Simon Butler and The British Association of Snowsport Instructors have reached an out-of-court settlement, leading to the end of the court action brought by Mr Butler against BASI.

Under the terms of the settlement, Mr Butler has abandoned his court action against BASI with both sides agreeing to pay their own legal costs. Mr Butler has also given several undertakings to the Court:

• That Mr Butler will not ever raise any claims or proceedings of whatever nature against BASI seeking to challenge (i) the decision of February 2014 not to grant Mr Butler his MoU stamp and the decision of November 2014 to remove Mr Butler as a member of BASI, (ii) the decision of 1 November 2016 not to grant Mr Butler his MoU stamp, and (iii) the reasoning of BASI in making the 1 November 2016 decision; and
• That Mr Butler will not ever raise any claims or proceedings of whatever nature against BASI seeking damages from BASI in relation to any of the above decisions.

For the avoidance of doubt, this settlement did not involve Mr Butler being granted an MoU stamp.

Settlement came after two days of hearings at the Court of Session in Edinburgh. At the first of these hearings on Thursday 24 November Mr Butler’s Counsel sought to discharge the evidential hearing set down for Tuesday 29 November, asking for time to consider the recent decision of the Lyon administrative court. The Court refused this. This request was repeated at a second hearing on Friday 25 November and was again refused. The Court then heard argument from both parties and refused to allow Mr Butler to introduce additional challenges in relation to a new decision to refuse his MoU stamp of 1 November 2016, advising that it is unlikely a case brought on these grounds would receive permission to proceed.

Subsequent to this hearing the parties continued with settlement discussion which had been opened by BASI on Tuesday 22 November. An agreement was reached on Friday afternoon and the court action was formally refused on Tuesday 29 November, bringing the action to an end. While BASI is saddened that it has been forced to enter into court proceedings against one of its own members, it is happy that in this case an agreement to the benefit of both parties has been reached without further cost needing to be incurred by either party. While BASI maintains that its position was correct and was fully committed to defending the action to its conclusion, it is hoped that this agreement will draw a line in this issue.

A fuller statement will be issued to members in due course.