‘No one would have thought him serious’... judge backs Ashley over £15m pub deal
‘They all thought it was a joke’
SPORTS Direct boss Mike Ashley won a High Court battle yesterday with an investment banker who claimed he was promised £15million at a boozy meeting in a pub.
Jeffrey Blue said Mr Ashley offered him the huge payout if he increased the firm’s value to £8 a share.
Mr Blue sought £14million in damages after Mr Ashley, who also owns Newcastle United, paid him just £1million.
But a judge rejected the claim, ruling that no one would have taken such an offer seriously because it was made during a heavy drinking session.
Lawyers for billionaire Mr Ashley, 52, said it was a ‘comprehensive’ victory.
The case centred on a meeting held in the Horse and Groom pub in central London in January 2013.
Mr Blue said Mr Ashley, who dismissed the alleged offer to the banker as ‘banter’, often held drinking sessions to encourage his staff to speak more freely.
However, Mr Justice Leggatt said the fact that the meeting was held in a pub, the vagueness of the offer and that it lacked any real commercial sense meant it was not legally binding.
He added: ‘ No reasonable person in the Horse and Groom on January 24, 2013, would have thought the offer to pay Mr Blue £15million was serious and was intended to create a contract, and no one who was present – including Mr Blue – did in fact think so at the time. They all thought it was a joke.
‘The fact that Mr Blue has convinced himself the offer was a serious one, and that a legally binding agreement was made, shows only that the human capacity for wishful thinking knows few bounds.’
The trial had previously heard how Mr Ashley remembered a ‘night of heavy drinking’ with a group of finance specialists at the pub but could not remember detail of conversations.
When asked how much he had drunk, he estimated consuming up to five pints an hour. He said he had been trying to ‘get p****d and have a good night out’, explaining how one banker had been designated to stand at the bar and buy drinks ‘before the round was finished’, adding: ‘They were coming like machine guns.
‘It was a fun evening – drinking at pace. I like to get drunk. I am a power drinker. It is binge drinking. I am trying to get drunk.’
The High Court was told how Mr Ashley would hold management meetings in pubs and ply staff with booze, fish and chips and kebabs. Mr Blue said Mr Ashley once challenged Merrill Lynch analyst Pawel Pawlowski to a drinking contest.
He added: ‘Mr Ashley and Pawel would drink pints of lager, with vodka chasers between each pint, and the first to leave the bar for whatever reason was the loser.
‘After approximately 12 pints and chasers, Pawel had to excuse himself. Mr Ashley vomited into the fireplace to huge applause from his management team.’
The court heard Mr Ashley would act up in formal business settings, lying under tables to ‘take a nap’ if he became bored. Once, he allegedly offered to settle an issue over the payment of legal fees with a game of spoof.
Mr Blue must now pay his legal costs of £1million, and was ordered to pay Mr Ashley’s of £1.5million.