TRUST RISK GROUP SPA V AMTRUST EUROPE LTD

[2015] EWCA Civ 437, Court of Appeal, Lord Justice Elias, Lord Justice Beatson and Lord Justice Christopher Clarke, 30 April 2015

Jurisdiction - Conflicting choice of law and jurisdiction agreements - Whether English or Italian courts had jurisdiction

TRG, an insurance broker based in Milan, entered into a Framework Agreement with ATEL, the UK subsidiary of an American insurer, AmTrust, for the placement of medical malpractice insurance in Italy. The Framework Agreement provided for Italian law and jurisdiction. There was an earlier agreement, a Terms of Business Agreement (TOBA), appended to the Framework Agreement, containing an English law and jurisdiction clause. The question was, which set of dispute resolution provisions prevailed. Blair J held at first instance that there was a good arguable case that the TOBA continued in place even after the making of the Framework Agreement. (1) The Court of Appeal should be slow to interfere with the findings of a trial judge who has ruled at the interlocutory stage on a jurisdiction challenge: such a decision was an evaluation and not a finding. (2) The presumption in favour of a one-stop shop could not operate where there were two agreements and the issue was which of them prevailed. (3) The two Agreements dealt with different parts of the parties' relationship.