Last Friday the Commercial Court gave judgment in favour of PCB Byrne’s client, Mr Walid Giahmi, in his application to set aside Orders permitting service out of the jurisdiction on him of claims commenced by the Libyan Investment Authority by ruling that they are time-barred. Mr Giahmi has always maintained that the claims made against him (as well as other earlier claims) should never have been brought; and once again he has been proven right.

In its finding that the claims were time-barred, a central question was the issue of loss of memory of a corporate entity and whether the Libyan Investment Authority could demonstrate that it could not, with reasonable diligence, have discovered the facts necessary to plead its claim prior to the limitation cut-off date.

The Court found that once knowledge of a fact is attributed to a corporate entity such as the Libyan Investment Authority for limitation purposes “it is to be treated as remaining within that entity’s knowledge even if the relevant individual subsequently forgets it or leaves the company”.

Mr Giahmi’s application was successful because it was shown from the accumulation of knowledge acquired over a number of years that the Libyan Investment Authority had been put on notice for the need to make reasonable enquiries and that following such enquiries it could have discovered the necessary facts to plead its claim prior to the limitation cut-off date.

These are the second proceedings that the Libyan Investment Authority has brought against Mr Walid Giahmi which PCB Byrne has successfully had set aside at an interlocutory stage.

The PCB Byrne team comprised Anthony Riem, Trevor Mascarenhas, Jonothan Gould, Joshua Oxley and Jack Beevers 

A copy of the Judgement can be read here..[2021] EWHC 2684 Comm