Cinnamon European Structured Credit Master Fund v Banco Commercial Portugues SA [2009] EWHC 3381 (Ch); [2009] All ER (D) 209 (Dec)
Chancery Division Blackburne J 18 December 2009
A claimant seeking to rely on Art 23 of Council Regulation (EC) 44/2001 (the regulation) does not have to establish that he has much the better argument in respect of all matters (eg the scope of any jurisdiction agreement) but merely in respect of the requirements of the article.
Jonathan Crow QC and Richard Hill (instructed by Mayer Brown International LLP) for the claimant. Paul Lowenstein QC and David Mumford (instructed by Baker and McKenzie LLP) for the defendant.
The defendant bank was incorporated in Portugal. It was accepted for present purposes that the bank was also domiciled in Portugal. The claimant was a Cayman-registered fund. The proceedings arose out of the securitisation of a portfolio of Portuguese residential mortgages which had been granted to the bank as so-called “originator”.
The bank sold the portfolio to a unitised fund pursuant to a mortgage sale agreement. Under the agreement the bank remained the servicer and administrator of