The Coop has said it plans to appeal the decision.
The court made the award after what Mr Macleod, pictured, has described as his ‘seven-year crawl to justice’. He worked for the Coop for 30 years, including the last 10 of those as its chief executive.
He was dismissed from the business after a period of sick leave, and in his court claim, he said he had been subjected to a bullying and smear campaign.
He sought damages for psychiatric and physical illness arising from work-related stress.
Mr Macleod had already settled a case in the island’s employment tribunal.
The court was told that the campaign against him started when a new non-executive director, Jennifer Carnegie, was appointed to the board. Eventually Mr Macleod was diagnosed with a ‘serious psychological injury’ making him unable to work.
But after going off sick, he claimed that he was cut off from the company, including having his email address blocked. It was claimed that the conspiracy started in 2017, and he was dismissed in 2020.
Ms Carnegie denied that there was an aggressive attitude towards Mr Macleod and that there was any conspiracy to have him removed.
In its judgment, the court made reference to her and two other directors, Carol Champion and Paula Williams, both from Guernsey, who were all members of a board sub-committee, RemCo.
‘We are satisfied that the way RemCo and Ms Carnegie, Ms Williams and Ms Champion went about their duties in seeking to remove Mr Macleod without justification was in breach of their duties as directors but was also improper, commercially unacceptable and unconscionable, and therefore amounts to bad faith.’
The Coop strongly denied the claims and said that at about the time of the alleged campaign there were serious concerns over its finances. It said there was no evidence of a psychiatric condition and that Mr Macleod had made a full recovery and was passed fit to go back to work.
Mr Macleod has an online blog where he had not posted since 2020. But in a new entry he wrote that the court’s decision ‘marks the end of the most difficult chapter in my life’.
He said he would tell ‘the full story’ in a future post but in an overview he said that after a 30-year career with the company, during which time it was praised by the national chairman as ‘a role model for Coops’, his reward was ‘to have my career, my health and my reputation needlessly destroyed in a brutally toxic and concerted campaign of vicious boardroom bullying and victimisation. In the words of my then president, Ben Shenton, I was “boiled alive”.
‘My seven-year crawl to justice evidences my unwavering belief that it’s crucial we stand up against wrongdoing, even though it has relentlessly felt lonely and gruelling.’
Mr Macleod’s lawyer, Advocate Michael O’Connell, added: ‘This was a catastrophic failure in corporate governance, perpetrated by a group of bad actors.’
CI Coop chief executive Mark Cox said the company would be appealing.
‘While we acknowledge the judgment, with respect, we do not agree with the findings and, after liaising closely with our insurers and legal advisers, consider there are substantial grounds for appeal,’ he said.
