Name: Taylor & Sons Ltd.
Age: 124.
Appearance: Irreparably damaged.
By what? By Companies House.
What’s Companies House? It’s a government agency that acts as the registrar for all companies in the UK.
And what did this agency do that was so terrible? In 2009, they recorded information stating that Taylor & Sons Ltd – a 124-year-old Welsh engineering firm employing more than 250 people – had been wound up.
Tough times for business. What happened next? Taylor & Sons’ business evaporated: orders were cancelled, contracts were lost and credit from suppliers was withdrawn. The company subsequently went into administration, and was finally dissolved in 2014.
So Companies House wasn’t wrong; just a bit premature. The problem was Companies House hadn’t meant to report that Taylor & Sons Ltd had gone into liquidation. They had meant to say Taylor & Son Ltd.
They miscounted Mr Taylor’s offspring? No. Taylor & Son was a completely different company, one that actually had gone into liquidation.
Oops. Oops is right. Taylor & Sons’ managing director Philip Davison-Sebry was on holiday when the news broke. He was besieged by calls from clients asking why he had skipped the country.
But it was just a silly mistake! Companies House corrected their error three days later, but by then the damage was done: the information had cascaded uncontrollably across the internet.
Taylor & Sons should sue! They did, and they won. A judge ruled that Companies House was legally responsible for the firm’s unhappy fate. Damages have yet to be awarded, but lawyers acting for Davison-Sebry have valued the company’s claim at £8.8m.
Nine million quid for an ’S’? That’s like the most high-stakes game of Scrabble ever. Indeed. Companies House argued that what happened was extraordinary and could not reasonably have been foreseen, but the judge thought different.
Then again, if Mr Taylor had just had the one son, everything would still be fine. That’s another way of looking at it, I suppose.
Not to be confused with: Taylor & Son Ltd or any other company, limited or otherwise, that combines the name Taylor with progeny of any number or gender.
Do say: “It always pays to double check your spelling.”
Don’t say: “Have you heard the rumour? Mumford & Son have split up!”
