Woden Park Ltd (defendant/appellant) –v- Monsolar IQ Ltd (claimant/respondent)

Thursday 10th June 2021

Before Lord Justice Baker
Lord Justice Males
Lord Justice Nugee

The Defendant appeals the order of Fancourt J dated 12 June 2020, said to have been decided by agreement on the papers, whereby he corrected rent review provisions in paragraph 3 of Schedule 6 to a Lease dated 8 July 2013 .

His second judgment dated 12 June 2020 rejected the Claimant’s submission he revise his first judgment dated 5 June 2020, dealt with costs and refused permission to appeal.

Each of the parties issued Part 8 proceedings in September 2019. It was agreed the Claimant’s claim would be the lead claim. The Claimant and Defendant are respectively the Landlord and Tenant of a solar farm in Wales which the Defendant holds on the terms of the Lease dated 7 July 2013. A dispute arose as to the correct interpretation of the Rent Review provisions in the Lease and in particular the effect of the compounded indexation formula in paragraph 3 of Schedule 6.

The Judge found there was a clear drafting mistake and that the appropriate way to correct the error was by reading the interpretation of the “Base Index Figure” as though it referred to the RPI index figure for the month of May in the year preceding the relevant Review Date.