CA-2025-000597 - [2025] EWCA Civ 1458

I begin with some preliminary observations.

First, on an application to amend, we must take the applicant’s factual case at its highest, the question being whether that case has a real prospect of success at the trial. In this case that means that we should assume for the purpose of this appeal that the sending of the Letters was a deliberate attempt to prevent the export of the Aircraft from Vietnam, done with knowledge of the terms of the injunction. On the basis of the material currently before us, that is not a difficult assumption to make.

Second, for my part, I would have thought that an attempt to persuade the authorities in Vietnam to bar the export of the Aircraft might well, at least arguably, constitute an interference with FWA’s control of the Aircraft in breach of the terms of the injunction. However, Mr Lissack explained during the hearing of the appeal that FWA had considered the position carefully and that it did not contend that the sending of the Letters was a breach of the injunction. As he put it:

‘The question is not whether VietJet was in contempt of the prohibitory injunction but whether VietJet interfered with the administration of justice by interfering with its purpose.’

That is therefore the basis on which we must proceed.

Third, the question identified at the outset of this judgment is one of law which this court is in a position to decide. There is, so far as I can see, no need to defer a decision until the trial and no advantage in doing so, given the full submissions which we have received.