Matrimonial proceedings—Ex parte injunction—Freezing order

Family Division, Mostyn J, 10 Feb 2011

The family division has given guidance on freezing injunctions obtained without notice.

The wife appeared in person. Rhiannon Lloyd for the husband.

During the course of ancillary relief proceedings, the applicant wife sought to move the High Court ex parte to freeze three bank accounts in Switzerland. Her grounds for making that application were, inter alia, that the husband was in a position to deplete the assets, and that there was a history of the husband acting unilaterally to remove sums of money from the jurisdiction. The judge allowed the wife’s application and she obtained a mirror order from a court in Switzerland blocking the accounts. The husband applied, inter alia, for discharge of the freezing order and for an immediate discharge of the Swiss order.

Mostyn J:

It was to be emphasised that in England, unlike some other countries on the continent, we did not have a system of general saisie conservatoire whereby