Anti-suit restraint

Masri v Consolidated Contractors International Co SAL and another (No 3) CA TLR 25 June

The defendants sought to re-litigate abroad the merits of the case, which, after a long trial, they had lost in England. It was a classic case of vexatious and oppressive conduct, which was designed to interfere with the process of the English court in litigation to which they had submitted. The English court has power over persons properly subject to its in personam jurisdiction, to make ancillary orders in protection of its jurisdiction and its processes, including the integrity of its judgments. The power was a discretionary one to be exercised in accordance with the requirements of international comity. Accordingly, the court had power to grant an injunction restraining a foreign defendant, who had submitted to the court’s jurisdiction and against whom judgment has been awarded, from continuing proceedings abroad, and attempting to re-litigate issues determined in the English courts. An anti-suit injunction granted in these circumstances is not one founded in English law on a cause of action separate from the claim in the main proceedings, which give rise to the judgment debt. The right to apply for an injunction was not of itself the cause of action, but was ancillary and incidental to the existing proceedings. The defendants’ submission to the English jurisdiction in those proceedings was a sufficient basis of the imposition of the anti-suit injunction. No separate basis of jurisdiction was required.