Coop win appeal against paying former boss £600k

The Channel Islands Coop has won an appeal against paying its former chief executive £600,000 in a compensation payout.

Colin MacLeod won a court case against the Coop last year, claiming the company had treated him unfairly, leaving him with a psychiatric injury. The Coop challenged the decision.

In May, judges originally ruled Coop would have to pay the £600,000 despite the appeal against the ruling not being heard.

On 1 September, three appeal judges sided with the Coop, accepting MacLeod was subjected to an unfair and inappropriate campaign by some directors, but that it was "not reasonably foreseeable that he would sustain a psychiatric injury" as a result of the situation.

MacLeod, who was chief executive of the Coop for 10 years, described the legal battle with the company as "long and excruciating" last December.

The court upheld that there had been a "deliberate campaign" to remove MacLeod and that the conduct of three directors "constituted bad faith".

This included meeting in secret without maintaining records, failing to raise concerns through formal channels and two expenses audits being targeted at MacLeod.

The Coop won the appeal against paying MacLeod £600,000 because he was a "strong personality" with "no known pre-existing vulnerability or susceptibility to psychiatric harm".

The court said, while it would have been foreseeable, MacLeod would have been "distressed, upset and angry" it was not "reasonably foreseeable that he would sustain a psychiatric injury".

The court therefore overturned the Royal Court's finding of liability.

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