No asset-freezing order in foreign insolvency

Fourie v Le Roux and others CA TLR 25 April

However wide a meaning the word ‘proceedings’ was given in the context of s25 of the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982, it could not comprehend foreign proceedings to set aside a foreign court order obtained for the seizure of plant and machinery. The foreign claim had to be such that the relief sought in England could be identified as interim relief in relation to the final order sought abroad in the proceedings relied on. Accordingly insolvency proceedings constituted by a compulsory winding-up order in a foreign court and the issue of a letter of request to the English High Court were not ‘proceedings’ in the context of s25 to which asset-freezing orders could attach. Neither did s426 of the Insolvency Act 1986, with or without a letter of request, constitute a connection between foreign proceedings and asset-freezing orders sought in the English court sufficient to found jurisdiction.