Candy brothers win appeal against “novel” form of freezing injunction

07/10/16

The Court of Appeal (Jackson LJ and Gloster LJ) yesterday allowed an appeal by the Candy brothers and CPC Holdings Limited against a modified form of freezing order granted against them by Nugee J on 29 April 2016.  The Court discharged the injunction with immediate effect, with reasons for the decision to be given later, and refused an application by the claimants (Mark Holyoake and Hotblack Holdings Limited) for a continuation of the injunction pending a possible application for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The order originally made by Nugee J had received wide-spread publicity as a new form of Mareva injunction, which Nugee J had described as “novel”.  It has commonly been called a “notification injunction”, since the standard form wording for a freezing order had been altered so as to permit the respondents to deal with their assets by giving notice to the claimants.  Nugee J therefore regarded it as less intrusive than a conventional freezing order.  The Court of Appeal’s analysis of the notification injunction and the basis on which the Judge had granted it is likely to be of general interest.