Calyon v Michailaidis and Others
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Judge | Lord Rodger of Earlsferry |
| Judgment Date | 23 July 2009 |
| Neutral Citation | [2009] UKPC 34 |
| Court | Privy Council |
| Docket Number | Appeal No 55 of 2008 |
| Date | 23 July 2009 |
[2009] UKPC 34
Present at the hearing:-
Lord Rodger of Earlsferry
Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood
Lord Mance
Sir Henry Brooke
Sir Robin Auld
Privy Council
[Delivered by Lord Rodger of Earlsferry]
In the Paris of the 1920s and 1930s Eileen Gray designed and made furniture in a style which would today be described as "Art Deco". Subsequently, her work was neglected until, towards the end of her long life, in the 1970s her designs came to be recognised as classics and the value of her furniture rose accordingly. This appeal concerns the ownership of one collection of her furniture.
Christo Michailidis ("Christo") came from a Greek shipping family, his father being Alexander Joseph Michailidis, who died in 1995, and his mother being Irene Michailidis ("Mrs Michailidis"), who is the first claimant in the present proceedings. His sister is Despina Papadimitriou ("Mrs Papadimitriou"). Members of the family have long been interested in collecting art and antiquities. From about the 1970s Christo lived with Robin Symes, a prominent dealer in antiquities, in a house (formerly two houses) at 1/3 Seymour Walk in Kensington. That was the position when, on 5 July 1999, Christo died as a result of a fall during a dinner party in a villa in Umbria. At the time of his death he was domiciled in Greece and under Greek Law Mrs Michailidis and Mrs Papadimitriou were his heirs. In February 2001 the second and third claimants, Jonathan Guy Anthony Phillips and Robert Andrew Harland, were appointed administrators of Christo's estate in England ("the administrators").
Christo's untimely death was to lead to a web of intricate and hard-fought litigations in various jurisdictions concerning the affairs of his family and Mr Symes. For instance, a case in the English courts, relating to a statue of the Egyptian Pharaoh, Akhenaten, reached the House of Lords on a procedural point: Phillips and Another v Symes and Others [2008] UKHL 1; [2008] 1 WLR 180. There was also litigation in the Isle of Man about the Seymour Walk house, title to which was vested in a Panamanian company, with the shares being held under an Isle of Man trust: Papadimitriou and Michailidis and Ledger (IOM) Trustee Company, Chancery Division, 18 September 2002. So the present case against Colyon in Gibraltar has to be seen as only one strand in this web of cases.
For a long time before Christo's death the Seymour Walk house was home to a collection of some 14 items of Eileen Gray furniture, including tables, chairs, mirrors and lacquered screens. This is "the Collection" whose ownership gives rise to the issue in the appeal. After Christo's death Mr Symes continued to live in the house, but in the spring of 2000 he sold the Collection through a Paris dealer, Robert Vallois, for $15 million. It appears that in April of that year the Collection was removed from the house at Seymour Walk and flown to Switzerland for delivery to the buyer.
Mr Symes caused the proceeds of the sale of the Collection to be paid in two directions: $4.4 million (less M Vallois' commission) to a Panamanian company, Xoilan Trader Inc, and $10.4 million to another Panamanian company, Tradesk Inc, operated from Liechtenstein.
On or about 3 May 2000 Mr Symes caused a company, Lombardi Corporation, to be incorporated in the British Virgin Islands.
On 8 May 2000 the $10.4 million was withdrawn from Tradesk's account and transferred to the account of a Liechtenstein foundation of which Mr Symes was the beneficiary. On 7 June Mr Symes caused a deposit guarantee account to be opened in the name of Lombardi Corporation with the Gibraltar branch of Calyon, the present appellant. Calyon is the corporate and investment banking arm of Crédit Agricole SA. On 28 June the $10.4 million in the Liechtenstein foundation's account was remitted to Lombardi's Gibraltar account. This enabled Calyon's London branch to grant Mr Symes' company, Robin Symes Limited ("RSL"), a term loan facility in the sum of $10.3 million.
After Mr Symes had drawn down and disbursed most of this facility for his own or RSL's purposes, the facility was repaid in full by a payment of some £9.86 million emanating from Lombardi Corporation's account with Calyon's Gibraltar branch. In October 2001 the balance of the account was disbursed elsewhere for Mr Symes' purposes.
