The Claimant company, a subsidiary of Societe Generale of France, lent substantial sums of money to a group of ship owning companies managed by Blue Flag Navigation Ltd. The principal of Blue Flag was Mr Koros the First Defendant, he also guaranteed the loans to the various shipping companies. By the end of 1996 the companies were in default of their obligations under the loan facilities and in December 1996 the claimant company demanded repayment of some US $54 million from the First Defendant as guarantor. In January 1997 Surzur obtained a mareva injunction over Mr Koros’ assets and issued proceedings against him. In April 1997 judgment was obtained against him in the sum of US $35 million. The Claimant’s case in these proceedings was that the various Defendants conspired between themselves and with Mr Koros to use unlawful means to cheat and defraud Surzur by concealing Mr Koros’ assets. It was asserted that the Defendants made fraudulent and misleading statements, forged documents, gave false and misleading instructions to solicitors, made dishonest and malicious applications to court and procured and deployed false evidence both in and out of court. The 2nd, 13th and 14th Defendants were all resident in Greece and made applications to set aside the service of the proceedings against them on various grounds. One of these proved successful before Longmore J, namely that the case against them was not reasonably arguable because, as a matter of law, they were immune from suit on the basis of witness immunity. Longmore J found in favour of the Defendants and the Claimant appealed to the Court of Appeal where that decision was reversed. The Defendants’ petition for leave to appeal to the House of Lords was dismissed.
Judges:
Mr Justice Forbes sitting with Assessors
Citations:
[2001] EW Costs 7, [2001] EWHC 9008 (Costs)
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Costs
Updated: 11 July 2022; Ref: scu.185947