After writing to Nigel Black and hearing nothing, Caspian’s directors pondered the future direction events could take.
They had fully expected Stirling to ignore them. The capitalist press said that Plantation was in trouble. It had other creditors, so it could be a case of first in, first paid.
Whatever the true situation was, Caspian would need lawyers.
The Russians wanted an attack dog, someone who was aggressive, who would give no quarter and pursue Plantation relentlessly until the claim was fully paid. They also knew that most law firms would shun them ; the USSR was actively opposing the British and Americans in different parts of the world ; only a few years earlier in a proxy war, the Soviets had helped to push the Americans out of Vietnam.
If they could find a firm of lawyers in the City of London, it would prove expensive all round. Fortunately, Moscow needn’t be consulted about the cost : they would fund it secretly from Caspian’s London account.
Eventually, after many polite and some not so polite rejections, they found a firm of solicitors – Marlowe & Co – who were well known in the insurance market. After speaking to one or two brokers who knew Marlowe, they were recommended to Vincent Wheeler, Marlowe’s senior litigation partner who had a reputation for taking no prisoners. Wheeler saw them, listened to their plight in silence and agreed to take on their case – but wanted fifty thousand pounds up front.
“Why so much ?” demanded Vitaly Bondarev, Caspian’s senior underwriter.
“Just a formality,” said Wheeler. “There are expenses to be paid and litigation is a costly business.”
Bondarev thought Wheeler was no different from his corrupt colleagues in Moscow : they both knew how to extort money.
The next day, Caspian’s fifty arrived in Marlowe’s client account and Wheeler set straight to work. He dashed off several pompous letters to Black and later to Jim Ashby, all penned by a subordinate and threatening damnation unless Plantation paid up. When that didn’t elicit a response, he lectured Plantation that under Stirling’s policy with Caspian, a dispute existed which had to be arbitrated. This was the same thing as a writ and the match got under way.
Caspian’s contract with Stirling was essentially a half page affair, listing what had been agreed. The back of an envelope might just as easily have served the purpose. In London, these tools of the underwriting trade prove to be invaluable when pricing large insurance contracts over a dozen pints in the Bligh & Bounty.
The list was shorthand for a fifty page contract containing the standard conditions used in the market.
Any dispute would be decided by a panel of underwriters instead of a judge. This was better than sitting in a drafty court, listening to m’learned friends waffle on. It would also ensure that dirty linen wasn’t aired in public and was kept within the insurance ‘community’.
In place of a judge, there were three arbitrators. Usually, two of them were senior underwriters. They would suggest a lawyer be brought in as the third arbitrator. He would write up the decision so that they’d be saved all the work and would avoid any embarrassment of a successful appeal, if they interpreted the law or the facts the wrong way.
After all the evidence had been dragged out, there would be a type of hearing in a conference room in a hotel or office building when both sides would use lawyers to present their case.
Some months earlier, Jim Ashby had agreed the selection of arbitrators and the hearing was to be held in around four month’s time. Caspian had fully explained what it was claiming which was backed up by a mountain of documents.
Plantation had also set out its defence – not particularly well from what Robert Ashby could see. There was the indelible mark of uncertainty of Whittingham, Thomas, Fulton and Stonehouse all over it. As anticipated, the records of conferences in the claims files and held months earlier foretold certain doom.
Another meeting with the redoubtable Meredith was needed. Although it was late on Sunday afternoon, Ashby rang him at home and organised to see him the following morning at nine on the dot.