See you in court: keep an eye out for the most interesting cases in 2024
In this current economic climate, litigation is on the rise as market pressure results in contract fallout and the rise of fraud.
Over 2024, the English High Court diary is busy with these type of cases, however, it is also filled with cases over alleged confidential leaks, missing aircraft in Russia and the alleged negligence of a Big Four accountancy firm.
Here are some of the most interesting lawsuits that will be played out at the High Court over 2024.
Skatteforvaltningen v Solo Capital Partners and 113 others
Skatteforvaltningen (Skat), the Danish Customs and Tax Administration, has a £1.5bn lawsuit sitting in the High Court against 114 defendant companies. The basis of its claim is to recover money which it says has been wrongfully extracted by fraudulent misrepresentations arranged through entities based in England between 2012 and 2015. This claim is one of many resulting from the Cum-Ex trading scandal.
The case has been in court several times since it was first filed in 2018, most recently, it was in the Supreme Court over jurisdiction issues. The highest court in the UK ruled in favour of Skat and dismissed the defendants’ appeal.
One of the defendants is British trader Sanjay Shah, who founded the hedge fund firm, Solo Capital. He is in prison in Dubai, awaiting extradition to Denmark. There are two other defendants being prosecuted in Denmark and a number of key defendants have international arrest warrants issued against them.
The case was described by Mr Justice Foxton as “one of the largest and most complex pieces of litigation to be heard in the Commercial Court”. The main trial will commence in April and is scheduled to finish by April 2025, with factual and expert evidence over the first nine months and closing arguments in 2025.
ENRC v the SFO, John Gibson and Antony Puddick
The next phase of Kazakh miner ENRC dispute kicks off this year. This part of the mammoth case will focus on a series of alleged leaks of confidential information to journalists.
The SFO launched its investigation into alleged bribery and corruption by ENRC in 2013. However, the ENRC made several allegations about how the probe was handled, which resulted in several claims put forward to the courts.
The company found itself in the news when it sued its former lawyer Neil Gerrard, formerly a partner and head of white-collar crime at the London office of the UK firm Dechert, along with the law firm and the SFO.
This claim stemmed from a leaking of sensitive documents to the press and SFO prior to the investigation. Among these allegations, the mining company claims the SFO held a series of private meetings with Gerrard, who was conducting an audit of the company.
The case was split into three parts, with the first judgment handed down in April 2022, which was damning against Gerrard. The judge ruled that Gerrard breached his professional obligations by leaking ENRC’s confidential information while he was working for them.
The 2024 trial is against the Serious Fraud Office, its former case controller John Gibson and senior investigator Tony Puddick over allegations of misfeasance in public office, conspiracy and breach of confidence.
The hearing will revolve around a series of alleged leaks of confidential information which peaked in around 2016 to 2019 and resulted in a number of publications running stories concerning ENRC and the SFO’s criminal investigation into its affairs.
The trail is due to start on 7 October and will be in court for 25 days, leading up to the final day on 18 November.
AerCap Ireland & others v AIG Europe & others
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, sanctions were imposed prohibiting aircraft lessors from continuing the leasing of aircraft and parts to Russian airlines.
Following the sanctions, about 500 foreign-owned aircraft were stranded in Russia, with a market value greater than $10bn. The owners of these aircraft were different leasing companies who were forced to terminate their leases for planes believed to be under Russian control.
The leasing companies turned to their insurers seeking to recover their losses – which were all denied. The English High Court last June saw a flurry of claims issued against 30-plus London-based insurers, reinsurers and syndicates managed by Lloyd’s Managing Agents.
There are similar disputes in the US and Ireland but all eyes are on the English lawsuit due to its size. This is the largest airline coverage dispute in England and Wales. The judge condensed five separate legal actions into one huge trial, as this case is also likely to serve as a test case in this area. The trial is listed for 2 October, to run for 12 weeks.
You can read more on Morning Wire’s full explainer on this case here.
BTI 2014 LLC v PwC and Windward Prospects
British American Tobacco (BAT) is set to face Big Four firm PwC in court in 2024 in one of the UK’s most high-value corporate audit negligence claims.
The tobacco giant sued the Big Four firm for damages over negligence to an audit PwC did between 2007 – 2008 for Arjo Wiggins Appleton (now known as Windward Prospects).
BTI, via its subsidiary, BTI 2014 LLC, claims that PwC carried out the audits in question negligently and that, in reliance on those audits, Windward’s directors paid out large dividends to its parent company, Sequana valued at over $800m.
As a result of these payments, Windward could not meet its indemnity obligations to BAT and others, leading BTI’s case dividends to be improperly paid. Its parent company, Sequana, went into compulsory liquidation in France in May 2019; none of its liability to BAT has been paid.
The highly complex case is listed to be heard in June, with a trial running for nine weeks at the High Court.