Cases

McKeown v Attheraces Ltd

Comment

The Judge's conclusions on re-litigation abuse are of particular interest. The Judge considered there was force in the Defendant's submission that, taken as a whole, the disciplinary proceedings and the review proceedings which followed were sufficient to meet the Claimant's right to a fair hearing under Art 6 ECHR, so that they should be considered equivalent to proceedings before a court.  From this it was said to follow that pursuit of the libel action, with the possible result that inconsistent conclusions would be reached, would be an abuse of the court's process. However, the Judge concluded that even if the earlier findings against the Claimant raised a rebuttable presumption he could not conclude that the Claimant had no prospect of rebutting it. Further, he concluded that the libel action did not cover exactly the same ground as the earlier proceedings. Hence he declined to dismiss the action on those grounds.

In a subsequent case in the Commercial Court, Teare J held it an abuse for A to raise in a High Court claim against C allegations which A had raised, but had been dismissed, in a previous commercial arbitration against B: Michael Wilson & Partners v Sinclair & Ors.

Areas of work

Defamation
Professional Discipline
Sports Law

Also