The Michailidis family had not been aware of the sale of the Collection. When they found out, they took the view that Mr Symes had had no right to sell it - the Collection had belonged to Christo and had passed to his heirs on his death. It is fair to say that members of the family have given a number of versions of how they came to acquire the Collection. In the Particulars of Claim in the present action the claimants said that, before Alexander Michailidis' death, the Collection belonged to him either exclusively or jointly with his wife, Mrs Michailidis, the first claimant. They then give two possible versions of what followed. Either, on some unknown date, Alexander had given the Collection to Christo or, alternatively, following Alexander's death, the Collection, or his half share in it, passed to his wife, the first claimant. Either way, it did not belong to Mr Symes. In the English High Court proceedings which their Lordships will mention in a moment, another version of Christo's acquisition of the Collection was advanced. In the course of the hearing before the Board, however, Mr Steinfeld QC, on behalf of the claimants, indicated that their position now was that Alexander and Mrs Michailidis had given the Collection to Christo. That version seems to accord with the terms of the Greek judgment of June 2004, part of which their Lordships recite in para 15 below.
On 12 February 2001, very shortly after their appointment, the administrators wrote to Mr Symes asking about the whereabouts of the Collection. By this time Mr Symes had, however, moved to Switzerland and the administrators were told this. On 23 February 2001 the administrators and Mrs Papdimitriou therefore issued the claim form in proceedings against Mr Symes and RSL in the Chancery Division of the English High Court. Various issues were raised, including questions as to the existence of an alleged partnership between Christo and Mr Symes and, more especially, an allegation that Christo had acquired the Collection for himself and/or his sister, Mrs Papadimitriou.
Meanwhile, also on 23 February 2000, Mr Symes and RSL had issued proceedings in the multi-membered court of first instance in Athens, joining the administrators and Christo's heirs, Mrs Papadimitriou and Mrs Michailidis, as defendants. In those proceedings Mr Symes and RSL in effect claimed negative declaratory relief as to the matters which were in dispute in the English proceedings, including, in particular, a declaration that he had been the owner of the Collection.
A dispute arose as to which set of proceedings should go ahead. In July 2001, in the English proceedings, Hart J held that Mrs Papadimitriou's claim should be stayed, as should the administrators' claims that certain assets, including the Collection, belonged to Christo, independently of the partnership business. The English proceedings relating to the administrators' claims based on the alleged partnership were to go ahead, however. See Phillips & Another v Symes & Robin Symes Ltd [2001] EWHC 395 (Ch).
In these circumstances Mrs Michailidis, Mrs Papadimitriou and the administrators entered the proceedings in the Greek court. On 12 October 2001, Mrs Michailidis and Mrs Papadimitriou counter-claimed against Mr Symes and RSL, asserting, in particular, that they had been the owners of the Collection after Christo's death and that Mr Symes had misappropriated and sold it. Due to changes in procedure, the Greek proceedings may have come on for determination more quickly than Mr Symes had anticipated. At all events, in October 2002 he applied to waive his action in the Greek court. This would, he contended, also put an end to the proceedings on the counter-claim. That application was eventually refused by the Greek court.
It is unnecessary for present purposes to examine the progress of the Greek proceedings in detail. But two events which occurred during those proceedings should be noted. First, in March 2003 Mr Symes was adjudicated bankrupt and administrative receivers were appointed to RSL. The counter-claimants' proceedings in Athens continued against the trustees in bankruptcy and the receivers. Secondly, in about March 2004 Mrs Michailidis and the administrators discovered that – as already described - part of the proceeds from the sale of the Collection had been deposited in the Gibraltar branch of Calyon. On 7 April 2004 Mrs Michailidis issued the present proceedings against Calyon in the Supreme Court of Gibraltar. In broad terms, she claimed that Calyon had dishonestly assisted Mr Symes to misappropriate monies held on trust for her. In due course the administrators were added as claimants. Calyon put in a defence, part of which was to deny the claimants' allegation that they had been the owners of the Collection at the time it was said to have been misappropriated.
On 30 June 2004 the Athens court delivered judgment. In particular, the court upheld the claims of Mrs Michailidis and Mrs Papadimitriou that they had been the owners of the Collection and held that each of them was entitled to €5,428,942, corresponding to her share in the value of the Collection, and €150,000 as financial satisfaction for moral damage by reason of the...
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