Update 7 July 2008: Shell settled the claim three weeks into the trial paying all of John Donovans legal costs. Donovan also received a payment as part of the top secret settlement, the terms of which, as Shell General Counsel Richard Wiseman confirmed in an email to John Donovan on 17 June 2008, were not even disclosed to the Judge, Mr Justice Laddie who approved the settlement and made ill informed comments believing he had been given the true facts. A so-called Joint Press Release actually issued by Shell Media, contained a false account of the settlement designed to deceive Shell stakeholders, the media and the public. In other words a typical example of Royal Dutch Shell intrigue, deception and cover-up, in this instance personally approved by the then Group Chairman, Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, who, prior to the court proceedings, sent a letter to John Donovan containing a threat. His wife, Lady Judy Moody-Stuart, personally intervened in the litigation prior to the trial. A copy of her extraordinary letter and subsequent post card message sent to Alfred Donovan at the commencement of the trial was passed to the Judge.
Mr Justice Laddie
Shell in legal row over Smart Card
Top judge accused of bias in landmark patent appeal
legalweek.com
Top judge accused of bias in landmark patent appeal
02 May 2002
Author: Paul Hodkinson
A Swedish pharmaceuticals company advised by Simmons & Simmons has launched a groundbreaking appeal against a ruling by Mr Justice Laddie accusing him of having an “appearance of bias” in a patent case.
The highly unusual allegation is one of the grounds of AstraZeneca subsidiary AB Hassle’s appeal against Laddie’s ruling in a patent case.
Laddie ruled that AB Hassle could not enforce a patent for one of its drugs against two rival UK companies, Generics (UK) and Cairnstores.
The Independent: John Walsh: Tales of the city
The Independent: John Walsh: Tales of the city
“What is one to make of the behaviour of Sir Hugh Laddie, better known as Mr Justice Laddie…”
Posted Friday 24 June 2005
Where will it end? Ambition, ties and socks are all being left behind in the pursuit of fun
What is one to make of the behaviour of Sir Hugh Laddie, better known as Mr Justice Laddie, an awesomely distinguished, vertiginously eminent senior judge at the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice? He has done a runner. He has legged it. Bored with judicial protocol, enervated by the daily wrestling-match with arcane questions of copyright and “intellectual property” (his special subject), he has chucked it all in, to join a firm of solicitors as a consultant.
The Guardian: Boredom forces judge to quit
The Guardian: Boredom forces judge to quit
Clare Dyer, legal editor
A high court judge who is leaving the bench to join a firm of solicitors because he is bored with judging took fellow judges by surprise yesterday.
Mr Justice Laddie has risked the disapproval of the legal establishment by breaking the unwritten convention that the bench is a life sentence ended only by retirement or death.
Yesterday his resignation was the talk of the inns of court where judges meet for lunch. One appeal court judge said: “For some of the old school people at Lincoln’s Inn, saying he was going to join a firm of solicitors was a double insult.”
Daily Telegraph: Boredom, comedy, high drama – what more could a judge ask for?
Daily Telegraph (UK): Boredom, comedy, high drama – what more could a judge ask for?
Friday 24 June 2005
By Tom Utley
(Filed: 24/06/2005)
Anybody who has sat through a long court case will have a great deal of sympathy with Mr Justice Laddie, who looks like a jolly sort of fellow from his photograph. He is the High Court judge who announced this week that he was resigning from the Bench because he no longer found the work “stimulating”. At the age of 59, he plans to join a firm of solicitors, because he thinks that working with a team will be more fun than sitting in lonely judgment in the Chancery Division, as he has done for the past 10 years.
Mr Justice Laddie, High Court Judge, Resigns
Mr Justice Laddie, the High Court Judge who has been the subject of calls for an investigation into his handling on the Shell/Donovan “SMART trial (and has been cited by Shell in the royaldutchshellplc.com domain name battle) resigns from the Bench claiming he is “bored”.:
Thursday 23 June 2005
By Alfred Donovan
In what has been described in “The Scotsman” as “an unusual step”, Mr Justice Laddie, 59, has announced his voluntary resignation from the UK judiciary. He is joining Willoughby & Partners/Rouse Legal, a firm of UK solicitors, as a consultant. Sir Huge Laddie QC is reportedly the first Judge to leave the bench in such circumstances for 35 years.
A front page story published in the Daily Telegraph indicates that the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, is likely to view Sir Hughes return to the legal profession “as a breach of the unwritten rule – almost an unspoken oath – that joining the Bench is a one way street.” The move is so extraordinary that speculation has naturally arisen about the reasons for his departure.
SHELL, MR JUSTICE LADDIE AND ‘JUSTICE’
20 May 2004
Lord Falconer of Thoroton
Secretary of State and the Lord Chancellor
Department for Constitutional Affairs
Selborne House
54-60 Victoria Street
London
SW1E 6QW
Dear Lord Falconer
SHELL, MR JUSTICE LADDIE AND JUSTICE
I note that one of the aims of your department is to empower citizens to obtain justice, safeguard their rights and participate in a transparent and accountable democratic process.
Presumably you agree that a fair and just civil trial requires the following fundamentally essential ingredients:-
Stalemate for marketing firm’s ‘stolen’ idea claim
Mr Cox had accused Shell's witnesses of appearing to have "corporate amnesia", yet claimed Mr Donovan had a "trusted and successful" record with Shell.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
MORE DETAILS:
A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
