Zaha Hadid’s business partner Patrik Schumacher claims he was forced to drop practice’s name – and alleges animosity clouded fellow executors’ judgment.
Legal papers lodged by Patrik Schumacher reveal an extraordinary tussle for control of Zaha Hadid Architects – with Schumacher claiming he was forced to agree to drop the founder’s name from the world-famous practice. He also claims he was forced to agree to pay a total of £7.75m by the practice (referred to as Zaha Hadid Ltd or ZHL) to a holding company controlled by the other three executors and their appointees, in a move Schumacher claims would reduce “ZHL’s ability to continue as a going concern”.
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According to Schumacher, the executors attempted to ‘alter the principles and business patterns’ of the architectural practice Zaha Hadid Limited – which trades as Zaha Hadid Architects – after assuming control of the board of Zaha Hadid Holdings (ZHH), its parent company. Schumacher asserts that Zaha Hadid’s letter of wishes spelled out how he was to remain in charge of the practice Zaha Hadid Limited and benefit from half of its income and capital.
But, he says, the three have shown increasing hostility towards him following Schumacher’s infamous and controversial outburst at the World Architecture Festival in late 2016. And he says the executors, by releasing a joint statement criticizing his position, ‘cast doubt on [his] ability to run Zaha Hadid Limited in keeping with the principles adopted in Hadid’s lifetime’.
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The particulars of the claim complain too that the executors, as board directors of ZHH, had ‘exercised the shareholder powers of [the holding company] to direct the management] of the practice and threatened to ‘dismiss Schumacher as a director and reduce his role in the management of Zaha Hadid Limited’.
All of the claims have yet to be tested in court. The three executors have previously issued a statement saying they had “at all times acted properly and in good faith with the desire to do their best for the estate”. Their statement also said: “The attempt to remove these three executors is totally unjustified and misconceived. They were appointed personally by Zaha Hadid because she trusted them to act in her best interests. All three were known to Zaha for decades; one was a close family member, and the other two were very good friends.”
Hadid died in March 2016, leaving more than £67m. Individual bequests included £500,000 each for Schumacher and Rana Hadid as well as the same amount each for her brother and nephew. The remainder of her estate was to be held in trust for up to 125 years with the trustees given discretion over its allocation to beneficiaries who were apparently specified as, among others, Schumacher, her firms’ employees, her “descendants” and the Zaha Hadid Foundation.