Law digests: 7 March 2025

Contract

Hipgnosis Sfh 1 Ltd v Manilow and others [2025] EWHC 444 (Ch)

This is the Chancery Division’s judgment on a jurisdictional application under the Civil Procedure Rules by the defendants. The key finding was that although the English court initially had jurisdiction under the contract’s general jurisdiction clause, the defendants had a choice to litigate claims related to the ‘purchase price’ in either England or the courts of Los Angeles/New York under a specific provision, and by commencing proceedings in Los Angeles, the defendants crystallised the jurisdiction for those claims in Los Angeles.

Costs

BB and others v Al Khayyat and others [2025] EWHC 379 (KB)

The King’s Bench Division dismissed an application by four claimants (the discontinuing claimants) to displace the presumptive rule on costs following discontinuance of their claim, pursuant to CPR 38.6. By their claim, the discontinuing claimants sought damages for alleged ‘severe physical and psychiatric injuries, destruction of property, loss of profits and forcible displacement from their homes in Syria’. They argued that the discontinuance was caused by an alleged criminal conspiracy by third parties,