On 23 May 2024 The Honourable Justice Parker, in FSD 300 of 2023 (Ascentra Holdings, Inc. (in Official Liquidation) v Ryunosuke Yoshida & Ors), granted an on-notice interim proprietary injunction in favour of the claimant company in official liquidation (the “Company”), acting by its Joint Official Liquidators (the “JOLs”), in respect funds originally totalling US$270m (the “Funds”). The Funds form the subject matter of the Company’s proprietary claim in ongoing proceedings, having been under the Defendants’ control since the Company’s entry into voluntary liquidation (and later official liquidation).
Parker J’s decision is of interest in particular for the analysis of the law relating to the requirement for a cross-undertaking in damages and for the Judge’s decision, in all the circumstances of this case, that an unlimited cross-undertaking in damages would not be required. Parker J decided – having considered, among other authorities, Lewison J’s decision in JSC Mezhdunarodniy Promyshlenniy Bank v Pugachev (CA) [2016] 1 WLR – that the justice of the case, in all the circumstances, meant that the JOLs need only offer a cross-undertaking limited to the value of the unencumbered assets of the Company’s estate which remain at the end of the proceedings.
The judgment is available here.
The Company was represented by Blair Leahy KC, with Alex Riddiford also instructed by Campbells to act for the Company.
