DIFC Court: high bar for anti-suit injunctive relief

Federal Express International Inc. v. Abdul Latif Jameel Transportation Company Ltd [2018] DIFC CFI 038

Judgment: 15 July 2018

DIFC Court of First Instance

Areas of Law:

DIFC law
Anti-suit injunctions
Interim relief
Arbitration

Summary:

The Claimant’s application for anti-suit injunctive (‘ASI’) relief to prevent the hearing of a 28 USC § 1782 application in the US District Court was dismissed with costs.  The DIFC Court confirmed that there is a high bar to granting anti-suit injunctive (‘ASI’) relief. It followed its decision in Brookfield Multiplex Constructions LLC v. DIFC Investments LLC [2016] DIFC CFI 020 in finding that the test for non-contractual ASI relief was that the injunction respondent’s proceedings should be vexatious and oppressive. 

However, the DIFC Court emphasised that ‘this is quite a high standard of proof for the Claimant to meet’, and endorsed the prevailing English view that the test in obtaining interim ASI relief is more onerous than the ordinary American Cyanamid test for obtaining any other interim injunction. The Court further found that the Claimant did not have good prospects of success in related contractual and non-contractual claims for ASI relief restraining arbitral proceedings in the KSA (the ‘KSA Arbitration’).