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Area of Law: Commercial Litigation
In PPRS v Tecar Justin Higgo QC represents the defendant in multiple claims for breach of warranty arising out of the sale of a Romanian paper business.
Read MoreArea of Law: International and Offshore
Rupert Reed KC and Gregor Hogan acted for the Sarjah Elecricity and Water Authority in FAL Oil Company Ltd v Sarjah Electricity and Water Authority. The case involved the challenging of the recognition and enforcement in the DIFC of a Sarjah court judgment on the basis of inter-Emirate immunity. This is the first time the DIFC Court considered the concepts of sovereign immunity within the UAE.
Read MoreArea of Law: Company
Matthew Morrison and Gregor Hogan act for Haz International Limited in connection with misfeasance proceedings alleging the diversion of business opportunities and other wrongs by a former director and shareholder. These have been consolidated with a just and equitable winding up/unfair prejudice petition presented by the defendant director/shareholder. The evidential stage of the trial (including the cross-examination of three Turkish witnesses via a translator) took place remotely over ten days in the Insolvency and Companies Court during January 2021. Closings will be presented in March 2021.
Read MoreArea of Law: Commercial Litigation
In Khalifeh v Blom Bank, Zahler Bryan is acting for the claimant who seeks the return of monies held in a Lebanese bank account and, in a high-profile decision earlier this year, successfully resisted the Lebanese bank’s jurisdiction challenge by establishing that the claimant was a consumer for the purposes of the European rules of jurisdiction ([2020] EWHC 2427(QB)).
Read MoreArea of Law: Commercial Litigation
Sophia Hurst represented the Claimants in Toucan Energy Holdings Ltd v Wirsol Energy Ltd in a five-week trial in the Commercial Court before Henshaw J. The US$60m dispute related to the sale, construction, and financing of 19 solar farms in the UK. Judgment is awaited.
Read MoreArea of Law: Private Client Trusts and Probate
Philip Jones QC has been acting in the BVI in numerous applications in the Skobelev case in which a Russian national has sought to recover money and assets stolen from him by a former employee and her husband.
Read MoreArea of Law: International and Offshore
In Brown & Company Plc v Faber Capital (DIFC) Ltd, Rupert Reed QC, and Gregor Hogan continue to act for a financial services firm defending allegations of breach of fiduciary duty arising from a sophisticated phishing attack.
Read MoreArea of Law: Private Client Trusts and Probate
John Machell QC and Dan McCourt Fritz act for one of the respondents to an appeal in St Johns Trust Company (PUT) Ltd v Medlands (PTC) Ltd. The appeal concerned various orders made by the Court exercising its supervisory jurisdiction in relation to trusts. The appeal was heard by the Bermudian Court of Appeal in January 2020.
Read MoreArea of Law: Private Client Trusts and Probate
In B v B, Emma Hargreaves and Gregor Hogan act for the wife in divorce proceedings involving Portuguese property held in a Cypriot trust. The case involves complex questions of jurisdiction and trusts law, and is expected to be one of the first decisions considering the Privy Council’s decision in Webb v Webb. Judgment is expected in early 2021.
Read MoreArea of Law: Competition Law and State Subsidies
Professor Suzanne Rab represented Riverside Truck Rental in parallel proceedings in the Technology and Construction Court (TCC) and the Administrative Court for judicial review. The claim raised EU and procurement law questions arising out of the conduct of a public procurement procedure subject to the requirements of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/102) (PCR 2015) and related duties arising under EU law. The case raised novel issues of law including consideration of when judicial review claims can be brought where there is a statutory procedure.
Read MoreArea of Law: Insolvency
In Trafalgar v Hadley & Ors Justin Higgo QC and Jamie Randall continue to represent the liquidator of Trafalgar in multi-party proceedings in the Chancery Division to recover funds misappropriated from a Cayman Islands segregated portfolio by its fiduciaries.
Read MoreArea of Law: Company
In Re: H Limited, Timothy Collingwood QC acts for majority shareholders in BVI proceedings involving allegations against them of unfairly prejudicial conduct, where the Court has had to address the effect on the claim against the shareholders of an arbitration agreement in the company’s articles of association.
Read MoreArea of Law: Company
In Medical Imaging Partners v St Joseph’s Independent Hospital, the question arose as to whether an MRI machine and other medical equipment subject to chattel leases had become annexed to land owned by a company in administration, so that title to the equipment passed to the purchasers of the business when the company’s assets were sold by the administrators. Thomas Braithwaite acted for the purchasers.
Read MoreArea of Law: Civil Fraud
Philip Jones QC and Gareth Tilley are acting for HMRC in HMRC v IGE USA Investments Ltd, a claim arising from the Revenue’s contention that it has rescinded tax settlements with the UK Subgroup of the US conglomerate worth upwards of £650m. The trial is to take place in late 2021. An interlocutory decision of Zacaroli J reported at [2020] EWHC 2121 (Ch) permitting the Claimants to amend to allege fraud is currently on appeal to the Court of Appeal raising the question of what if any limitation period applies to equitable claims for rescission on the basis of fraudulent misrepresentation.
Read MoreArea of Law: Private Client Trusts and Probate
Dakis Hagen QC appeared for the first defendant in Geneva Trust Company (GTC) SA v IDF & Anr (21/12/2020) FSD 248 OF 2017 (IKJ) in her successful application for a stay of a claim in the Cayman Islands seeking declarations as to the validity of a Cayman Islands trust which trust was already being impugned by her in ongoing litigation in Italy. The application was met in part by the argument that the Cayman court had an exclusive statutory jurisdiction to determine such matters under s. 90 of the Cayman Trusts Law (which, it was said, in that context abrogated the power to stay on grounds of forum non conveniens); the court noted that such had been the orthodox view historically based on authorities stretching back 20 years.
Read MoreArea of Law: International and Offshore
In Basin v Rouge CFI 057/2018, James Weale appeared in the last in-person hearing in the DIFC Court before lockdown. Following a trial, James obtained judgment for the claimant in a claim under a guarantee agreement: [2018] CFI 057. The Court gave guidance on the extent to which variations to underlying obligations affect the validity of an associated guarantee. James also successfully defeated a jurisdiction challenge submitted to the Joint Judicial Committee (Cassation No. 9 of 2019).
Read MoreArea of Law: Commercial Litigation
David Drake acted for the successful defendants in SPI North Ltd v Swiss Post International (UK) Ltd [2020] EWHC 3268 (Ch), where the court had to consider the practical limits to the permission, frequently given to respondents to an amendment application, to make “consequential” amendments to their own responsive statement of case.
Read MoreArea of Law: Competition Law and State Subsidies
David Drake appeared for the successful respondents in the Supreme Court hearing Secretary of State for Health v Servier Laboratories Ltd [2020] 3 WLR 1207, where it was held that the EU law principle of absolute res judicata arising from decisions of the European Courts annulling acts of EU institutions could not be applied in a legal context detached from the annulling judgment.
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