Crédit Chimique v James Scott Engineering Group Ltd
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Judgment Date | 25 May 1979 |
| Date | 25 May 1979 |
| Docket Number | No. 33. |
| Court | Court of Session (Outer House) |
OUTER HOUSE.
Lord Jauncey.
Jurisdiction—Court of Session—Persons subject to jurisdiction—Ordinary jurisdiction—Forum competens et conveniens—French banks sued Scottish company as guarantors for credit extended to a French company—Many and complex questions of French law—Convenience of witnesses—Extent to which domicile of defender, the need to register a foreign judgment and the existence of warrants to arrest and inhibit were relevant factors for repelling a plea of forum non conveniens.
The pursuers, a group of French banks, granted credit facilities to a French company. Subsequently the French banks would extend further credit only if the French company could organise a pool of banks to which the defenders would grant a guarantee. By telex and by letter the defenders confirmed to the first pursuers that they undertook to repay the outstanding balance of any facilities extended by the pool of banks to the French company. Subsequently the pursuers sued the defenders in the Court of Session under the alleged guarantee.
The defenders pleaded that the Court of Session was forum non conveniens on the ground that the action had no connection with Scotland, that the substantive law to be applied was French law, concerned a matter which was accessory to a purely French contract and involved complex questions of French law, and that the action would involve additional expense and inconvenience in bringing witnesses from France. The pursuers accepted that French law applied and that the French courts would recognise jurisdiction, but contended that the reasons advanced by the defenders in support of the plea were of insufficient weight, that the domicile of the defenders was of fundamental significance, that enforcement of a French decree in Scotland would involve an additional process and that dismissal or sist of the action would deprive the pursuers of executing warrants to arrest and inhibit on the dependence of the action.
Held, after a procedure roll hearing, (1) that the general principles of law applicable to a plea of forum non convenienswere (a) that the burden of satisfying the tribunal that the case submitted to it for decision should not be allowed to proceed lay upon the defender who tabled the plea; (b) that this burden could only be discharged where weighty reasons were alleged why an admitted jurisdiction should not be exercised, mere balance of convenience being...
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