Judgment has been handed down in a substantial family partnership dispute before the Business and Property Courts in Leeds.
Dr Mike Wilkinson acted for three Defendants in a substantial family partnership dispute before the Business and Property Courts in Leeds.
The judgment addresses difficult and fact-sensitive issues at the heart of partnership litigation, including when partnership accounts may be overlooked, when apparent partners will be treated as mere nominees and can be removed by the person nominating them and how the Court approaches issues of shadow control and inferences to be drawn from missing documents.
Following a lengthy trial involving extensive documentary and witness evidence, the Court accepted that many years of approved accounts did not reflect what was going on off-the-books, that significant income was being made and diverted out of the business and that one of the partners had never been a partner in her own right but was a mere nominee capable of being removed by the controlling partner who nominated her.
The judgment demonstrates how partnership disputes will often turn on substance, not form, and that s.25 of the Partnership Act 1890 does not prevent scrutiny of nominee arrangements where real control lies elsewhere. It provides guidance around the evidential value and treatment of accounts and how they can be overlooked or falsified where they are not evidence of the underlying realities. It also demonstrates how adverse inferences can be drawn from missing documents about income derived off-book.
Judgment:
Dr Wilkinson was instructed by Mohammed Suleman of Sandhill Solicitors.
Pervaz & Anor v Pervaz & Ors (High Court, Business List), judgment handed down 29 December 2025.
For more information on Dr Mike Wilkinson and the Business and Property Department at 18 St John Street, please contact Senior Civil Clerk Katie Brown on 0161 278 1800 or contact the clerking team by email.