfully argued that the eviction would also mean that 60 employees of the cafe would lose their jobs, two other group companies dependent on the cafe would collapse and other local suppliers could face failure on account of the scale of their business with the cafe.
In court from the church to hear the judgement were the two churchwardens, Karen Melham and Nicholas Hardyman. Melham is a university researcher in ethics and Hardyman is an Oxford businessman. The vicar was absent. A representative of the church’s public relations consultants, Paternoster Communications, was also in court..
Will Pouget said after the hearing that he was delighted with the result but still wished for settlement of his dispute with the vicar. He said that the legal proceedings so far had cost both sides at least £70,000 and the total legal costs could reach more than £200,000 before the case was finally decided.
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