Antonio Gramsci Shipping Corporation and Ors v Stepanovs - QBD (Com Ct)(Burton J) - 25 February 2011

(2011) 816 LMLN 2

Conflict of laws – Jurisdiction – Claimant shipowners entering charterparties containing English jurisdiction clause – Claimants alleging fraud on part of charterers – Claimants alleging that defendant was alter ego of chartering companies and perpetrated the fraud – Claimants seeking to pierce corporate veil to hold defendant liable – Claimants relying on English jurisdiction clause in charterparties to establish jurisdiction against defendant – Whether English law or EU law governed issue of identity of parties to relevant contracts – Whether claimants and defendant consented to English jurisdiction – Article 23 of Regulation EC No 44/2001

In Antonio Gramsci Shipping Corporation and Ors v Recoletos Ltd and Ors (“the Corporate Defendants’ action”) 30 “one ship” companies, all in the ultimate beneficial ownership of the Latvian Shipping Company (“LSC”), brought proceedings against five companies (“the Corporate Defendants”). The claimants alleged that between 2003 and 2005 they were the victims of a massive fraud.