A NEWLY BUILT CINEMA BEGINS TO FLOOD AND THE DISPUTE THAT FOLLOWS SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE TO RESOLVE

A multi-million mediation success story, led by Nicolas Fournier.

The Situation:

A few years ago an entertainment company began building a cinema. It opened successfully but shortly afterwards damp started to appear on the walls of the lower cinema screens. It had been built just below a river, and river water had begun to seep through into the cinema. Over time the situation worsened, and at one stage people were leaving the cinema screen with wet feet. It was a total disaster. A year on the entertainment company made a claim against the architects, the construction company, and the many sub-contractors involved. The tribunal judge immediately ordered expert evidence. The expert gathered evidence on the problem, possible solutions, how much the solutions cost, and estimates on how much the claimant was owed in liquidated damages. In this case there was a whole chain of problems as to why the building wasn’t waterproofed correctly. When the expert submitted their findings each party had the right to defend themselves against the findings. There were several causes to the problem, and each company was defending that it was the other reason which was the main one.

The expertise stage lasted for eight years and all the parties were exhausted by the process. But they were only just past the first stage. Due to the struggle and rigorous opposition between the parties this dispute was headed for ten to fifteen years of judgements and appeals. The only way to solve the issue was to find a solution that everyone could agree to.   

The Solve:

A lawyer for the claimant reached out to Nicolas and another mediator, and they began the process of Early Intervention, but when the five main parties involved met it was chaos. Lawyers were shouting at each other; it was very aggressive and nearly violent. There was lots of animosity and bad feelings. They even turned their hostility towards the mediators, claiming they weren’t doing a good enough job. For three months Nicolas brought some strategic calm and a resolutely optimistic approach to the table.

They had two problems to solve. Firstly, they had to find a level of compensation that would be acceptable to the claimant. Once the amount had been defined, they had to work out how to divide what was owed between each company. Over the course of the next few months Nicolas and his partner conducted a huge negotiation between the five parties. In the end, to the surprise of many parties involved, they were able to come to an agreement.

The impact:

A 5m EUR agreement was settled. A complex system of payments was initiated for the rebuilding of the cinema that is to begin in 2023. After eight years this embittered battle had finally been resolved, all parties were satisfied with the result and were able to move on.

Oliver, a lawyer representing the claimant, shares his experience:

“I have participated on two occasions, in two high-stakes mediation cases led by Nicolas Fournier, both of which resulted in an amicable outcome (even though the parties had been very fiercely opposed for years).

What struck me (and which is a source of inspiration for me) are his genuine qualities of listening, respect and empathy (which is rare in itself), but also, and above all, his availability and his faith in the chances of reaching an amicable solution, despite incidents and setbacks.

The way in which I have seen him establish the confidence of the parties (and their counsels) in the process and in himself, from the very first stages of the mediation, at the very stage of establishing the simple conditions for its implementation, is remarkable and has indeed been decisive in the subsequent exchanges.

Nicolas Fournier is clearly a mediator whose faith in the process makes miracles. His perfect mastery of the mediation technics together with this quality makes him an outstanding mediator”

Alex, the decision maker for the lead insurer on this case, shares her experience:

“I had the opportunity to participate in a mediation with Mr Fournier in 2022.

I was able to appreciate his professionalism and his commitment to enable the mediation to reach a settlement in a particularly difficult context of sour relationships, sometimes openly confrontational, between the developer and the builders (mediation initiated in a construction insurance context).

His personal engagement enabled and established dynamic exchanges between the parties, which made it possible for all the participants to adhere to the principle of mediation, and they became willing to sit at the mediation table.

The setting up of regular meetings, at his initiative, made it possible, step by step, to reach a negotiated solution that was satisfactory for all the parties, even though most of them were convinced at the beginning of the mediation that it would fail.

I particularly appreciated Mr Fournier’s calm and resolutely optimistic approach during each of the meetings, sometimes reframing one of the parties and reassuring the other, always with a view to reaching a compromise. 

I also very much appreciated the spreadsheets he was building live, for all of us to see, on zoom or face to face – often complex– that enabled us to see in a simple way the financial implications of the various options in terms of sharing of responsibilities between insurance companies and that he sent us afterwards as part of minutes after each private meeting have been for me an unquestionable plus in this mediation.

Mr Fournier’s personality, his kindness and friendliness in all circumstances were the key to the success of the mediation in which I participated alongside him.”