Charles Samek QC and James Bickford Smith have concluded a two-day trial under the Shorter Trial Scheme before the Hon. Mrs Justice Cockerill in the Commercial Court. The claimant, BNP Paribas SA, is asking the English court to make a suite of declarations alleged to track or derive from an ISDA Master Agreement entered into between it and Charles’ and James’ client, Trattamento Rifiuti Metropolitani SpA, a company incorporated to design, build and operate a waste-to-energy plant near Turin, Italy. The issues at trial involved issues of contractual construction; contractual estoppel; issue estoppel and abuse of process; and the scope and exercise of the Court’s discretion to grant declaratory relief, particularly in the context of related ongoing foreign proceedings. A further update will be provided once judgment, which has been reserved, will be handed down and made public in due course. Charles and James are instructed by Robin Henry and Gurpreet Chhokar at Collyer Bristow LLP.
