Bank
Bitar v Banque Libano-Française SAL [2021] EWHC 2787 (QB), [2021] All ER (D) 72 (Oct)
The Queen’s Bench Division dismissed the defendant Lebanese bank’s jurisdictional challenge, in circumstances where the claimant British national sought to bring proceedings in England for the payment of the balance standing to his credit under a joint account with the bank, together with damages for breach of contract in failing to repay that sum. The claimant argued that he could bring proceedings in England by virtue of s 15B(2)(b) of the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982 (CJJA 1982), notwithstanding the relevant banking agreement which was governed by Lebanese law and contained a jurisdiction clause, because that agreement qualified as a consumer contract. The court ruled, among other things, that the relevant bank account plainly fell within the scope of the commercial activities which, the evidence demonstrated, the bank was directing to the UK, and that, applying ‘a test combining good arguable case and plausibility of evidence’, the claimant’s case had sufficient strength to allow the court to take jurisdiction. The relevant arrangement was a banking arrangement
