The Libyan Investment Authority v JP Morgan and others [2019] EWHC 1452 (Comm)

Judgment has been handed down by Bryan J this week in The Libyan Investment Authority v JP Morgan and others setting aside service on two defendants out of the jurisdiction. Alan Gourgey QC and Anna Littler, together with Adam Kramer of 3VB (instructed by PCB Litigation LLP) acted for one of the successful defendants in his jurisdiction challenge  – a Libyan businessman against whom a claim had been brought by the Libyan Investment Authority alleging fraud and corruption in relation to transactions that it had entered into with Bear Stearns bank in 2007.

Permission to serve the defendants outside the jurisdiction had been granted by the High Court ex parte in June 2018. However, on the application by those defendants to set aside service out of the jurisdiction, heard in May 2019, the Court found that the Libyan Investment Authority’s claim against them in fact had no real prospect of success because it was time-barred and did not therefore meet the required threshold to serve them out of the jurisdiction. Further, the judge found that there had been breaches by the Libyan Investment Authority of the duty of full and frank disclosure in their ex parte application, including in relation to the limitation position which in itself justified setting aside service.

Read the full judgment here.