Fladgate represents an individual defendant in the two parallel claims of Okuashvili & Others v Ivanishvili & Others (BL-2022-000657 and BL-2023-000303) concerning breach of contract, unlawful means conspiracy and tort of intimidation with a combined claim value of c$60m.
All of the Defendants in the claims applied to challenge jurisdiction. The applications were heard at a 5-day hearing in January 2025. Shortly before the hearing, the Claimants applied to admit new evidence outside of the Court’s case management timetable and in close proximity to the hearing. The new expert report was served on 26 December 2024 and the new witness evidence was served on 15 January 2025.
On day 1 of the hearing, the Defendants successfully resisted the Claimants’ application to adduce the new evidence.
When deciding whether to permit the Claimants to rely on the new evidence, Mr Justice Rajah considered the criteria in Denton v White [2014] EWCA Civ 906. Against the backdrop of the underlying claims having been issued in 2022 and 2023 respectively and the complexity of the issues in play, he determined that:
- the Defendants could not properly prepare for the hearing unless the parties complied with the Court timetable;
- the reason given for the default was “entirely unsatisfactory” (namely a change in legal representation in December 2024 had allegedly resulted in evidence not being prepared and served);
- the contents of the expert report, in particular, were duplicative and added matters which could have been dealt with by previous expert reports; and
- the witness evidence raised new and contested factual assertions to which the Defendants had not had a chance to respond.
This is a cautionary tale that evidence to be relied upon should be considered by parties at the outset and filed in accordance with the court timetable and if there is a development which calls for further evidence to be relied upon, such evidence should be properly justifiable and served promptly with sufficient time for the opposing party to have an opportunity to respond.
