rights and an offer to pay the fees on the basis of this assessment. Among other things, when transferring transaction agreements with your current or former employees, employers generally identify „living” rights and alleged rights that the worker may have against the company and include a catch-all rule that the employee, having been legally advised by his or her legal counsel, has no other rights against the company or its senior executives. , employees or shareholders arising from his employment or dismissal or any other company. It is common practice for certain rights to also be excluded from the scope, i.e. future rights to loss of pension rights, any right to the terms of the transaction contract, claims for compensation and, with the new whistleblowing regime (discussed elsewhere in this newsletter), clauses preventing an employee from making a protected disclosure in a timely manner. [A] Unlocking may include unknown claims, including unknown claims of fraud, if the parties intend to do so and if the agreement is entered into in a „fair and knowingly” manner… As explained by the majority of the call division below… A party who releases a right to fraud can later challenge that disclosure as fraudulently undue only if it can identify a fraud separate from the purpose of the publication… If this were not the case, no party would ever be in a position to settle a fraud claim with a finality. Do you intend to publish claims that are not yet known, but which can be discovered later? If it is the DerZuser, the transaction contract should expressly release all known and unknown claims. Widespread release of rights is not always enough to release claims unknown at the time of counting.
This decision reiterates that, when drafting a potential settlement of the claims, the parties should ensure that all issues to be resolved are effectively resolved and reminds us that special caution should be exercised when considering resolving future disputes that the parties do not yet know or are aware of. A settlement agreement on a legal fee of GBP 130,000 also covered a subsequent claim of 70 million LIVES for breach and negligence. The existence of a possible right to infringement and negligence was not suspected at the time of the transaction agreement. Properly interpreted, the broad release clause and the definition of claims cover rights beyond the original litigation. The context did not limit the scope of the transaction agreement. A right to breach of contract and negligence lies in the realm of possibility rather than „unknown strangers.” Khanty-Mansiysk Recoveries Ltd v Forsters LLP [2016] EWHC 522 (Comm) is a strong reminder that it is important to consider the extent of the publication.
