Source: All England Reporter
Publisher Citation: [2013] All ER (D) 55 (Jul)
Neutral Citation: [2013] EWCA Civ 1961
Court: Court of Appeal, Civil Division
Judge:

Lloyd, Elias and Beatson LJJ
Representation Stephen Smith QC and Emily Gillett (instructed by Hogan Lovells International LLP) for the bank.
  Paul Lowenstein QC (instructed by Stewarts Law LLP) for E.
Judgment Dates: 4 July 2013

Catchwords

Contempt of court - Committal - Proceedings for committal - Criminal contempt - Claimant bank commencing proceedings against defendants for fraud - Claimant obtaining order requiring disclosure by seventeenth defendant - Seventeenth defendant making witness statements and being cross-examined - Claimant seeking to commit seventeenth defendant to prison for criminal contempt of court - Claimant submitting seventeenth defendant deliberately lying - Judge finding evidence not establishing beyond reasonable doubt seventeenth defendant lying - Judge dismissing application - Bank appealing - Whether judge erring.

The Case

Contempt of court Committal. The claimant bank issued committal proceedings against the seventeenth defendant in the instant action in which the bank sought to recover substantial sums which had been misappropriated from it through fraud. The bank alleged that the defendant had lied in witness statements and in cross-examination and had been guilty of criminal contempt. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, held that the judge had been correct in refusing to commit a defendant for contempt of court as the bank had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that he had lied.

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