A property developer has landed in an ongoing Supreme Court battle regarding a project which involved the Ryder Cup.

In 2007, William Derek Carlyle, Founder of Carlyco Limited, purchased a plot of land for a development at Gleneagles, Perthshire, from Gleneagles hotel.

Mr Carlyle obtained secured finance on a 12 month term from the Royal Bank of Scotland plc (RBS) for the purchase of the plot.

This purchase was subject to a buy-back clause, entitling the hotel to re-purchase the land if construction was not completed by April 2013, before the Gleneagles golf course was due to host the Ryder Cup.

In August 2008 RBS informed Mr Carlyle that it would not fund the plot’s development.  Soon after, the bank raised action against Mr Carlyle to pay £1,449,660, including interest.

Mr Carlyle counterclaimed and defended the action and in May 2010 Lord Ordinary deemed that the bank had breached a collateral warranty which bound it to make £700,000 of development funding available to him.

However, on the bank’s appeal of that judgment, in 2013 the courts ruled in favour of RBS, after the bank submitted that only an oral agreement in principle was obtained in regards to the development funding and so it was not legally obligated.
 
Most recently, the Supreme Court allowed an appeal from Mr Carlyle, set aside the 2013 decision and passed the case to a commercial judge.
 
More on this as the case unfolds.