A recent Court of Appeal decision is a useful reminder of the principles the court will apply when assessing damages for deceit / fraudulent misrepresentation in the context of corporate acquisitions and other asset purchases: MDW Holdings Limited v James Robert Norvill, Jane Rosemary Norvill and Stephen John Norvill [2022] EWCA Civ 883. The decision illustrates … Read more

The Privy Council has considered the approach to assessing damages payable by an unsuccessful claimant under the standard cross-undertaking to compensate the respondent to a freezing order for any loss resulting from the order. The decision is relevant to applicants for freezing orders, who can potentially face very large claims if their substantive action fails, … Read more

The High Court has granted the first third-party debt order in relation to cryptocurrency in an application involving allegations of fraud related to a cryptocurrency initial coin offering.  A third-party debt order (formerly known as a garnishee order) is a method of enforcing a money judgment by recovering sums that are in the hands of … Read more

The High Court has published a summary of its findings on liability in the long-running USD$5 billion civil fraud action brought by the Hewlett Packard group in connection with its acquisition of the UK software company Autonomy Corporation Limited (“Autonomy”) in 2012.  The claimants have “substantially succeeded” in their claims against two former Autonomy executives: … Read more

In the context of a claim by a fraud victim seeking damages for consequential loss of investment opportunity, the Court of Appeal has rejected an argument by the fraudster that the victim was obliged to give credit not only for the cash they received as part of the relevant fraudulent transactions, but also for the … Read more

The Court of Appeal has allowed a party to proceed with an action seeking to set aside a default judgment against him in earlier proceedings on the basis that the judgment was procured by fraud. The fact that, prior to the original proceedings, the party was aware of the factual circumstances now relied on to … Read more

The High Court has interpreted the contractual release in a settlement agreement as extending to unknown claims based on dishonesty and fraud, despite the terms of the release not expressly referring to such claims. The claimant was therefore precluded from pursuing further claims alleging deliberate wrongdoing following the receipt of what it said was new … Read more

A recent High Court decision has considered the operation of section 32(1) of the Limitation Act 1980, which can postpone the start of the limitation period in fraud claims until the time when the claimant has discovered the fraud “or could with reasonable diligence have done so”.  The court held that, when determining the stage … Read more