Former multimillionaire drops claim against Savills and Strutt & Parker

A former multimillionaire has dropped his claim against Savills and Strutt & Parker that they illegally sold his country house and its contents. Professor Wensley Grosvenor Haydon-Baillie, the founder of pharmaceuticals manufacturer Porton International and formerly one of Britain’s wealthiest individuals, dropped the claim at the beginning of a High Court hearing of the agents application to “strike-out” the claim. However, Haydon-Baillie is maintaining his £20m damages claim against bank Julius Baer & Co, auction firm Phillips De Pury, Gouldens Solicitors and the buyer of his former country home Wentworth Woodhouse, near Rotherham in South Yorkshire. He alleges that they were all involved in the illegal sale of the Grade I listed property and its contents after he missed mortgage payments in the late 1990s. Wentworth Woodhouse, the UK’s largest privately owned stately home, was repossessed by Julius Baer and sold in 1999. Haydon-Baillie claims that the sale was “unlawful” and included chattels to which none of the companies had any legal claim. Julius Baer and the other defendants have all applied to have the claim struck out. Savills confirmed that the claim against them had been discontinued and Haydon-Baillie had agreed to pay a proportion of their costs. The case continues. Savills were represented by Berrymans Lace Mawer; Strutt & Parker was represented by Williams Holden Cooklin Gibbons.