An ex director of Discovery Yachts Group will have to pay over a million pounds in compensation to a couple who sued the company over their leaking boat. Both Discovery Yachts Group and Discovery Yachts Ltd, are in liquidation – but Discovery Group’s ex-director Sean Langdon, 58, will now have to pay £1.12m compensation in person after losing a lawsuit.
Andrew France and his wife Maria bought the 58-foot Discovery sailing yacht ‘Elusive’ for £1.5 million in January 2017.
They sued Southampton based boat broker Discovery Yachts Sales Ltd (DYS) and Discovery Yachts Group Ltd – claiming the boat was ‘not watertight’, after one of the cabins flooded just three days after delivery.
Following a Supreme Court trial in December 2019, Judge Justice Teare upheld the claim against both companies and awarded the couple more than £1 million in compensation and costs. Mr Langdon then challenged a Supreme Court decision last year which found that he was personally liable. But the latest court hearing chucked out the appeal and upheld rules which automatically hold executives liable for their company’s debts.
The court decided that Mr Langdon is responsible for a payout after he admitted to unknowingly violating Section 16 of the Insolvency Act by continuing to use the name ‘Discovery’ following the liquidation of Discovery Yachts Ltd, which went into voluntary liquidation in January 2022.