Pan American World Airways Inc. v Andrews and Others
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Judgment Date | 27 September 1991 |
| Date | 27 September 1991 |
| Court | Court of Session (Outer House) |
Outer House of the Court of Session
Before Lord Kirkwood
Scots procedure - interim interdict - prevention of action in foreign court
Where a party who apprehended that an action was shortly to be raised against him in a foreign country sought interim interdict to prevent that being done, and yet in the event of such an action it would be open to him to argue forum non conveniens in the foreign court, interim interdict would be refused.
Lord Kirkwood so held, sitting in the Outer House of the Court of Session, refusing an ex parte motion by Pan American World Airways Inc, Pan American World Services and Alert Management System Inc for interim interdict against Cheryl Gowanlock Andrews and others.
Mr Michael Jones, QC, for the petitioners.
LORD KIRKWOOD said that the respondents had each been on the ground in the Lockerbie area on December 21, 1988 when a Boeing 747 aircraft operated by the first-named petitioners had crashed there.
The petitioners averred that the respondents intended to instruct attorneys to bring a class action against them either in New York or in Miami, and sought interim interdict against the initiation of such proceedings.
They argued that it was competent for the court to interdict a party from proceeding with an action in another jurisdiction: Young v BarclayUNK ((1846) 8 D 774); Dawson Trs v MacleansUNK ((1860) 22 D 685). In that respect the principles were the same in Scotland and England; Castanho v Brown and Root (UK) LtdELR ([1981] AC 557); Societe Nationale Industrielle Aerospatiale v Lee Kui JakELR ([1987] AC 871).
The respondents' claims could be tried more suitably in the Scottish courts because they were the natural forum, they argued. At the time the respondents had been resident and employed in Lockerbie. None had any connection with New York or Florida.
The petitioners said that the accident had taken place in Scottish airspace and the Scottish courts had jurisdiction over the petitioners in respect of an alleged delict committed in Scotland. Scottish law agents for both sides had fully investigated the circumstances and had been present at the fatal accident inquiry; litigation in the US would involve duplication of effort with the instruction of attorneys not hitherto involved, and attendant expense.
Proceedings in Scotland would take substantially less time than the two to three years which they would take in the US. In New York...
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