MORE than 48,000 Railtrack shareholders will take their claim for government compensation to the High Court today in a case that will see Stephen Byers, the former Transport Secretary, questioned for two days in the witness box.
They include many former Railtrack employees who lost their life savings when the Government put the company into administration in October 2001. Geoffrey Weir, a retired Railtrack engineer in whose name the case is being brought, is accusing the Department for Transport (DfT) and Mr Byers of misfeasance in public office and a breach of human rights.
The misfeasance allegation is based on the claim that public officials acted in “bad faith” by knowingly damaging the financial interests of shareholders.
The shareholders claim that Mr Byers had decided as early as July 2001 to force Railtrack into administration. They have secured hundreds of e-mails and messages between officials and ministers, which they say reveal that administration was the only option seriously being considered.
Mr Byers claims that he made the decision on October 5, 2001, the day that he informed Railtrack. He is expected to give evidence next week.
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Other government witnesses are expected to include Sir Richard Mottram, the former DfT Permanent Secretary, and David Rowlands, his successor.
Dan Corry, a special adviser to Mr Byers, is also expected to be called to explain an e-mail that he sent on August 23, 2001, saying that the minister was “very attracted to the option of pushing them into administration. It does not cost too much.”
Martin Minns, a survivor of the Paddington rail crash, is expected to tell the court that, at a meeting with Mr Byers in September 2001, the minister hinted at what would happen to Railtrack in October.
Other witnesses being called by the claimants include John Robinson, the former Railtrack chairman, and Tom Winsor, the former Rail Regulator.
“We have members of all political persuasions who are united in the biggest-ever class action because they believe they have been wronged by the Government and deserve compensation,” Mr Weir said.
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Mr Byers eventually was forced to give shareholders 260p a share, but they claim they should have received £9.15. The shares were worth only 280p on the day that the company collapsed, but the shareholders argue that, under the procedure for nationalising private companies, they should have received the average value of the shares over the three previous years. The shares had traded at a peak of £17 before collapsing in the wake of the Hatfield train crash of October 2000.