Guinness Plc &lt;GUIN.L> , thebrewing group, has challenged a 5.2 mln stg payment to a U.S.
Lawyer who says he organised its controversial takeover of
Scotch whisky maker &lt;The Distillers Co Plc>.
    But attorneys for lawyer Thomas Ward, a member of the
Guinness board, told a court yesterday in the Channel Island of
Jersey that Ward saw the payment as his reward for services in
last year's 2.7 billion stg takeover.
    Britain's Department of Trade and Industry is investigating
the takeover.
    Guinness says its former chairman Ernest Saunders and Ward
"breached their fiduciary duty" in authorising the payment to
Ward, via a Jersey-based company, Marketing and Acquisitions
Consultants and has gone to the Jersey court to recover it.
    MAC said in defence documents that Ward was the main
negotiator in the battle for Distillers against rival bidder
Argyll &lt;AYLL.L> Group Plc.
    "The bid would not have been successful but for the ...
Services of Mr Ward," MAC attorneys said in the documents
submitted in court. "The payment was, in all the circumstances,
reasonable, proper and fully earned."
 REUTER
