Another case of mistaken identity
For those of you who still think you can't lose your identity, here's another example of what can go wrong...
Prosecuted for passing himself off as himself
A funeral director in a Dorset village last week applied to the House of Lords for leave to appeal against a court ruling that he must no longer trade under his own name, as he has been doing for 40 years. He is forbidden to tell anyone what he does for a living, and is told that if he answers the telephone he cannot even give his own name.
During the decades that Richard Adlem has been burying his neighbours around Sixpenny Handley, he has won such a local reputation that those whose funerals he organised included a former prime minister, Lord Avon (Anthony Eden) and Cecil Beaton, the photographer.
In 1993, Mr Adlem took on a partner, Stephen Beckwith, hoping he might one day carry on the business. For a nominal £10 he sold him part of the business, the chapel of rest which adjoins Mr Adlem's farmhouse. For seven years they worked happily together until Mr Beckwith decided to emigrate to Canada.
He told Mr Adlem he had sold his share in the business to Newman's, a large firm of undertakers in Salisbury. Mr Adlem was then astonished to receive a letter from Newman's solicitors, telling him he could no longer carry on the business under his own name, since it had been sold to Newman's.
Mr Adlem replied that he had never sold his name to Mr Beckwith, as was confirmed by their original contract. He intended to carry on as usual.
From here on the story became truly bizarre. Clients of Newman's protested to trading standards officials and to the Advertising Standards Authority that they had been misled into thinking their family funerals would be carried out by Mr Adlem. Newman's themselves replied in writing that they had no intention of preventing Mr Adlem carrying on under his own name.
Then in 2003, out of the blue, Mr Adlem found himself summoned to the High Court in London to face an action for "passing off": namely passing himself off as himself. The judge, a specialist in this field of law, had no hesitation in finding in Mr Adlem's favour. The case, he ruled, was so straightforward there were no grounds for appeal.
Newman's solicitors thought otherwise. When they applied to the Court of Appeal, Lord Justice Jacob first gave leave, then reappeared as one of three judges to hear their appeal.
He expressed impatience at the fact that Mr Adlem was not represented by a proper barrister, but by an unqualified neighbour. A second judge, Lady Justice Arden, found firmly in Mr Adlem's favour. Jacob and a third judge, who had no experience in "passing off" law, supported Newman's.
Mr Adlem thus found himself in the curious position, as he has been tirelessly reminded by Newman's solicitors (three more letters arrived last week on one day), that he must stop using his own name in any connection with his business.
He cannot even announce his name when answering the telephone. He faces a legal bill of more than £200,000. Encouraged by outraged support from almost the entire population of Sixpenny Handley, he last week lodged papers with the highest court in the land, hoping that common sense may prevail.
Daily Telegraph, 10 July 2005
4:06:35 PM 
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