Judge accuses property firms of being more precise about fine wine than million-pound property deal After examining email exchanges between Mr Maine-Tucker and James Sunley, 50, Judge Alexander ruled in favour of Sunley Holdings. In a written judgement, he said: "The dispute has arisen because of the high level of informality in the contractual dealings between the parties." He added: "The style of the interchanges is chatty and there is use of shorthand phrases, some of which are ambiguous. The correspondence is more precise about the provenance and vintage of claret to be enjoyed while considering the terms of one of the proposals than about the terms themselves. This is explained by the fact that the parties have had cordial business dealings with each other going back some years. It is regrettable because the Fulham Palace Road development is now said to be significantly profitable and is therefore potentially a large sum at stake. James Sunley ran the Sunley Holdings a "substantial and well-known" family property company based in Mayfair, alongside his father John until his death in 2011, aged 74. Mr Maine-Tucker was said to have had a "good personal relationship with John Sunley" and regarded him as "something of a mentor." His relationship with James Sunley was "less cordial" however. In the agreement in 2008, it was said that London & Medway would introduce development opportunities to Sunley in exchange for a 20 per cent share of the profits. One of the development opportunities was for the student accommodation in Fulham Palace Road, which Mr Maine-Tucker initially had "high hopes" for. However planning permission was initially refused twice and another firm involved in the construction went into liquidation. Judge Alexander said the upshot was that "both parties were less than enamoured with the other's handling of aspects" of the scheme and by November 2009, Mr Maine-Tucker had "had enough" of working as a part of the Sunley group and terminated the 2008 agreement. Mr Maine-Tucker argued he still had a claim of the profits but Judge Alexander said that in an email in April 2012 - when he said he would "walk away from any profit share in FPR," he had "made it clear that there was no intention to make a claim in respects of the profits. Afterwards Mr Maine-Tucker said: "Given our intention to appeal I don't think it would be appropriate to comment at the moment." Sunley said the two firms were no longer working together.