"Brian,

This story was in Friday's INVESTOR'S CHRONICLE. Any comment from Rio?

I am hoping to talk to Jeff Goldberg from Cranswick & Watson about ex- pat legal action as well today."

"A lone investor has beaten the mighty Halifax bank in court. Brighton County Court this week, awarded Mark Bishop 1,500 pounds in his claim over the non-delivery of his windfall shares in Halifax's flotation last summer. He is the first investor to win a court judgment against the bank although up to a dozen investors have taken their grievance to court and almost 6,000 have lodged complaints with the Building Societies Ombudsman.

However, Mr. Bishop won the compensation because the Halifax was unrepresented in court, says Halifax. The firm of solicitors that has thwarted investors up to now failed to turn up in Brighton (BRIAN: strange?). Halifax plans to apply for the judgment to be set aside. A mistake by the Halifax meant that Mr. Bishop received no windfall shares.

The bank said it was unable to issue him shares retrospectively, and paid him 1,465 pounds compensation, but reportedly Mr Bishop claimed a further 1,500 pounds compensation because he could not Pep his shares."

This is the first successful litigation against Halifax. In a way, it's a precedent.Let's make it a long line of them. Every category must organise and seek legal action. There is no other way around Halifax through the "authorities".

Jack Hansed, leader of the counterpart group in Canada, is in charge of dealing with our lawyer, Jeff Goldberg, Cranswick Watson Solicitors, Leeds. (Mr.John Quarrell of law firm, Nabarro Nathanson, London, handling the cases of the Under-18's, has not replied to our legal proposal, so looks like no other option but Jeff - still a little time.)

Jack is already collecting CAN.$25 per head from the Canadians under his wing to cover the initial QC Counsel opinion (1,175 pounds), vital to assess our legal position.

Our numbers worldwide are growing daily, so at this time we do not know what the initial contribution will be. However, we estimate that it will be no more than US $25.

I will soon have details of the fund that has been set up in Vancouver. We will then advise how to remit the initial contributions.

Appparently, it will be the QC who will handle our case and not Jeff Goldberg himself. Does anybody understand the way the legal system works in UK and would be prepared to enlighten us all?

We were never sent either the FORM "A" or FORM "B" share certificate options, thus, we were arbitrarily excluded before the flotation date in June, until which time we still had a chance to shift address to the UK or other permitted territory.

Remember that FORM "B" simply authorised Halifax to sell our shares and put the proceeds straight into our existing accounts, right there in the UK itself. None of this Halifax nonsense alleging difficulties in sending FORM "A" around the world: local laws/regulations and "immaterial" numbers of members in certain territories!

Wayne Tomlinson: WayneTomlinson@compuserve.com sends the following:

"Hi, My name is Wayne Tomlinson and I work for a U.K. company Called CARE-SPECIAL Ltd, who provide specialised residential nursing care for adults with learning disabilities and physical disabilities also. Around 20 people have Halifax accounts and all they recieved was ONE standard allocation between them ALL."

Does anyone know of any other charity homes in UK that could band together with Wayne's organisation? I can think of Jospices and Cheshire Homes. Any others?