The Weekly Roundup: The Multijurisdictional Edition

• Published date: 05 September 2022
• Subject Matter: Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration, Class Actions, Personal Injury
• Law Firm: 1 Chancery Lane
• Author: Ms Sarah Prager

As some members of the team breathe a sigh of relief at surviving the school holidays, whilst others mourn an idyllic summer spent enjoying the sunny weather, we're all agog to find out who the incoming Prime Minister will appoint as Lord Chancellor and Attorney General. The lucky winners will face the longest delays ever in bringing a civil claim to trial (an average of 75 weeks) and problems in the criminal justice system which defy description. Meanwhile, the EU has joined the Hague Judgments Convention 2019 on the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters, as has Ukraine, inevitably prompting unkind commentators to ask why, if a country facing an existential threat can do it, the UK hasn't yet been able to sign up. Still, the accession of the EU to the Convention is a very positive development; if the UK were to accede, recognition and enforcement of judgments across the EU and beyond would become very much easier from 1^st September 2023, when the Convention comes into force. It is of particular note that both Russia and the USA are also signatories. Could the nations of the world be brought together by a shared desire to recognise each other's judgments? It would be nice to think so - and for the UK to be part of it.

The Scottish Torpedo: the Latest Salvo in the Kenyan Teaworkers' Litigation

Regular readers will be aware of the ongoing class action brought by a group of Kenyan tea farm workers against their Scottish employer wending its way through the Scottish courts. As a recap, however, in Campbell v James Finlay (Kenya) Limited [2022] CSOH 57 the representative plaintiff, Hugh Hall Campbell QC, represents some 1,044 former, or existing, employees of Kenyan nationality on whose behalf group proceedings have been brought against their employer, which operates tea plantations in Kenya, but whose registered office is in Scotland. In Thompsons Solicitors Scotland v James Finlay (Kenya) Ltd [2022] CSOH 12, the Lord Ordinary granted permission for the group proceedings to proceed in the Scottish courts, dismissing the respondent's forum non conveniens arguments. The employer reclaimed that order to the Inner House, but did not appeal on the ground that the court did not have jurisdiction, and the appeal was refused by the Inner House (in Campbell v James Finlay (Kenya) Ltd [2022] CSIH 29).

The Proceedings

The plot thickened, however. Before the reclaiming motion had been heard, the petitioner averred that his representatives became aware that the respondent had engaged in behaviour calculated to intimidate and threaten group members, and lodged a petition seeking ex parte interim interdict against this behaviour; on 8^th April 2022 interim interdict was granted in the terms sought.

The petition was opposed by the respondent, which denied the allegations against it, and the petition...