Antonio Gramsci Shipping Corporation and Ors v Lembergs – QBD (Com Ct)(Teare J) – 12 July 2012

Conflict of laws – Jurisdiction – Claimants alleging entitlement to pierce corporate veil – Whether defendant individual party to corporate defendant’s contract – Whether defendant individual bound by jurisdiction clause in corporate defendant’s contract

The claimants brought claims against five offshore companies (“the corporate defendants”) arising out of what the claimants said was a fraudulent scheme by which the corporate defendants chartered a number of vessels owned by the claimants on charterparties at less than the market rate and sub-chartered the vessels at the market rate thereby depriving the claimants of the difference between the market rate and the charter rates and keeping the profits themselves.