BL-2021-002235 - [2025] EWHC 1966 (Ch)

This is my judgment on a contempt of court application by notice dated 23 June 2025 by the claimant in this case (originally called Lion/Heaven UK II Ltd) against the defendant, based on alleged breaches of the order of Clare Ambrose, sitting as a deputy High Court judge, dated 5 April 2022 (but sealed on 6 April 2022). The application is supported by two affidavits of Steven Baker, the applicant’s solicitor, dated 23 June 2025 and 17 July 2025 respectively. It is opposed by an affidavit of the respondent dated 18 July 2025, which was actually made in support of an application form N244 dated 21 July 2025 for a stay (in effect) of the contempt application. The applicant appeared before me by leading and junior counsel instructed by solicitors. The respondent did not appear, and neither was he represented. I will return to that.

The order dated 5 April 2022 was made in a claim under CPR Part 8 for a declaration and injunction relating to the consequences of a share purchase agreement dated 5 May 2011 and a settlement agreement dated 22 November 2012. The claimant’s case in that claim was that, under these agreements, the defendant had given up all his interest in “A” ordinary shares and preference shares in a company called All Saints Retail Ltd. Moreover, it said, he had agreed not to assert that he had any interest in or to the Shares. However, the defendant had been asserting that these agreements were ineffective by reason of a fraud allegedly practised upon him by his banks in 2009, and that accordingly he retained his interest in the company’s shares, title to which (he said) had never passed to the claimant.