Judge refuses to grant solicitor injunction after “grave robber” claims
9 March 2021
Collins Rice: Risk of future breach not sufficiently high for permanent injunction
A High Court judge has refused to grant a solicitor a permanent injunction to enforce undertakings made by the son of a client that he would stop making defamatory statements.
Mrs Justice Collins Rice said photojournalist turned gardener Charles Pycraft accused Lance Ranger of fraud, theft, money laundering and being a “modern-day grave robber” in the way he handled his father’s estate. Mr Ranger “strenuously denied” the claims.
However, Collins Rice J said the undertakings given by Mr Pycraft in March 2018 marked a “clear switch to restraint in Mr Pycraft’s conduct and he took them seriously”.
By John Hyde2021-03-08T15:51:00+00:00
The High Court has warned a man with a long-held grievance against a solicitor that he must stop making unsubstantiated defamatory claims in the public domain.
In
Ranger v Pycraft Mrs Justice Collins Rice declined an application for an injunction against Charles Pycraft after he breached an undertaking about his behaviour. But she stressed that if Pycraft gave any further cause for concern, any judge considering this option in the future would have an ‘additional perspective’.
The court heard that Pycraft had become convinced after his father’s death in 2013 that serious irregularities had occurred in the management of the estate. The trust was managed by Attendus Trust Company AG, a company based in Switzerland and owned and managed by practising solicitor Lance Ranger.