The Court of Appeal has upheld the High Court’s decision that a release clause in a settlement agreement included unknown claims based on dishonesty and fraud, despite the terms of the release not expressly referring to such claims: Maranello Rosso Ltd v Lohomij BV [2022] EWCA Civ 1667. The Court of Appeal endorsed the judge’s … Read more

The High Court has held that the court can refuse to accept undertakings which a party has agreed to give to it as part of the settlement of a civil claim: Smith v Backhouse [2022] EWHC 3011 (KB). The court noted that, where an undertaking is given to the court, a breach of the undertaking … Read more

The Court of Appeal has held that a settlement agreement between a bank and a group of companies which included releases of the parties’ affiliates prevented the companies from later pursuing claims against their own affiliates. Those affiliates were held to include former administrators appointed by the bank and the administrators’ solicitors: Schofield v Smith [2022] … Read more

The High Court has held that it was within the court’s power to hand down a reserved judgment where the proceedings had settled before the draft judgment was circulated. There was no need for the court to be satisfied that there were exceptional circumstances. The proper approach was to weigh the public interest for and … 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

The High Court has held that the protection attached to a chain of emails marked “without prejudice” extended to a subsequent email even though it was not so labelled. The last email plainly followed on from the prior emails seeking to resolve a dispute and there had been no clear indication that the sender wished … Read more

The High Court has held that a settlement agreement was a binding agreement which superseded a previously accepted Part 36 Offer. The settlement agreement provided a clearer basis for the recovery of costs and was “not merely an agreement memorialising the Part 36 Offer”: Falcon Trident Shipping Ltd v Levant Shipping Ltd [2021] EWHC 2204 … Read more

In the context of claims relating to an allegedly fraudulent investment scheme, the High Court has held that a settlement agreement reached between the applicant liquidators and two of the respondents did not preclude the applicants from continuing their claims against the remaining respondents: Biscoe and Baxter as Joint Liquidators of Equitable Law Capital Limited … Read more