23.09.2026
PCB Byrne has successfully resisted an appeal in the Court of Appeal on a jurisdictional question of real importance to civil fraud and asset recovery practitioners: can a judgment creditor serve a stand-alone worldwide freezing order on third parties abroad, on the basis that it is a claim made under section 37(1) of the Senior Courts Act 1981? In Gilbert v Broadoak Private Finance Ltd [2026] EWCA Civ 1172, handed down on 22 September 2026, the Court of Appeal (Foxton LJ, with whom Miles LJ and Jeremy Baker LJ agreed) held that it cannot.
Background
The claimants, Mr Benjamin Gilbert and his company BG Projects Limited, lent substantial sums to Broadoak Private Finance Limited, an English commercial property lender, and obtained judgment for the unpaid balance. To help enforce that judgment, they obtained a without-notice worldwide freezing order against Mrs Shahena Bleakley and King Street Capital SL (“the Chabra Respondents”), both based in Spain. The order was made under the Chabra jurisdiction, which allows the court to freeze assets held by a third party against whom the applicant has no cause of action, where there is good reason to suppose those assets would be available to satisfy a judgment against the defendant.
In January 2026, David Quest KC, sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge in the London Circuit Commercial Court, held that none of the jurisdictional gateways relied on by the claimants to serve the worldwide freeing order on the Chabra Respondents in Spain was available. These gateways, set out in paragraph 3.1 of Practice Direction 6B to the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR), define the types of claim the English court will permit to be served on a defendant outside England and Wales. He revoked permission to serve out of the jurisdiction and discharged the original freezing order.
The Court of Appeal
The appeal turned on gateway (20)(a) of CPR PD 6B paragraph 3.1, which allows service out of a claim made "under an enactment which allows proceedings to be brought". The claimants argued that section 37 of the Senior Courts Act 1981 was such an enactment. The Court disagreed. It concluded that the gateway covers statutes that create a specific claim, such as section 423 of the Insolvency Act 1986, whereas section 37 simply confirms the court's general power to grant injunctions. Accepting the argument would have significantly widened the English courts' jurisdiction over parties abroad.
The Court of Appeal also refused the Claimants application for permission to appeal on alternative grounds based on the Injunction and Property Gateway (sub-sections 4a and 9 of paragraph 3.1 of CPR PD6B).
Why it matters
The decision confirms that a judgment creditor cannot reach overseas third parties through a stand-alone worldwide freezing order application. There must be an underlying claim which falls within the terms of one of the jurisdictional gateways set out in paragraph 3.1 of Practice Direction 6B of the CPR to support the worldwide freezing order.
Nick Ractliff and Yana Ahlden of PCB Byrne acted for the successful Chabra Respondents, instructing Sam Goodman of Twenty Essex as Counsel.
For the judgment, click Gilbert & Anor v Broadoak Private Finance Ltd.
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