SIBIR ENERGY LTD AND OTHERS V TCHIGIRINSKI AND OTHERS

[2012] EWHC 1844 (Comm), Queen's Bench Division, Commercial Court, HHJ Mackie QC, 5 July 2012

Conflict of laws - Joinder of additional defendant - Whether expedient to hear claim together with existing claim - Lugano Convention 2007, article 6(1)

The claimants commenced proceedings against four defendants, alleging misappropriation of funds. None of the defendants challenged the jurisdiction of the English court. The claim against D1 was settled and the claim against D3 was partially settled, but the other claims remained live. The claimants applied to the court for the joinder of a fifth defendant, H, a financier resident in Switzerland under article 6(1) of the Lugano Convention, which provides that a person domiciled in Switzerland may be sued "where he is one of a number of defendants, in the court for the place where any one of them is domiciled, provided that the claims are so closely connected that it is expedient to hear and determine them together to avoid the risk of irreconcilable judgments resulting from separate proceedings". The court held that joinder should be permitted. The evidence did not clearly establish that the claims were being made against D2 as anchor defendant purely to allow H to be sued in England rather than in Switzerland, the place of his domicile. On the facts the claim against D2 was proceeding, so there was no abuse of article 6(1).