Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
THE WORLDWIDE MAREVA MARCHES ON
Derby & Co. Ltd. v. Weldon (No. 6)
Derby & Co. Ltd. v. Weldon (No. 6)
1 is a recent judgment in protracted litigation which includes the reported decisions of Derby & Co. Ltd. v. Weldon (No. 1)2 and Derby & Co. Ltd. v. Weldon (Nos. 3 and 4).3 The plaintiffs claimed damages for deceit, breach of fiduciary duty and conspiracy to defraud, plus further relief of a tracing nature. The main allegations were made against the first two defendants, Mr Weldon and Mr Jay. The third to fifth defendants were overseas bodies through which the plaintiffs alleged the first two defendants operated to defraud them. The sixth to tenth defendants were the trustees of two Liechtenstein trusts set up to hold assets of the third and fourth defendants proof against any judgment the plaintiffs might obtain, and two Panamanian companies which held the trust assets. The eleventh defendant, Dr Rohner, was the Swiss lawyer for the fourth and fifth defendants.
Service of proceedings on the first two defendants, British residents, was effected in the normal way. The fourth defendant, a Luxembourg company, was served under the European Convention. The other defendants were served under R.S.C. Ord. 11 and protested the jurisdiction of the English courts.
In previous proceedings worldwide Mareva relief was granted against all defendants up to a limit of £100 million and a receiver was appointed of the assets of the third, fourth, fifth, ninth and tenth defendants, and the Liechtenstein trusts. The trust assets and those of the fourth defendant’s subsidiaries were held by agreement in joint accounts in Switzerland in the names of the receiver and Dr Rohner and the receiver and Dr Ritter, the eighth defendant, respectively. These assets totalled about £72 million and included fiduciary deposits of some £47 million made by the Swiss banks on behalf of the joint account holders with banks outside Switzerland (the “external assets”) because higher rates of interest were obtainable there.
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