Rawlinson & Hunter Trustees SA v ITG Ltd
2014
CHANCERY DIVISION
United Kingdom
CORAM
- MR JUSTICE NUGEE
Areas of Law
- Civil Procedure
- Contract Law
2014
CHANCERY DIVISION
United Kingdom
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The appeal by the claimants was against an order by Chief Master Marsh, who overturned Deputy Master Cousins’s order allowing claimants to serve out of jurisdiction. The case revolved around jurisdiction for claims related to a Loan Agreement and Deed of Novation between parties related to two Guernsey-based trusts. The court found that the exclusive jurisdiction clause in the Loan Agreement favoring the courts of England and Wales remained intact despite the Deed of Novation. While acknowledging material non-disclosure by the claimants, the court did not find it sufficient to revoke permission to serve out.
Judgment
MR JUSTICE NUGEE: I have before me an appeal from an order of Chief Master Marsh which was made on 25 February 2014, in which he granted an application by the defendants, Investec Trust Guernsey Limited (as it then was - it is now called “ITG Limited”) and Bayeux Trustees Limited to set aside an order of Deputy Master Cousins, which had been made on 25 July 2013 on the ex parte application of the claimants, giving permission to the claimants to serve the claim form, particulars of claim and any other documents in these proceedings upon the defendants out of the jurisdiction at an address in Saint Peter Port in Guernsey.
The Chief Master, as I say, set that permission aside. He refused permission to appeal but permission to appeal, limited to two points only, was subsequently granted by Arnold J on 24 June 2014. The two points on which he allowed the claimants to appeal were articulated as grounds (d) and (e) of proposed grounds of appeal. Ground (d) relates to the claimants’ claim based on a loan agreement dated 21 May 2009 which I will have to describe in more detail in due course and which I will call “the Loan Agreement”. Ground (e) related to some comments by the Master at the end of his judgment to the effect that there had been material non-disclosure on the ex parte application by the claimants and that, had it been material, he would have set aside the permission on that ground too.
The underlying facts relate to a number of settlements for the benefit of the Tchenguiz family. There are two settlements in particular which are central. One is called the Tchenguiz Settlement (“the TS”) which was established on 11 March 1986 by a transfer of assets by Victor Tchenguiz to a trust corporation in Guernsey then called Guinness Mahon Trust Corporation Guernsey Limited which after a succession of changes of name is now the first defendant, ITG. That trust is a discretionary trust governed by Guernsey law, the beneficiaries of which are Victor Tchenguiz, his wife Violet and their issue, namely three children, Vincent, Robert and Lisa, and no doubt, their children as well. ITG remained the trustee of the TS until 9 April 2010 when by a Deed of retirement and appointment the first claimant, Rawlinson and Hunter Trustees SA, a Swiss trustee, (“R&H”)was appointed as trustee of the trust and ITG resigned its office as trustee of the trust.
The second trust which is central to these proceedings is one called the Tchenguiz Discretionary Trust (“the TDT