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is a judicial decision of Privy Council on appeal from Brunei which was for many years, and arguably still is, the leading authority in relation to
anti-suit injunction In the area of conflict of laws, an anti-suit injunction is an order issued by a court or arbitral tribunal that prevents an opposing party from commencing or continuing a proceeding in another jurisdiction or forum. If the opposing party contrav ...
s under the
English common law English law is the common law legal system of England and Wales, comprising mainly criminal law and civil law, each branch having its own courts and procedures. The judiciary is independent, and legal principles like fairness, equality bef ...
. The case concerned a fatal helicopter crash which killed Yong Joon San, a wealthy business magnate, amongst others. Mr Yong's widow tried to sue various parties, including Société Nationale Industrielle Aérospatiale (SNIA) as manufacturer of the helicopter, in the courts of Texas under the Wrongful Death Statute in that state. SNIA asked the courts to restrain the claimants from proceedings in court by way of an anti-suit injunction. Their applications failed at first instance and on appeal, but succeeded in the Privy Council. In handing down the judgment of the Privy Council, Lord Goff elaborated on the jurisdiction to grant anti-suit injunctions following his earlier decision in , and set out the basic principles to be applied in relation to applications for such injunctions. He held that it was not enough that the foreign court was not the most appropriate forum - it was necessary to show that the foreign proceedings must be "vexatious or oppressive" for an injunction restraining them to be issued.


Facts

On 16 December 1980 a Puma 330J helicopter crashed near
Kuala Belait Kuala Belait (KB) or officially the Kuala Belait Town (), is the administrative town of Belait District, Brunei. The population of the town proper was 4,544 in 2021. Kuala Belait is officially a municipal area (), as well as a settlement under t ...
,
Brunei Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with ...
killing all 12 people on board, including Yong Joon San. Mr Yong was a very successful businessman, and was estimated have a net worth of approximately US$20 million at his death, and the year before he died he had reportedly earned approximately US$1,800,000. An official inquiry was launched, which concluded that the case of the accident was "the initial cause of the accident was due to the mistaken health monitoring of the gearbox leading to a deterioration of the mechanical condition of the gearbox components." Mr Yong's widow (Lee Kui Jak) and brother (Yong Joon Kim) brought proceedings for compensation. Upon the recommendation of their lawyers they brought the proceedings against a number of parties, including SNIA, in the courts of Texas. Their lawyer gave evidence to the effect that this was for two reasons: (1) stricter product liability laws, and (2) higher damages in Texas. SNIA initially tried to have the action in Texas transferred to the Federal courts, and then sought to stay those proceedings on ''
forum non conveniens ''Forum non conveniens'' (; Latin for 'an inconvenient forum') is a mostly common law legal doctrine through which a court acknowledges that another forum or court where the case might have been brought is a more appropriate venue for a legal ca ...
'' grounds. Both applications were ultimately unsuccessful, and so they sought injunctions in the Brunei courts to restrain the claimants from pursuing the Texas proceedings.


Decision

The application for an injunction failed at first instance and in the Brunei Court of Appeal. SNIA then appealed to the Privy Council. Lord Goff gave the advice of the Board.


Review of authorities

After reciting the facts and the history of the proceedings in Texas, he then reviewed the law in relation to anti-suit injunctions. He reviewed the speech of
Lord Scarman Leslie George Scarman, Baron Scarman, (29 July 1911 – 8 December 2004) was an English judge and barrister who served as a Law Lord until his retirement in 1986. He was described as an "outstanding judicial figure, entrusted with the most hi ...
in ''Castanho v Brown & Root (UK) Limited''
981 Year 981 ( CMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Spring – Emperor Otto II (the Red) leads the imperial court to Rome, making the city his imperial capital, and receiv ...
AC 557, and the speech of
Lord Diplock William John Kenneth Diplock, Baron Diplock, (8 December 1907 – 14 October 1985) was a British barrister and judge who served as a lord of appeal in ordinary between 1968 and until his death in 1985. Appointed to the English High Court in ...
in ''MacShannon v Rockware Glass Ltd'' 978AC 795. He referred in particular to the passage of Lord Scarman in ''Castanho'': He then noted that the injunction operates against the litigants personally, not by way of interference with the foreign proceedings themselves. He cited with approval the statement of Sir John Leach VC in ''Bushby v Munday'' (1821) 5 Mad 297:at 307 Lord Goff then reviewed various other judicial decisions relating to anti-suit injunctions, including his own earlier decision in ''South Carolina Insurance Co v Assurantie Maatschappij "De Zeven Provincient" NV'' 9871 AC 24, which he now indicated he disapproved. He then noted that earlier authorities had been "overtaken by events", and now needed to reconsidered in light of the ''Spiliada'' decision. He added that to obtain an injunction it was not sufficient to merely show that the foreign court was not the natural forum, although that would clearly be necessary. In addition it would be necessary to show that (a) being forced to contest the foreign proceedings would be vexatious or oppressive, and (b) that restraining the foreign proceedings would not deprive the other party of a legitimate advantage in those proceedings.


