Chartered Bank v Daklouche
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | THE MASTER OF THE ROLLS,LORD JUSTICE EVELEIGH,SIR STANLEY REES |
| Judgment Date | 16 March 1979 |
| Judgment citation (vLex) | [1979] EWCA Civ J0316-1 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
| Date | 16 March 1979 |
[1979] EWCA Civ J0316-1
The Master of the Rolls
(Lord Denning)
Lord Justice Eveleigh and
Sir Stanley Rees
In The Supreme Court of Judicature
Court of Appeal
On Appeal from The High Court of Justice
Queen's Bench Division
Commercial Court
(MR. Justice Donaldson)
MR. R. BUCKLEY (instructed by Messrs. Coward Chance, Solicitors, London) appeared on behalf of the Plaintiff (Appellant).
MR. A. BOSWOOD (instructed by Messrs. Pothecary & Barratt, Solicitors, London) appeared on behalf of the Second Defendant (Respondent).
The Lebanese are born traders. They set up businesses far and wide. Two of them are husband and wife, A Suhail and Salwa Daklouche. They did well in Abu Dhabi in the Persian Gulf. That is a place grown rich on oil. The husband traded there under the business name of Gulf Trading and Cold Storage. He supplied food and drink wholesale to caterers at the airport and at clubs. Some of his business was retail. He set up a supermarket and supplied goods retail to the public. His wife helped him a good deal in both businesses. At all events, on her own admission, she helped him quite a lot in managing the supermarket.
The business was very successful. So much so that they were attracted to England. They - or at least the wife - purchased a large house at Beech, which is near Alton in Hampshire. It was conveyed into the wife's name. In 1977 it cost £50, 000. The money seems to have been available without any need to raise anything on mortgage. It is now worth £30, 000. The wife is having building work done on it to a value, she says, of more than £34, 000. Mr. and Mrs. Daklouche have two daughters aged 15 and 13 who are at boarding school in England. They hope to go on to a university here.
Meanwhile the husband has been carrying on the business in Abu Dhabi. from January 1976 he has had an account with the branch of the Chartered Bank there. That account is in the firm's name of Gulf Trading and Cold Storage. But both husband and wife have power to operate it individually on their sole signature. Each gave specimen signatures to the "bank in regard to the operation of that account.
All seems to have gone reasonably well until January of this year. Then the husband ran into financial difficulties. The account of the firm with the Chartered Bank became very muchoverdrawn. He told the manager of the branch at Abu Dhabi that he had many trade debts owing to him and that he would pay off the A overdraft with the proceeds of these trade debts which he would get in by the 20th January, 1979- Other creditors were also pressing for payment of unpaid bills, We are told that one of them called in the local police to help recover this debt.
During January 1979 three cheques were received by the Gulf Trading and Cold Storage company. Two of them were from the Abu Dhabi International Airport Caterers and one was from the Abu Dhabi Club. They were all marked "Account payee". They were given in local currency, but in sterling they came to about £70, 000. The husband, however, did not pay these cheques into the Chartered Bank to clear the overdraft. He paid them into his own account which he had in Abu Dhabi with the First National Bank of Chicago there. Soon afterwards he drew out the amount in cash and closed his account with the First National Bank in Abu Dhabi. Although there is some conflict, it appears 'very likely from the evidence that on the very next day, having drawn out the cash from the First National Bank, he handed it to his wife. Then she paid it into two banks in Abu Dhabi, the City Bank and Barclays Bank (International). She then asked those two banks to transfer the money by telegraph to her personal account in London with the First National Bank of Chicago. This was done. So the £70, 000 stood in her name in the bank in London.
Soon afterwards she came back to England. But we do not know what happened to the husband. He seems to have disappeared without trace. The court officials in Abu Dhabi have taken possession of his premises. They have sealed them up, and have put up a notice calling on creditors to put in their claim.
The Chartered Bank seems to have got wind of some of thesehappenings. At first they ho. very little knowledge about it. They found out that there was quite a large sum of money to the credit of the wife in the first national Bank of Chicago in London. So they issued a writ trying to stop it being dealt with. They issued a writ against both husband and wife here. They moved the court for a Mareva injunction so as to stop any disposal of that £70, 000 in the First National Bank which stood in the wife's name. Mr. Justice Mocatta granted the injunction to stop the money being dealt with: and he further gave leave to serve the husband out of the jurisdiction. As for the wife, she was here in England. So she was duly served, I suppose at her house at Alton. At all events, the judge granted a Mareva injunction to stop any dealings with the money. The bank was told. Everything was held up.
Thereupon the wife moved the court to discharge the injunction. The matter came before Mr. Justice Donaldson. He did discharge the injunction. He gave his reasons quite shortly. He said: "This matter should be dealt with by order of the Court in whose jurisdiction the transaction took effect and in my view this is Abu Dhabi since orders of English Courts do not have extra territorial effect". So Mr. Justice Donaldson refused the injunction because he said this matter could not be dealt with in England. He would not even restrain the moneys from going out of England. The only course open to the Chartered Bank was to go to Abu Dhabi, sue the husband there, et judgment there and put the husband in bankruptcy there. It was only after all that was done that the Chartered Bank might stop any dealings with the -money in London.
By that time I doubt whether there would be any money in the London bank. It is very easy to transfer money from one bank to another bank at a moment's notice. It could be transferred toSwitzerland or Chicago, or wherever it may be.
Mr. Justice Donaldson, realising it is a difficult point, extended the injunction pending the appeal to this court until today. So we have heard it, and now have to give our decision. There has been additional evidence filed on both sides. So we know a good deal more about the case. Earlier on the wife had said that this money was not given to her by her husband. She said it was never her husband's money at all. She said she was an entrepreneur on her own account. She said in her affidavit: "I am a Lebanese citizen and I am not a resident of the United Kingdom". She explained that she purchased the house in order to provide a base for herself and her husband because her two daughters were being educated at school here. She said: "Since I purchased the house here and before that date, I have transferred sums of money to my accounts with the First National Bank of Chicago in London. The money transferred has always been my own money, owned by me in ray own right, I own money which has come to me through my own family, from transactions entered into by me in Abu Dhabi on the gold market there, from land transactions entered into by me in Sharjah and from other business interests. Furthermore, my relatives often give me money to transfer for them to London, During the year 1978 I remitted over £60, 000 to London". Then she deals with these specific items - the cheques which I have mentioned which were in favour of the Gulf -. Trading and Cold Storage Company - which were traced here. As to those, she said they were not her husband's at all. She said that they were sent to her by a family friend in Jordan and also from an uncle in Beirut, and she remitted those moneys to London.
That is what she said at first, But later the bank were able to get further evidence. They got the cheques and tracedthem all through. As a result it appears that her story was altogether wrong. She had previously said that they were her moneys, given to her by her uncle and other friends and relatives. Now the evidence goes to show that they were the firm's moneys, drawn out by the husband in Abu Dhabi, handed to her, and she then put them in her name into the London bank. The reason is pretty plain. He wanted to get the moneys out of the reach of his creditors. So, as often happens, the moneys were put into the wife's name. It appears on the evidence that...
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