The trend of claims against financial institutions alleging breach of the so-called Quincecare duty continues to grow, with the most recent judgment from the High Court refusing to strike out such a claim on the ground that the claimant had suffered no loss because it was an insolvent Ponzi scheme. A parallel claim against the … Read more

The High Court has today handed down judgment in the COVID-19 Business Interruption insurance test case of The Financial Conduct Authority v Arch and Others. Herbert Smith Freehills represented the FCA (who was advancing the claim for policyholders) in the case, which considered 21 lead sample wordings from eight insurers. Following expedited proceedings, the judgment brings … Read more

The recent announcement by the FCA of its consultation into liquidity mismatch in authorised open-ended property funds (CP20/15), has once again cast a spotlight on the risks arising from mismatches between the redemption periods offered by investment funds and the liquidity of the underlying assets. The focus of the current FCA consultation is on funds … Read more

Herbert Smith Freehills LLP have published an article in Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law on the principal characteristics of third party litigation funding in the securities class action markets in Australia and England and Wales. In Australia, the rise of securities class actions over the last decade has been driven in part … Read more

The Court of Appeal has recently had the opportunity to consider, once again, the so-called “SAAMCO” principle in AssetCo plc v Grant Thornton UK LLP [2020] EWCA Civ 1151. While many reported decisions considering the SAAMCO principle arise in the audit and accountancy sector (including the present case), it is often a key and difficult issue … Read more

In a recent decision, in relation to an ongoing dispute as to which Venezuelan person or body has the authority to deal with certain Venezuelan assets (currently worth in excess of USD 2 billion) held in London by certain UK financial institutions, the High Court held that it would uphold the UK’s Government’s recognition of … Read more

In a recent decision, the High Court confirmed that proceedings had been properly served on a borrower where it had failed to comply with its contractual obligations to appoint a process agent and so the lender had appointed an agent on its behalf as permitted by the credit agreement: Banco San Juan Internacional Inc v … Read more

The High Court has struck out the representative element of a claim purportedly brought on behalf of large numbers of claimant individuals and communities seeking remediation for damages. In doing so, the court has emphasised the strict limits to the representative action procedure under CPR 19.6, which effectively acts as a ‘opt-out’ class action regime … Read more