Christopher Floyd

Sir Christopher David Floyd (born 20 December 1951), called in court Mr Justice Floyd, is an English barrister and judge. He has served as a Justice of the High Court's Chancery Division since 2007.

Career

The son of David and Hana Floyd, Floyd was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his degree in Natural Sciences and Law. He was called to the Bar from the Inner Temple in 1975 and became a Bencher of his inn in 2001. In 1988 he was called to the Bar of the Republic of Ireland and in 1992 was appointed a Queen's Counsel. He was an Assistant Recorder from 1994 to 2000 and a Recorder from 2000 to 2007, a Deputy High Court Judge in the Patents Court from 1998 to 2007, and Deputy Chairman of the Copyright Tribunal, 1995 to 2007. In 2007 he was appointed a Justice of the High Court's Chancery Division and received a knighthood.^[1]

Other appointments

• 1996–2007: Member, Bar Council Chairman's Arbitration/Conciliation Panel^[1]
• 1998–2002: Member, Bar Council Professional Conduct and Complaints Committee^[1]
• 2000–2004: Member, Bar Council^[1]
• 2003–2004: Bar Council European Committee^[1]
• 1999–2004: Chairman, Intellectual Property Bar Association^[1]
• 2009– : Chairman, Permanent Exhibition of Legal Costume^[1]

Notable cases

A case brought by the musician Bobby Valentino in 2002 attracted media attention after Valentino performed the violin in court to illustrate a point, convincing Floyd to rule in his favour and award him damages of £100,000.^[2]

In 2010, Liverpool Football Club's creditors, including the Royal Bank of Scotland, went to court to allow the club's board to proceed with selling it. Floyd ruled in favour of the creditors, thus paving the way for the sale of the club to New England Sports Ventures.^[3] On 15 October 2010, Liverpool F. C. was sold to NESV for £300 million.^[4]

In a case heard in June 2011, Floyd found that some operations of the internet television broadcaster TVCatchup may be unlawful,^[5] ruling that TVCatchup's defence of relying on section 73 of the Copyright Design and Patents Act 1988 was valid, allowing the service to retransmit "qualifying services", namely all BBC services, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5, over the internet. However, he excluded retransmission of any other channels under these provisions as well as retransmission to 3G mobile devices and referred to the European Court of Justice for guidance on some aspects of the case.^[6]

In July 2011, in a case involving Alexander Montagu, 13th Duke of Manchester, Floyd found the two children of the Duke's bigamous marriage to be legitimate for the purpose of sharing in a family trust fund. Floyd said in his decision that the laws of Australia, California and England all allowed the children of bigamous marriages to be treated as legitimate and concluded: "Alexander and Ashley acquired the status of legitimacy by reason of the law of the domicile of each of their parents. That is the case whether the 13th Duke was domiciled in England, in Australia or in California."^[7]

Private life

In 1974 Floyd married Rosalind Jane Arscott, and they have one son and two daughters. He is a member of the Garrick Club.^[1]

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} 'FLOYD, Hon. Sir Christopher (David), Kt 2007' in Who's Who 2011 (London, A. & C. Black, 2010)
2. ^ Violinist wins fight for royalties after musical interlude in the High Court at independent.co.uk
3. ^ "Liverpool takeover to go ahead as owners lose case". ESPN. 13 October 2010. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=831953&sec=england&cc=4716. Retrieved 23 March 2011. 
4. ^ "Liverpool takeover completed by US company NESV". BBC Sport. 15 October 2010. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/9094283.stm. Retrieved 12 August 2011. 
5. ^ Andrews, Robert (9 August 2011). "Broadcasters Get A Mixed Judgment Against TVCatchup". paidContent:UK. http://paidcontent.org/article/419-broadcasters-get-a-mixed-judgement-against-tvcatchup/. Retrieved 10 August 2011. 
6. ^ ITV Broadcasting Ltd & Ors v TV Catchup Ltd, [2011 EWHC 1874 (Pat)] (18 July 2011) (“The section 73 defence applies to the qualifying services, but not in respect of re-transmission to mobile phones or of out of area services.”).
7. ^ Daily Mail Reporter, Duke of Manchester's children CAN inherit his huge fortune despite their father's bigamous marriage dated 19 July 2011, at dailymail.co.uk

Persondata
Name	Floyd, Christopher
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	20 December 1951
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death