A former model who lost a London High Court “deceit” fight with a businessman who launched the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket competition has begun an appeal.
Venture capitalist Gurpreet Gill Maag and Quantum Care – a company she runs – had sued Lalit Modi and made allegations of “deceit”.
Mrs Maag, who invested about £750,000 in a cancer care company called Ion Care, which Mr Modi was behind, asked a judge to award her damages.
She said she had invested after Mr Modi “represented” to her that the Duke of York was among several high-profile people who were “patrons” of Ion Care.
Mr Modi disputed her allegations.
Judge Murray Rosen, who heard evidence at a High Court trial in 2022, declined to find that Mr Modi had made “actionable misrepresentations”.
Lawyers representing Mrs Maag on Wednesday asked Court of Appeal judges Lord Justice Newey, Lord Justice Singh and Lord Justice Nugee to overturn decisions made by Judge Rosen and order a re-trial.
The appeal hearing is due to end later this week.
Judge Rosen had said, in a written ruling in March 2022, that Quantum had taken on a “heavy burden in seeking to establish a difficult case in deceit” and its evidence was “manifestly not sound enough for that task”.
The judge said an investment of one million US dollars (£760,000) was subject to Mr Modi’s “contractual promise of repayment”.
He said there would be judgment against Mr Modi for the balance of 800,000 dollars (£610,000) owing.
The judge had said: “I decline to find that Mr Modi made actionable misrepresentations as alleged.”
He ruled that Quantum’s deceit claim against Mr Modi fell to be dismissed.
The judge went on: “Even if that were wrong, apart from its one million US dollar investment which is subject to Mr Modi’s contractual promise of repayment, I am not persuaded that it suffered any recoverable loss.
“There will be judgment for Quantum against Mr Modi for the balance of 800,000 US dollars owing under his contract, and interest. Quantum’s claims otherwise fail.”
