Judge criticises Jordan lawsuit

Jordan has offered to pay Vodafone's costs

Formula One boss Eddie Jordan's £150m lawsuit against Vodafone was "without foundation and false" as well as "contrived and unsustainable", a High Court judge has ruled.

Mr Justice Langley also criticised Jordan for a number of "blatant inaccuracies" in his oral evidence and said that when these were exposed he was "reduced to embarrassed silence" in the witness box.

Jordan and his commercial director Ian Phillips were described as "wholly unsatisfactory witnesses".

Jordan launched a claim in London's High Court in June saying Vodafone wrongly pulled out of a three-year deal to sponsor Jordan's cars only to back rival team Ferrari.

The trial lasted six weeks until July 29.

On Friday, however, as the judge prepared to hand down his written judgment in the case, Jordan applied to abandon his claim and offered to pay all of Vodafone's costs at the highest indemnity level.

Jordan also applied to have the judgment kept private, but Langley insisted on making his ruling public, although he delayed it until 1600 BST on Monday to give Jordan the chance to appeal against that decision.

Jordan's claim, which took into account the £100m Jordan claimed Vodafone agreed to pay as well as interest and other losses, centred on four words.

"You've got the deal," were the words Jordan claimed were spoken to him on the telephone by Vodafone's global branding director David Haines.

Jordan claimed these words sealed the agreement for the three-year sponsorship of its F1 cars on the terms negotiated between the parties in the prior months, even though no written contract was produced.

"The inherent improbability of an agreement of such a nature for payments of such a size being made in such a manner is obvious," the ruling said.

"At the conclusion of the evidence the inherent improbability was more than fully matched by the reality.

"Jordan's claim was in my judgment plainly demonstrated to be without foundation and false."

Vodafone argued that it merely entered into negotiations with Jordan, along with rival racing teams McLaren, Benetton, Ferrari and Toyota, as part of its global branding strategy.