Bank
Singularis Holdings Ltd (in official liquidation) (a company incorporated in the Cayman Islands) v Daiwa Capital Markets Europe Ltd [2018] EWCA Civ 84 [2018] All ER (D) 10 (Feb)
A company in liquidation, Singularis Holdings Ltd, had successfully brought a claim, alleging negligence and breach of contract, against an investment bank, Daiwa Capital Markets Europe Ltd (Daiwa), to recover sums which Daiwa had paid from its client account to other companies at the instigation of Singularis’s sole shareholder and director. The Financial List, in dismissing Daiwa’s appeal, held, among other things, that the judge had correctly concluded that it would have been wrong to attribute the director’s conduct and fraudulent knowledge to Singularis, so as to bar its Quincecare claim (breach of duty owed by a bank to its customer) against Daiwa on grounds of illegality. The court, in so ruling, held that Bilta (UK) Ltd (in liq) v Nazir [2015] 2 All ER 1083 was to be regarded as the leading authority on attribution in the context of an illegality defence.
