Ripple Markets Apac Pte Ltd v P Dot Money Limited & Anor
| Court | King's Bench Division |
| Judge | CHRISTOP HER HANCOCK KC |
| Neutral Citation | [2024] EWHC 156 (Comm) |
| Date | 30 January 2024 |
| Year | 2024 |
| Counsel | Nehali Shah,Nik Yeo |
Neutral Citation Number: [2024] EWHC 156 (Comm)
Case No: CL-2023-000411
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
KING'S BENCH DIVISION
BUSINESS AND PROPERTY COURTS OF ENGLAND AND WALES
COMMERCIAL COURT
Royal Courts of Justice, Rolls Building
Fetter Lane, London, EC4A 1NL
Date: 30/01/2024
Before :
CHRISTOPHER HANCOCK KC
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Between :
RIPPLE MARKETS APAC PTE. LTD1
Claimant
- and -
(1) P DOT MONEY LIMITED
(formerly k.a. TAASAI FS LTD)
(2) MR MICHAEL NYANANYO Defendants
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Nehali Shah (instructed by Paul Hastings (Europe) LLP) for the Claimant
Nik Yeo (instructed by Russell-Cooke LLP) for the Defendants
Hearing dates: 8 December 2023
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Judgment Approved by the court for handing down
(subject to editorial corrections)
This judgment was handed down by the Judge remotely by circulation to the parties'
representatives by email and release to The National Archives. The date and time for hand-
down is deemed to be 12:00 on Tuesday 30th January 2024
1 The underlying proceedings were commenced by Ripple Labs Singapore Pte. Ltd. which
amalgamated into Ripple Markets APAC Pte. Ltd. to become Ripple Markets APAC Pte. Ltd. with
effect from 1 October 2023.
1
Introduction and background.
1. This hearing was listed to deal with the Defendants’ application for a stay of
execution (the Stay Application) of default judgments dated 14 August 2023 (the
Default Judgments), pending the determination of the Defendants’ application dated
20 October 2023 to set aside the Default Judgments (the Set Aside Application).
That latter application has been listed for 13 March 2024, a date fixed for the
convenience of the Court and the Claimant’s counsel. I refer herein to the Claimant
as C and the Defendants as Taasai (or D1) and D2 respectively.
2. C’s claim in these proceedings was for US$12,780,530.35 plus fees and interest due
pursuant to an agreement between it and Taasai entitled “Master XRP Commitment to
Sell Agreement” with an effective date of 15 August 2022 (the CTSA). Under the
CTSA, C made available for purchase by Taasai the digital asset XRP for the sole
purpose of completing a payment transaction over C’s hosted service called “On-
Demand Liquidity”. C claims that Taasai took the XRP made available to it under the
contract, but failed to pay the sums due pursuant to invoices dated 13, 20 and 27
March 2023 (the Unpaid Invoices).
3. Payment was chased for the Unpaid Invoices, including in emails dated 16, 22 and 29
March 2023. Although Taasai made partial payment of the amount owing under the
first invoice, it has failed to pay the balance of that invoice or the other invoices
(although Taasai continues to make weekly payments of approximately $50,000).
4. C commenced proceedings on 24 July 2023. It is accepted that the pre-action protocol
was not complied with, but C contended that there could be no doubt but that Taasai
knew that proceedings were in the offing against it since they were sent several emails
before issuance threatening such. I accept that this was the case.
5. The proceedings were sent the following day by way of service to the Defendants at
the registered addresses listed for them at Companies House as at 24 July 2023. There
is no dispute but that this constituted valid service, pursuant to s.87(2) and s.1140(5)
of the Companies Act 2006, the deemed date of service being 27 July 2023.
6. The 14-day period required for filing an acknowledgment of service, defence or
admission elapsed on 11 August 2023, and accordingly C filed a request for judgment
on 14 August 2023. Given the absence of any acknowledgment of service or Defence
from the Defendants, C obtained the Default Judgments on 14 August 2023.
7. C discovered the original default judgments when checking the CE File on 30 August
2023, but upon checking them discovered clerical errors. The change in the
Defendants’ registered addresses on 25 July 2023 (which I refer to below) (after the
Claim Form and Points of Claim were filed) had also by then come to its attention.
8. Accordingly, on 2 September 2023, Paul Hastings (Europe) LLP, for C, sent a letter to
the Court requesting the correction of the clerical errors in the original default
judgments pursuant to CPR 40.12 (the slip rule) and updating the Defendants’
addresses to the new address (4638 Spaces, Hanover Avenue, Feltham, TW13 4JP).
C located the corrected Default Judgments on 20 September 2023 on CE File.
2
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