PIL instrument(s)

Case number and/or case name

Catalyst Investment Group Ltd v Lewinsohn and others; Catalyst Investment Group Ltd and another v Lewinsohn and another; ARM Assets-Backed Securities v Same [2009] EWHC 1964 (Ch)

Details of the court

England and Wales, First Instance

Articles referred to by the court

Date of the judgement

31 July 2009

Appeal history

CJEU's case law cited by the court

Summary

All the parties (but the third claimant) to the English court proceedings were domiciled in England. The third claimant was domiciled in Luxembourg. There were parallel proceedings in Utah (US) and England. The two sets of proceedings involved the same parties and the same cause of action. The US proceedings were commenced on 8th October 2008. The English proceedings started on the 17th November 2008. The defendants in the English proceedings applied for an application to stay the English proceedings on the ground that Utah was the most appropriate forum. Mr Justice Barling dismissed the defendant’s application, and held: “99 […] it is not open to me to interpret and apply Article 27 reflexively so as to enable me to exercise a discretion to stay proceedings which have been properly founded on Article 2, on the grounds that the same dispute is pending between the same parties in the Utah courts and that the latter and not this Court is the natural and appropriate forum. Such an interpretation would introduce the wide forum conveniens discretion by the back door, contrary to the ruling of the ECJ in Owusu. In my view the submission fails whether this Court is the first or second seised.” [99]