ChD 22 December 1988 Motion treated by agreement as the trial of the action. V claimed, in an action against N, declarations that consent had been unreasonably withheld to the proposed assignment of the lease. V had agreed to sell the lease to another company in 1988. Among the lease covenants was a clause forbidding the use of the premises otherwise than as a retail shop for display and sale of Venetian glassware and a qualified covenant against the assignment of the premises or any part thereof. Arrangements for obtaining landlords` consent appeared to be proceeding smoothly until the new landlords purported to refuse or rescind the licence to assign and permission for the change of use . V sought declarations that consent had been unreasonably refused. The main points at issue were: 1) whether a letter from the then landlords` solicitors was an effective consent to assignment and 2) whether engrossment and sealing of a formal licence by these solicitors (before transfer of the rev