Court Of Appeal Confirms Narrow Jurisdiction To Serve Third Party Disclosure Applications Abroad

• Published date: 06 December 2022
• Law Firm: Debevoise & Plimpton
• Author: Mr Christopher Boyne, Julia Caldwell, Patrick Swain and Luke Duggan

Introduction. The Court of Appeal in Gorbachev v Guriev & Ors[2022] EWCA Civ 1270 has narrowly affirmed Jacobs J's decision in Gorbachev v Guriev & Ors[2022] EWHC 1907 (Comm) (considered here), which disagreed with the view taken earlier this year by Cockerill J in Nix v Emerdata Ltd [2022] EWHC 718 (Comm) (considered here).

Jacobs J in the High Court had held that: (i) the court has jurisdiction to permit service of a third-party disclosure application abroad pursuant to gateway (20)(a) of Practice Direction 6B; and (ii) in appropriate cases (such as the present where the documents were located in England, but the relevant respondents were not), the Court will be inclined to exercise its discretion to grant such permission.

The Judgment. The principle issue addressed by the Court of Appeal was whether section 34 of the Senior Courts Act 1981 is an enactment which allows proceedings to be brought against persons not within the jurisdiction. This was a key issue because it must be answered affirmatively for a third-party disclosure application to be served outside the jurisdiction under gateway 20(a).

Males LJ (with whom the other members of the Court of Appeal agreed) considered that the answer to this...