The Weekly Roundup: The Christmas Party Edition

• Published date: 19 December 2021
• Subject Matter: Insurance, Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration, Insurance Laws and Products, Trials & Appeals & Compensation, Personal Injury
• Law Firm: 1 Chancery Lane
• Author: Kerry Nicholson and Anirudh Mandagere

The team has been in a festive mood this week; it's been one Christmas party after another, each more glittering than the last. And excitement has reached fever pitch, of course, in anticipation of the 1CL festive caselaw roundup; sign up here to participate in an hour's run-through of the year's most important cases across 1CL's main practice areas, including travel and cross border work.

It hasn't all been festive good cheer for litigants, though. The CJEU and the High Court have both reached decisions disadvantageous to Claimants, the former effectively reversing Keefe, and the latter (in Apollo Ventures Co Ltd v Manchanda [2021] 11 WLUK 412) holding that even where a Defendant had submitted to the jurisdiction and then effectively delayed for two months without explanation before making an application for the court to decline jurisdiction on grounds of forum non conveniens, he had a cogent argument on forum which outweighed the fact that the Claimant had incurred substantial costs in the English proceedings, and he should be allowed to make it.

The Balloon goes Up for Claimants: Tattersall v Occidente (C-708/20) Reverses Keefe in the Court of Appeal

Introduction

In what is likely to be the last ever reference of its kind by an English court under Article 267 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the Court of Justice of the European Union handed down a preliminary ruling as to whether it is a requirement of Article 13(3) of the Brussels I Recast Regulation that, for an injured person to make a parasitic claim against the insured, the claim against the insured must involve "a matter relating to insurance".

Factual Background

The Claimant, Ms. Tattersall, was staying with family in a rental villa in Alicante when she tripped and fell down an unmarked step. As a result, she suffered a fractured wrist and hip, and required surgery in Spain. She brought a claim against Seguros Catalana, the public liability insurer of the villa, and the owner of the villa, Emily Basquille. The insurance contract was governed by Spanish law, and under this law a direct claim against the insurer was permitted.

At the county court, Ms. Basquille argued that the English courts lacked jurisdiction over the claim. The issue for the court was whether the Claimant was able to issue a claim against Ms. Basquille in England on the basis that the claim was "parasitic" upon the direct claim against the insurer. On hearing submissions from both sides, the county...