AAA and Others v Unilever PLC and Unilever Tea Kenya LDT [2017] EWHC 371 (QB); International personal injury & justiciability
In this post, Philip Mead of 12 King's Bench Walk considers the third decision in a series of African cases where complex group action personal injury claims have been sought to be litigated in the English Courts, following Lungowe v Vedanta Resources Plc...and Okpabi v Royal Dutch Shell...The Claimants were Kenyan nationals who were the victims of inter-ethnic violence carried out by armed criminals on the Plantation (being a tea plantation operated by the Second Defendant, a Kenyan registered company) after the Presidential election in Kenya in 2007. The First Defendant, an English registered company was the ultimate holding company of the Second Defendant....The Judge followed the approach of Coulson J in Vedanta. The following issues in the judgment are of interest to practitioners involved in international personal injury claims: (1) granting a stay against an English domiciled company on the basis that the claim is inherently weak or on case management grounds; (2) whether there was a real issue to be tried between the Claimants and the First Defendant; (3) was it reasonable for the issue between the First Defendant and the Claimants to be tried in England and Wales; (4) whether the Second Defendant was a necessary and proper party to the Claimants' claims against the First Defendant; (5) whether the courts of England and Wales are the proper forum for the claim against the Second Defendant; (6) whether the courts of England and Wales are the appropriate forum...