Contempt of court—Committal—Case management

Court of Appeal, Civil Division, Sir Andrew Morritt C, Moses & Gross LJJ, 28 Nov 2011

A decision whether or not to leave over for future consideration extant allegations of contempt and whether allegations of contempt should be determined before, during or after a main trial are matters for the trial judge’s case management discretion.

Stephen Smith QC and Tim Akkouh (instructed by Hogan Lovells International LLP) for the bank. Duncan Matthews QC and George Hayman (instructed by Addleshaw Goddard LLP) for the defendant.

The claimant was a bank in Kazakhstan. The defendant was the former chairman of the bank who was accused by the bank of widespread misappropriation of its funds. Claims were issued against the defendant in England claiming a total sum in excess of US$1.8bn. The defendant denied the claims and claimed that they were politically motivated. On 21 August 2009, the bank was granted an ex parte interim freezing order against the