The Scotsman 4 April 2001

Aristocrat hotdog seller sues for family fortune

John Innes

Stuart Usher: £365m lawsuit against firm

HIS fall from grandeur to poverty is one of the most spectacular in recent aristocratic history.

But hotdog vendor Stuart Usher - whose ancestors once owned thousands of acres of prime land in Perthshire, Lothian and the Borders - is launching the biggest lawsuit in Scottish legal history in a bid to reclaim his family’s lost wealth.

Mr Usher has issued a summons for £365 million against Brodies law firm, claiming the company has been negligent in managing a family trust.

The House of Usher lost control of its vast fortune in the 30 years to 1994, when successive family heads Sir Peter and Sir Robert usher both suffered from Down’s Syndrome.

Mackenzie and Black, incorporated in the 1970s into Brodies, were appointed trustees of the Usher Baronetcy Trust, set up in 1911.

Between 1911 and 1933, about £1.2m in cash, property and securities was paid into the trust.

According to the summons, issued on Usher’s behalf, the trust was generating an income of £70,000 a year by 1928. It says the current value of identified trust assets would be £110m, capable of producing an income of £8m a year.

However, the summons says that between 1911 and 1998, family members received only £3m.

Usher sells hotdogs to passing motorists near his home outside Jedburgh. Since he returned to the Borders from South Africa in 1995, he has also worked as a mini-cab driver and a barman at the Duke of Roxburghe’s country house hotel.

Usher has waged a long and often bizarre campaign to highlight his claims about the House of Usher’s missing wealth.

Last year he staged a protest - complete with banners and placards - outside Brodies’ office in Edinburgh.

Brodies has always refuted his claims about the management of the family trust, and a Law Society of Scotland inquiry has also previously concluded that his complaints are unfounded.

Mr Usher complained about the Law Society's inquiry and went to the legal ombudsman.

Speaking at the time of his street demonstration, he said: "There is so much owed to my family that has been squandered. I don't like to come outside places and hold placards expressing how I feel about them but this is what I have been driven to. They May not be happy to see me but, if Brodies don't like what I'm saying, then they can sue me."

The Usher family was particularly popular in Edinburgh in the first half of the 20th century, with Sir Robert Usher known as the Whisky King after setting up a warehouse in the city which could accommodate 25 million bottles. When he died in 1933, he left £10,000 to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and farms and estates in West Lothian and the Borders covering 6,000 acres.

Brodies managing partner Bill Drummond has previously said no allegations had been proved against his firm.

"Mr Usher has made complaints both to the firm and to the Law Society of Scotland, and then to the independent legal ombudsman, and all found his claims to be without foundation," he said.

A spokeswoman for the Law Society said: "There were a number of complaints made by Mr Usher and these were handled by the Law Society. He wasn't happy with our conclusions and took them to the ombudsman and he did not ask the society to reopen the files. If he wants to demonstrate, we live in a free country which allows that."

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