Non-exclusive jurisdiction under Brussels I Recast: a logical but odd result.

Cockerill J’s decision last month in UCP Plc v Nectrus Ltd [2018] EWHC 380 (Comm) may well encourage some lawyers to groan further about the effects of EU law on questions of jurisdiction. The background was a corporate dispute of spectacular dreariness: suffice it to say Nectrus alleged UCP owed it several million, while UCP had a claim for damages against Nectrus arising out of the same events. The relevant contract contained a non-exclusive English jurisdiction clause. Nectrus sued in the Isle of Man: a month or so later UCP sued in England. Nectrus sought to argue forum non conveniens to remove the hearing to Douglas. UCP argued that the English court not only should not but could not decline jurisdiction. It observed that the court had jurisdiction under Art.25 of Brussels I Recast, and that the limited lis alibi pendens provisions in Arts.33 and 34 were not applicable (since they only affected jurisdiction under Arts.4, 7, 8 and 9 and not jurisdiction by virtue of agreement). Cockerill J agreed, following dicta from Popplewell J in IMS SA v Capital Oil & Gas Industries [2016] 4 WLR 163  and the IISTL’s own Peter Macdonald-Eggers QC in Citicorp Trustee Company Ltd v Al-Sanea [2017] EWHC 2845 (Comm). Logical, certainly, in the light of the acepted interpretation of Brussels I. But it does have the effect that a non-exclusive jurisdiction clause now means not so much “You can, but don’t have to, sue in England” as “You can sue me outside England, but if you do I can still insist on proceedings taking place here.” Not quite the same thing, most lawyers will (one suspects) conclude.