To Babanaft Or Not To Bananaft ' The Extra Jurisdictional Effect Of An Anti-Suit Injunction (Renaissance Securities (Cyprus) Ltd v Chlodwig Enterprises Ltd)

• Published date: 13 February 2024
• Law Firm: Gatehouse Chambers
• Author: Lauren Godfrey

Mini-summary

The court was considering the appropriate form of order continuing an anti-suit injunction (previously made without notice).

The key issue before the court was whether to continue to include express reference to the ultimate beneficial owners of the defendant companies, a Mr and Mrs Guryev, in the penal notice to the order effecting the anti-suit injunction.

The court decide that Mr and Mrs Guryev should not be separately named and should only be included in generic terms, by reference to the warning addressed to third parties more generally not to "help or permit" the named respondents to breach the injunction.

However, an important subsidiary issue was whether the Court should also include a Babanaft provision to make it express that the order was not intended to restrain the acts of third parties who were entirely and unquestionably outside of the jurisdiction of the English Courts. Such a provision is routinely included in worldwide freezing injunctions and the question was whether it was appropriate in an anti-suit injunction.

There were other issues as to the need to serve Mr and Mrs Guryev, as the ultimate beneficial owners, with the Order. The Court, finding this was not necessary, but expedient, was prepared to dispense with personal service on the basis that such permissive service would not, without more, change the jurisdictional position in respect of the Guryevs. The jurisdictional issue, along with any Babanaft principle, therefore could be argued if it arose on another occasion.

Renaissance Securities (Cyprus) Ltd v Chlodwig Enterprises Ltd and other companies[2023] EWHC 3160 (Comm)

What are the practical implications of this case?

The case is interesting in the context of international disputes where anti-suit issues arise. The case concerned the extra-jurisdictional effect of an anti-suit injunction made in protection of an agreement by...