The London office of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP has successfully represented clients in two separate disputes heard in the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands. The cases are the latest in a series of high profile matters in the Caribbean on which the international law firm has acted.
The first of the Cayman cases involved Debevoise client Ace Limited and is related to its long running dispute with Liberia’s Insurance Commissioner over losses arising from the Liberian Civil Wars. Having previously successfully argued for the case brought against Ace Limited in the Cayman Islands to be dismissed, Ace Limited is now pursuing the third party funders of the litigation for costs. This dispute is ongoing but in a recent hearing Debevoise successfully defeated jurisdictional challenges to its application and also successfully argued that its application for costs proceed on the indemnity rather than that standard basis, so allowing for a higher costs award if successful.
The second of the Cayman cases involved Debevoise client Dart Realty, and regarded opposition to a major redevelopment project planned for a stretch of the Cayman coast. A request for a judicial review of the redevelopment was filed by a local activist group. Such a review may have had a significant impact on the project. Debevoise argued the on behalf of Dart Realty that the application for judicial review was without merit and out of time. The judge agreed on 24 April 2013, and so the application for judicial review failed.
Debevoise’s European and Asian chair of litigation, Lord Goldsmith QC, was the lead advocate on both cases. The Debevoise team also included Jane Rahman.
The two cases are the latest for Debevoise in the region. The firm also recently acted for the St Kitts Government in an ongoing constitutional challenge brought by the opposition in the National Assembly, as well as acting for the British Caribbean Bank in its Caribbean Courts of Justice hearing regarding a bilateral investment treaty dispute with Belize. Debevoise is also currently acting for the International Commission of Jurists, the Commonwealth Lawyers Association, and the Human Dignity Trust in a Belize Supreme Court action challenging a law that criminalises homosexuality in the country.
Debevoise & Plimpton LLP is a leading international law firm, representing a wide range of clients in transactions and disputes around the world. Founded in 1931, the firm has offices in New York, Washington, D.C., London, Paris, Frankfurt, Moscow, Hong Kong and Shanghai.
0+
