Offshore Litigation Blog

In the recent decision of State House Trust v Friend Media Technology Systems the Jersey Royal Court allowed an appeal against the Master’s refusal to exclude an opinion from English counsel filed in support of a summary judgment application.

In Maso Capital Investments Ltd v Trina Solar Ltd the Privy Council reinstated the first instance decision of the Grand Court, confirming that the task for the trial judge in an assessment of fair value pursuant to section 238 of the Companies Act (as revised) is highly fact specific and will depend on the relative reliability of the valuation methodologies contended for.

The decision of Justice Mangatal in Ming v JF Ming Inc is the latest judgment from the long-running family dispute and unfair prejudice proceedings over JF Ming Inc (JFM), a BVI holding company with subsidiaries holding substantial real estate in Hong Kong.

It is common ground that Hong Kong is a major international arbitration hub in Asia, and its role will only become ever more important given the advantages in enforcing Hong Kong arbitral awards in Mainland China.

In an earlier case of In the Matter of Orient TM Parent Ltd (Unrep, Grand Court, 27 July 2022), the Grand Court of Cayman Islands dismissed the application of the petitioners for substituted service of the winding up petition in the PRC, and was critical of the evidence filed in support, noting a distinct lack of it

In the third episode of Contentious Crypto, Christopher Pease and Megan Elms, along with Kalo guest speaker James Drury, discuss how digital asset tracing operates in practice and some common obstacles that arise.

In this introductory episode, Christopher Pease and Megan Elms of Harneys in conjunction with James Drury of Kalo consider the basics of digital asset ownership and how crypto disputes tend to arise. This sets the groundwork for more in-depth discussions in this series, which include a look at the BVI’s first reported crypto recovery case (ChainSwap) where they will explore the mechanisms available for tracing digital assets, the use of mixers, how they can be overcome and the ways the courts are adapting to the challenges posed by the growth of disputes in the digital asset sector.

By order made on 15 March 2022 in ChainSwap v Persons Unknown, the BVI Commercial Court has continued a worldwide freezing order against unknown hackers, who exploited the applicant’s software and used it to steal large quantities of cryptocurrency tokens from private users and projects.

The Cayman Court has delivered judgment in Trina Solar Limited. This is likely to be the first case under section 238 of the Companies Law in which fair value is determined to be below the merger price. This is a significant win for Trina and will have a big impact on future s238 cases.

The primary rationale for appointing a single joint expert is to save costs. The very basic premise is that appointing one expert jointly ought ultimately to be less expensive than the parties appointing one expert each.

On 24 February 2020, the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands (the Court) delivered judgment for a contested directions hearing on In the Matter of Ehi Car Services Limited (unreported, 20 January 2020). It is not the first time that directions have been contested against a landscape of evolving section 238 litigation where Judges have been asked to resolve issues regarding the development of its procedural regime.

The English High Court confirmed the default position of requiring disclosure of a first expert’s report or draft report where a party seeks to change experts without good explanation.