''Cambridgeshire'' factor

The claimants argued that because the proceedings in Texas were so far advanced, they should constitute a ''Cambridgeshire'' factor as outlined in the ''Spiliada'' case. Lord Goff declined to accept that. In ''Cambridgeshire'' there was a related case that extremely complex and similar. In the instant case the Texan lawyers had pushed forward an ordinary trial. A party could not artificially create a ''Cambridgeshire'' type nexus with a proceeding simply by diligently and expeditiously pursuing procedural steps.


Vexatious or oppressive

Lord Goff noted that the claimants had given various undertakings (not to seek a jury trial in Texas, not to seek punitive damages, not to rely upon strict liability under Texas law) which negated much of what might otherwise be considered vexatious or oppressive to a defendant. However, the ability to claim a third-party contribution from one of their co-defendants, Bristow Malaysia, the operators of the fateful helicopter, had been compromised by a settlement agreement thereby exculpating them from further claims in Texas. Accordingly, SNIA would be unable to claim a contribution from the party who, according to the official accident report, was primarily responsible for the deaths of those on board. This, Lord Goff held, was sufficiently oppressive.


Legitimate advantage

Lord Goff then turned to consider whether restraining the proceedings would deprive the claimants of a legitimate advantage in the Texas courts. Having abandoned many of the plaintiff's advantages by undertaking they sought to argue that procedural mechanisms like wider pre-trial discovery were a legitimate advantage in the Texas courts. But the Privy Council were not persuaded.


Authority

The case remains good law today. Lord Goff cited the case with approval in his subsequent decision on anti-suit injunctions in the
House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
in . The case has been repeatedly cited as authority for its central proposition. In the court amplified upon the ''Aérospatiale'' test, setting out several core propositions: # The court would grant an injunction where the pursuit of the foreign action was "unconscionable". The injunction is a personal remedy for the wrongful conduct of another party, in respect of conduct which is "vexatious" or "oppressive", but deriving from "the basic principle of justice". # The courts will readily grant an injunction to restrain proceedings brought in breach of an exclusive jurisdiction clause (save in circumstances where the
Brussels Regime The Brussels Regime is a set of rules regulating which courts have jurisdiction in legal disputes of a civil or commercial nature between individuals resident in different member states of the European Union (EU) and the European Free Trade A ...
applies). # In the absence of an exclusive jurisdiction clause or some other special factor, a person does not enjoy a right not to be sued in a particular foreign court. Where proceedings are brought in a foreign court, the question of whether or not that forum is an appropriate forum is a factor in assessing the conduct of the party suing there. # Before granting any injunction the English court must have a sufficient legitimate interest in the foreign proceedings (this is a principle derived from ''Airbus Industrie GIE v Patel''); if there is no contractual bar proceedings there, then there must be some putative proceedings in this jurisdiction which require protection. # English law attaches a high importance to international comity and the inevitable perception of the foreign court that an injunction amounts to interference in its proceedings, albeit indirectly. There must therefore be a clear need for protection of some English proceedings. # An injunction should not deprive a claimant of a legitimate advantage in any foreign proceedings which it would be unjust to deprive them of.


Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Société Nationale Industrielle Aérospatiale v Lee Kui Jak 1987 in United Kingdom case law United Kingdom conflict of laws case law Judicial Committee of the Privy Council cases on appeal from Brunei