Andrew Brueton

Company and Insolvency

Andrew regularly acts in company disputes and personal and corporate insolvency proceedings. His work includes shareholder and company-control disputes, directors’ duties and misfeasance, bankruptcy and winding-up proceedings, challenges to antecedent transactions and enforcement against insolvent estates.

Featured cases

• MAR Ltd v D & D (County Court at Central London, Business and Property Work, 2023–2026): Andrew acted throughout for the company and its sole director in a multi-party dispute over the ownership and control of a family business. He secured undertakings protecting the company’s premises and subsequently represented both clients at a four-day trial before HHJ Raeside KC. The court held that the late shareholder’s estate held legal title to the company’s entire issued share capital on institutional constructive trust for the director. The administrators’ counterclaim and Part 20 claim were dismissed.
• Re a Company (High Court, 2025): Andrew obtained an urgent interim injunction from Marcus Smith J shortly before a threatened winding-up petition was due to be presented, followed by a final injunction before ICC Judge Agnello KC. The dispute arose from a £215,000 roofing contract and concerned the identity of the contracting party following the original contractor’s insolvency, practical completion and a substantial defects cross-claim.
• Re AC (County Court at Central London and County Court at Wandsworth, 2025–2026): Andrew acted for the landlords and petitioning creditors in linked insolvency and possession proceedings. At a contested half-day hearing of the bankruptcy petition, he obtained a bankruptcy order notwithstanding challenges to the creditors’ standing and a substantial alleged cross-claim based upon disrepair and utility bills. He subsequently secured a mandatory possession order despite further assertions of a counterclaim by the debtor. Andrew is currently instructed to resist the debtor’s pending application to annul the bankruptcy order.
• Re a Company (High Court, 2026): Andrew represented the company on an urgent application concerning an already-presented winding-up petition founded principally upon unassessed costs said to have arisen out of separate High Court proceedings. Following a five-hour hearing, Chief ICC Judge Briggs held that the unassessed costs were not presently due and that any undisputed sum was exceeded by the company’s cross-claim in respect of costs orders in its favour. The petitioner was restrained from proceeding with or advertising the petition and the petition was dismissed.
• Re VB (County Court at Central London, 2025–2026): Andrew represented a creditor in successfully resisting an application to set aside a statutory demand for almost £90,000 under a personal guarantee of rent obligations. Following a one-day hearing, the application was dismissed, the creditor was authorised to present a bankruptcy petition and was awarded its costs. The case involved a wide range of challenges to the debt, including execution and enforceability of the guarantee, alleged misrepresentation, surrender of the underlying tenancy, corporate authority and the effect of an earlier possession judgment.

Land and Property

Andrew acts across a broad range of residential and commercial property disputes. His practice encompasses possession and forfeiture, mortgages, leasehold covenants and service charges, easements and rights of way, disrepair, nuisance, trespass, urgent access injunctions, orders for sale. Andrew also has substantial experience with claims concerning trusts of land and disputed ownership. He is particularly keen on cases involving disputes at the intersection of property, insolvency and trusts.

Featured cases

• C v C (County Court at Newport (Isle of Wight), 2026): Andrew represented the claimant at a two-day trial before HHJ Glen concerning possession of a former family home and a counterclaim alleging beneficial ownership under a common-intention constructive trust and proprietary estoppel. The judge dismissed the defendant’s counterclaim and her allegations of a sham tenancy, finding that the landlord named in the tenancy had acted as an undisclosed principal for the claimant.
• H v GD Ltd (High Court and County Court at Southampton, 2025–2026): Andrew obtained an urgent mandatory injunction from Miles J permitting a long leaseholder and his contractors to enter neighbouring premises to investigate and remedy serious water ingress. Following transfer to the County Court at Southampton, he secured the continuation and extension of the injunction, including protection against interference with the remedial measures. Notwithstanding the fact that the defendant subsequently entered CVL, Andrew obtained a substantial judgment against the defendant.
• Land Registration proceedings (First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber), 2024): Andrew represented the seven respondents at a two-day Land Registration trial concerning an alleged prescriptive right of way over several freehold and leasehold titles. The case involved detailed issues of continuous user, permission, contentious and secret use, the Prescription Act 1832 and the doctrine of lost modern grant. The Tribunal rejected the claim and directed the Chief Land Registrar to cancel the applicants’ application.

Commercial Disputes

Andrew acts in contractual and sale-of-goods disputes, commercial indemnity claims, cross-border enforcement proceedings and disputes concerning high-value assets. He has experience of both urgent interlocutory applications and contested commercial trials.

Featured cases

• Pagani UK Limited v DM (County Court at Central London, 2024): Andrew acted for the claimant at a hearing to enter default judgment and assess damages in a claim arising from the £2.5 million purchase and €3.45 million onward sale of a Pagani Zonda C12 subject to outstanding finance. Andrew obtained damages, interest and costs in excess of £350,000, including the recovery of liabilities incurred in connected Commercial Court proceedings.
• Octane Limited v Kent Motor Cars LLP (County Court at Southend, 2024): Andrew successfully represented a motor-finance broker at the trial of two linked contractual-indemnity claims under a dealer operating agreement. The court upheld liability under the agreement’s principal indemnity provision and entered judgment on both claims.
• JT & Co v O & E (County Court at Clerkenwell and Shoreditch, 2024): Andrew acted for the defendants in proceedings seeking enforcement of a judgment from Trinidad and Tobago, raising issues concerning foreign jurisdiction, natural justice and the Administration of Justice Act 1920. The claimant’s application for default judgment was struck out, the English proceedings were stayed to permit a challenge in Trinidad and Tobago, and the defendants were awarded the costs of the application.

Will, Trusts & Probate

Andrew advises and represents beneficiaries, executors and trustees in contentious probate and trust matters. His practice includes disputes concerning the validity and construction of wills, undue influence, trustees’ duties and removal, claims under the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 and applications for directions concerning the conduct of trust and estate litigation. Andrew has recently also been instructed in a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975.

Featured case

• G v W & J (Mayor’s and City of London Court, 2026): Andrew successfully represented the defendant executors in striking out a wide-ranging probate and proprietary interest claim in its entirety. The court held that the claimant, a friend of the testator, lacked standing to challenge the will and that his constructive-trust and proprietary-estoppel claim had already been determined in separate proceedings and its pursuit was an abuse of process.

Qualifications

• LLB, University College London
• LLM, University College London

Memberships

• Chancery Bar Association
• Property Bar Association
• R3 (Association of Business Recovery Professionals)