![CL-2024-000450 - [2025] EWHC 2968 (Comm)](https://backend.juristeca.com/files/emisores/logo_WAai98v.png){kind=logo}
Are the claimants entitled to pursue their summary judgment application and, if so, should they be granted summary judgment or a conditional order?
Are the claimants entitled to pursue their summary judgment application and, if so, should they be granted summary judgment or a conditional order?
As a matter of inherent jurisdiction and of my own motion, I strike out the summary judgment application. Alternatively, I would decline as a matter of discretion to enter summary judgment or make a conditional order even if the claimants had satisfied the elevated merits threshold and there was no other justification for proceeding to trial.
I make this decision without needing to decide whether the claimants’ abuse of process can itself constitute a compelling reason for trial (CPR 24.3(b)) notwithstanding satisfaction of the merits test in CPR 24.3(a). If I may paraphrase the reasoning in Arrow Nominees whilst avoiding any circularity, the claimants have forfeited any right they otherwise had to seek summary judgment in the present circumstances.
I am satisfied that this constitutes an appropriate and proportionate response to the claimants’ accrued abuse of process in circumstances where:
the summary judgment application was otherwise well made and might have succeeded based on the material I have seen, at any rate as regards proof of dishonest misrepresentations intended to induce the claimants;
taking this approach deprives the claimants of any specific findings in their favour beyond and above those already made in an interlocutory context by Calver J and my own observations in paragraph 12 above;
this may not be the only response of the Court in light of the potential prospective impact of the claimants’ abuse of process depending on the future outcome of Issue (3); and
the claimants will be liable to pay the costs of the present hearing, which seems likely to be awarded on the indemnity basis (see below).
- Heading
- Stephen Houseman KC
- Relevant Background
- Legal Framework
- Analysis
- Does the claimants’ unethical behaviour involve or constitute an abuse of process?
- What is the evidential status of the illicit information?
- Is the claimants’ possession of illicit knowledge likely to obstruct the just disposal of these proceedings or otherwise create a substantial risk to a fair trial?
- What is the appropriate and proportionate response of the Court to the claimants’ abuse of its process?
- Are the claimants entitled to pursue their summary judgment application and, if so, should they be granted summary judgment or a conditional order?
- Conclusions