BL-2025-000785 - [2025] EWHC 2470 (Ch)

This Judgment disposes of a Part 8 Claim issued by the Claimants on 24 June 2025. The trial of the claim was expedited by order of Trower J on 25 July 2025, and was heard by me on 23 and 24 September 2025.

The matters before me are closely related to a Part 8 Claim heard by and disposed of by Mann J (sitting in retirement) in Cape Intermediate Holdings Ltd v. Protopapas [2024] EWHC 2999 (Ch) in a judgment dated 22 November 2024, which I shall refer to as the “Mann J Judgment”. The terms and abbreviations used in this Judgment, including this term just used, are set out and defined in Annex 1 to this Judgment.

As was the case in the Mann J Judgment, the matters before me concern the relationship between proceedings in the courts of South Carolina, USA and the courts in this jurisdiction. By these proceedings, the Claimants seek various declarations and injunctive relief. These are described and ruled upon below. But before I come to the substance of the matters before me, it is necessary to begin with a description of the relevant proceedings and events, both in South Carolina and here. Sections B to N of this Judgment, accordingly, set out and (where necessary) make findings in relation to events and proceedings taking place in the US and the UK, not merely over the last months, but over the last decades. It is only at Section O that the substance of the matters at issue can directly be addressed, so dependent are they on the prior history. The substance of the Part 8 Claim before me is addressed in Sections O to U. Section V describes how I dispose of the matters before me.