Commercial Bank of Dubai PSC & Ors v Abdalla Juma Majid Al Sari & Ors
| Judge | Mr Justice Foxton |
| Neutral Citation | [2024] EWHC 3304 (Comm) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Commercial Court) |
| Counsel | Anthony Peto Kc,Andrew Trotter,Jonathan Cohen Kc,Nicola Allsop |
| Date | 19 December 2024 |
Neutral Citation Number: [2024] EWHC 3304 (Comm)
Claim No: CL-2022-000048
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
BUSINESS AND PROPERTY COURTS OF ENGLAND AND WALES
KING’S BENCH DIVISION
COMMERCIAL COURT
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
Date: 19/12/2024
Before :
MR JUSTICE FOXTON
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Between :
(1) COMMERCIAL BANK OF DUBAI PSC
(2) HORTIN HOLDINGS LIMITED
(3) WESTDENE INVESTMENTS LIMITED
(4) LODGE HILL LIMITED
(5) VS 1897 (CAYMAN) LIMITEDClaimants
- and -
(1) MR ABDALLA JUMA MAJID AL SARI
(2) MR MAJID ABDALLA JUMA AL SARI
(3) MR MOHAMED ABDALLA JUMA AL SARI
(4) FAL OIL INC
(5) INVESTMENT GROUP PRIVATE LIMITED
(6) IPGL GENERAL TRADING LLC
(7) GLOBE INVESTMENT HOLDINGS LIMITED
(8) MENA INVESTMENT HOLDINGS LIMITED
(9) MAS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
(10) MR HAMAD SAID HAMA ABDALLA
ALMHEIRI Defendants
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Anthony Peto KC andAndrew Trotter (instructed by Jones Day) for the Claimants
Jonathan Cohen KC and Nicola Allsop (instructed by PCB Byrne LLP) for the Seventh,
Ninth and Tenth Defendants
Hearing dates: 12, 13, 14, 15 and 18 November 2024
Draft judgment to parties: 9 December 2024
Further submissions: 10, 13, 14, 16 and 17 December 2024
Further draft judgment to the parties: 17 December 2024
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Approved Judgment
This judgment was handed down remotely at 2pm on 19 December 2024 by circulation to the
parties or their representatives by e-mail and by release to the National Archives.
.............................
MR JUSTICE FOXTON
Mr Justice Foxton
Approved Judgment
Commercial Bank of Dubai PSC v Almheiri
Mr Justice Foxton :
1.This judgment addresses:
i)The Tenth Defendant’s (“D10”‘s) application to set aside the order of Dias J
grantingtheClaimantspermissionto serveproceedings on himout of the
jurisdiction (“the Service Out Application”).
ii)The Claimants’ application for a Worldwide Freezing Order (“WWFO”)
against D10 (“the WWFO Application”).
iii)The Seventh and Ninth Defendants’ application to strike out or for summary
dismissal of the Claimants’ claims (“the Summary Judgment Application”).
iv)The Claimants’ application for permission to amend (“the Amendment
Application”).
2.This case raises a number of difficult and interesting arguments. Both junior counsel
handled important parts of the case,and did so extremely well, with Ms Allsop
arguing the issue estoppel/preclusion issues and Mr Trotter dealing with most of the
legal argument on the Claimants’ side.
3.Unfortunately, the 3 ½ day hearing estimate proved wholly inadequate for the matters
to be determined. Even with the benefit of extended sitting days and an extra hearing
day, I was left to follow up a large number of references and read the relevant parts of
the 119 authorities the court was referred to, after the hearing. This has proved to be
particularly challenging when moving from the general legal principles debated at the
hearing to their application to the numerous different causes of action in the case, a
problem exacerbated by the obscurity of the pleading, thefact that the skeletons
addressed many of the issues raised very briefly, and no transcript of the hearing was
available until 3 December 2024 (for the first day) and 10 December (for the second
day). It became apparent thatsignificant further time would betaken to obtain
transcripts for the remaining three days (they becameavailable on 18 December
2024), and I informed the parties that the judgment would need to be finalised before
they became available, given the possibility of an appeal and the impending May 2025
trial date. It became apparent after the draft judgment had been circulated that there
were certain points where the oral and written arguments had failed sufficiently to
explain the issues for determination, or where an argument had been raised only orally
and I had failed to address it. In some instances, there are issues which it is not
possible to determine fairly without further argument. As a result, a further hearing
will be necessary.
BACKGROUND
4.The claims arise out of long-running proceedings commenced by the First Claimant
(“the Bank”) in Sharjah in 2012 seeking to recover amounts adjudged due from the
Al Sari family.
5.On 17 November 2014, the Bank obtained freezing order relief under s.25 of the CJJA
1982 against the First to Third Defendants andthe companies who are now the
3
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