BAZHANOV AND ANOTHER V FOSMAN AND OTHERS

[2017] EWHC 3404 (Comm), High Court of Justice, Business and Property Courts of England and Wales, Commercial Court (QBD), Daniel Toledano QC, 17 January 2018

Jurisdiction - Service of claim on defendants out of the jurisdiction - Serious issue - Good arguable case - All defendants based in Russia - Proper forum - Rome II, Regulation (EC) No 864/2007, articles 10 and 14

Mr Bazhanov and Mr Fosman had been in discussions to organise refinancing for B's business, the Masloprodukt Group. B asserted that an oral agreement had been reached in June 2014 which would be subject to English law and jurisdiction, and that this and subsequent alleged agreements had led to the third defendant coming to own the Masloprodukt business at a very favourable price. F asserted that there was no oral agreement and that the written documents were merely notes of the conversations. There was, first, an application by the defendants to set aside permission granted by Leggatt J on 15 December 2016 to serve the claim form on them out of the jurisdiction. All three defendants were based in Russia. Secondly, there was an application by the claimants for permission to amend the claim form and the particulars of claim so as to introduce new causes of action. The parties disagreed as to whether the claimants had a good arguable case for which permission should be given to serve the claim out of the jurisdiction.