UK P&I Club NV & Anor v Republica Bolivariana De Venezuela (RCGS 'Resolute') [2022] EWHC 1655 (Comm) 28 June 2022
Country
Year
2022
Summary
I INTRODUCTION
This case arises out of the total loss of a Venezuelan navy patrol vessel, the BVL Naiguatá GC-23, in early 2020. The loss was the result of a collision with the RCGS Resolute, an ice-classed cruise liner, which engaged in tourism to Antarctica. The Resolute was insured by the first claimant, UK P&I Club NV. Following the loss Venezuela brought civil claims in 2020 in the courts of Dutch Curaçao and in Venezuela itself. In February 2021 the claimants sought an anti-suit injunction in this court against Venezuela on the basis that these claims were in breach of the arbitration clause in the contract of insurance with the Resolute's owners. In ex parte proceedings the following month this court granted an interim anti-suit injunction against Venezuela.
The main issues in these proceedings are first, whether Venezuela is bound to arbitrate in London the claims it has advanced in the Venezuelan court, and secondly, whether it is entitled to immunity under the State Immunity Act 1978 from a permanent anti-suit injunction to restrain it from pursuing both sets of foreign proceedings. If this court were to grant a permanent anti-suit injunction it seems that it would represent the first time that the English courts have taken such action directly against a state without the state having somehow agreed.
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