Forum Non Conveniens

• Author: International Law Group, PLLC
• Pages: 26-29

Page 26

In this Irish litigation, Goshawk Dedicated Ltd., and Kite Dedicated Ltd., are the Plaintiffs. Life Receivables Ireland Limited, is the Defendant. The Plaintiffs are companies incorporated in England. The Defendant is an Irish company and a subsidiary of International Investment and Underwriting. Plaintiffs filed these proceedings in Ireland by way of a plenary summons issued on September 6, 2007.

Defendant, however, had already sued the Plaintiffs on June 29, 2007 in the U.S. District Court in Georgia. In those proceedings, the Defendant seeks certain remedies against the present Plaintiffs and against others who are not party to these Irish proceedings. Those proceedings seek relief for, inter alia, alleged misrepresentation, fraud, securities fraud, and other relief.

The Plaintiffs here seek a series of negative declarations in the Irish proceedings that mirror the relief sought in the Georgia federal court, except that the parties are reversed. The relevant subject matter involves (a) the Defendant's purchase of a partnership interest in Life Receivable II, LLP; (b) a series of contingent cost insurance policies underwritten and issued by the first and second named Plaintiffs between September 2000 and early 2003, (c) in the management of the run off of Syndicate 102. The prior Georgia proceedings, therefore, relate to the same matters.

The issue that arises at this stage between the parties concerns the proper interpretation of Regulation 44/2001 of December 22, 2000 on Jurisdiction and the Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial matters ([2001] O.J. L12/1), the "Brussels I" Regulation). The Defendant moved the Irish High Court for an order staying these Irish proceedings, pending the final determination of the U.S. proceedings . The High Court denied the application on April 22, 2008, following upon the judgment delivered on February 27, 2008. This is an appeal by the Defendant from the order and judgment of the High Court.

The facts found by the High Court judge are as follows. The Defendant is incorporated in, and has its principal place of business in, Ireland. The Plaintiffs are companies incorporated in England and have their principal places of business in London. In June 2005, the Defendant bought a partnership interest in a Delaware partnership known as Life Receivables II LLP. The Defendant and Life Receivables Holdings are the only partners but the Defendant would appear to be the only partner with a financial stake. The partnership is, in turn, a beneficiary of Life Receivables Trust; the extent of its commercial value derives from trust property, being life insurance policies bought in the early years of this decade together with a contingent cost insurance issued by Plaintiff Goshawk with respect to those policies.

The Defendant (as plaintiff in the U.S. proceedings) alleged that Defendant's misrepresentation in the U.S. proceedings induced it to buy into the partnership The present Defendant has launched proceedings in Georgia against the Plaintiffs and a number of others who Page 27 were involved in a series of transactions which were at the heart of the dispute between the parties.

The complaint in the Georgia proceedings, briefly, alleges securities fraud under U.S. statutory law, common law fraud, negligent...