Freezing order
Alta Trading UK Ltd and other companies v Bosworth and others [2025] EWHC 2724 (Comm)
The Commercial Court ruled on applications concerning an inquiry into damages relating to a worldwide freezing order. Following dismissal of the claimants’ fraud claims and enforcement of the defendants’ undertakings in damages, the defendants sought to amend their statements of case to argue that the claimants had dishonestly obtained and maintained the freezing order. The court granted permission for most of the defendants’ proposed amendments, including their argument that the claimants should not be permitted to rely on their own allegedly dishonest conduct in the underlying proceedings to defeat causation in the damages inquiry. The court held that the ‘own wrong’ principle, while not a freestanding principle of universal application, was at least well arguable in this context as a matter of public policy or evaluative judgment in causation. The court rejected the claimants’ application to strike out the dishonesty allegations, finding they could be relevant to causation issues, and allowed some of the defendants’ applications
