Steven Coren |
Model AppealContact Steven |
Old Court Chambers has recently helped to win permission to appeal from the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, instructed by Speechly Bircham LLP on behalf of its client supermodel and businesswoman Elle Macpherson, in Simpson & another v Light House Living Limited & another.
At issue, in these proceedings, is whether approximately £2.5m deposited by Miss Macpherson with the collapsed bank Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander (Isle of Man) Limited has been ‘set off’, in the bank’s ongoing liquidation, against approximately £7.8m itself owed, by Miss Macpherson’s nominee company, to the bank.
The Isle of Man High Court had previously held that the bank deposits had been ‘set off’; then the Staff of Government Division (SOGD) held, on appeal, that they had not. The Privy Council has determined that the appeal of Miss Macpherson and her nominee company, against the SOGD decision, may now proceed to be heard.
The case raises a legal issue apparently not previously decided anywhere. As Deemster Moran QC noted in his judgment: “In this case, for the first time anywhere in the world (I am told), where this form of Bankruptcy Set-Off provision exists, the facts have thrown up a novel situation and question.” Relatively few cases from the Isle of Man reach the Privy Council, with only four reported decisions in the past five years.
Miss Macpherson’s civil litigation team at Old Court Chambers, instructed by Speechly Bircham LLP, includes Advocate Louise Byrne (last before the Privy Council in MacLeod v MacLeod, in 2008) and Advocate Steven Coren, together with Leading Counsel John McDonnell QC.
