Judgment Hand Down: Haimen V Cithara 

The Court of Appeal of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court has released its judgment in Haimen Zhongnan Investment Development (International) Co. Ltd. v Cithara Global Multi-Strategy SPC.

The Applicant company had filed an appeal seeking to reverse the judgment of the BVI Commercial Court and an application seeking a stay of execution of the order appointing liquidators over the company pending the determination of the appeal.

The Applicant contended that: (a) there was a probability that its group would collapse, and its attempted restructuring efforts would fail if the stay was not granted; and (b) that it had strong grounds of appeal which should be taken into account in considering a stay.

The Court of Appeal rejected the application for a stay. The Applicant’s evidence for the first ground was “tenuous”. The Court accepted the Respondent’s submissions that the strength of the Applicant’s appeal was insufficient to warrant granting a stay, noting that they went “a long way in derailing the applicant’s evaluation of the strength of its appeal”.

South Square’s Peter Burgess appeared for the successful Respondent, instructed by Eleanor Morgan and Sophie Christodoulou at Mourant.

Read the full judgment here.