FA Premiership: Iain Dowie's unveiling yesterday as the head coach of Charlton Athletic descended into farce when he was served with a high court writ by his former employers Crystal Palace for allegedly misrepresenting the reasons for his departure from Selhurst Park.

Dowie had completed 20 minutes of his inaugural press conference at the Valley when he was interrupted by a bailiff representing Fladgate Fielder, the London law firm acting on behalf of Palace and their chairman, Simon Jordan. The bailiff tried to serve him with legal documents and was initially prevented from doing so, but succeeded later in the afternoon.

Dowie ended his two-and-a-half year spell at Palace by mutual consent 10 days ago. Then, Jordan insisted Dowie was leaving to spend more time with his wife and two sons, who live near Bolton, although the manager pointedly refused to rule out the possibility of taking another job in the south-east.

Jordan had jokingly said he would "not be very happy" if Dowie subsequently decided to join Palace's local rivals, but his worst fears were realised yesterday when the 41-year-old signed a three-year contract to take over from Alan Curbishley and also suggested that he was ready to relocate to south London.

Palace's claim for damages centres on a series of private conversations between Jordan and Dowie just prior to his departure on May 22nd.

Jordan alleged that Dowie lied about his reasons for wanting to end his contract and that Palace consequently waived a £1 million compensation settlement which would have applied had he resigned to take over at another club.

"The level of deceit that is being used needs to be in the public domain," Jordan said. "The sole reason Iain Dowie was released from his contract was because he wanted to go to the north, and I was empathetic to the fact that he didn't see his boys. He also specifically told me that he wasn't going to Charlton because of his relationship with Palace and the credibility he would lose by doing so.

"I don't care that he's gone to Charlton: this is about what Iain did to release himself from the contract and the compensation that my club is entitled to. That is the reason this writ has been issued. There is a law called misrepresentation. Iain has breached it and now he can understand the reality of that."

Yesterday's events will not prevent Dowie taking up his coaching duties with Charlton.

"I've got an agreement which says it was by mutual consent and I can live with myself," Dowie said. "I said that a lack of family time had been a problem but there were lots of other things mentioned as well."

Dowie was preparing to accept questions from the press when Fladgate Fielder's representative swept into Charlton's media suite and announced he was serving the former Northern Ireland striker with a writ for "fraudulent misrepresentation of the terms of leaving Crystal Palace Football Club".

A shocked Dowie muttered, "You've got to be joking", before the bailiff was bundled out of the stadium by two security guards.