In an appeal against two High Court decisions, the Court of Appeal has found that a fiduciary relationship is not a necessary pre-condition to relief in respect of an undisclosed commission paid to an agent. Instead, the court should determine whether the agent was obliged to provide information, advice or recommendation on an impartial or … Read more

The Court of Appeal has struck out Quincecare duty and dishonest assistance claims brought by the liquidators of a company running a Ponzi scheme against a correspondent bank that operated various accounts for the company. In doing so, the Court of Appeal confirmed that the scope of the Quincecare duty is limited to protecting customers of the financial institution, … Read more

The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal against a judge’s decision upholding a claim where the claimant had relied on evidence obtained through the unlawful hacking of the defendant’s computer. The court found that, even if the claimant was responsible for the hacking (which had not yet been established) and its case would have … Read more

In a recent decision, the High Court has struck out claims against a defendant bank alleging implied fraudulent misrepresentations in relation to LIBOR, on the basis that the claimants had failed to plead that the alleged representations were actively present in their mind when entering into the products in question and therefore the claim stood … Read more

The High Court has ruled on an ex parte interim application involving allegations of extensive cyber fraud relating to a cryptocurrency initial coin offering. The court granted both a worldwide freezing order and an ancillary disclosure order against the alleged fraudster, whose identity is not known: Ion Science Ltd v Persons Unknown (unreported, 21 December … Read more

The High Court has dismissed a claim brought by the liquidators of an investment company against a bank for knowing receipt, in circumstances where the investment company’s shares were transferred by a trustee (in breach of trust) to the bank, and used by the bank to discharge part of a debt owed by the trustee … Read more

The High Court has granted reverse summary judgment in favour of a defendant bank on the basis that the so-called Quincecare duty of care did not operate in the context of an authorised push payment (APP) fraud, where a third party fraudster tricked the bank’s customer willingly to instruct the bank to transfer large sums out of … Read more

The Supreme Court has held that a claimant who had engaged in mortgage fraud was not barred from bringing a claim against her solicitors for negligently failing to register the forms transferring the property to her and releasing a prior mortgage: Stoffel & Co v Grondona [2020] UKSC 42. The decision applies the (relatively) new … Read more