Partner Ned Beale and Solicitor Sam Robinson from the Litigation team at international law firm Trowers & Hamlins have acted for the All Party Parliamentary Party Group (APPG) on Fair Business Banking in its intervention in the Supreme Court case of Pakistan International Airlines Corp v Times Travel, a landmark case for the development of the doctrine of lawful act duress.
The APPG's intervention ensured the Court, as it considers its judgment, has been presented with the position of the many borrowers who have felt forced by their banks to agree unfair terms or face foreclosure. In particular, it draws attention to the report under section 166 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 into the Global Restructuring Group of Royal Bank of Scotland and the HBoS Reading fraud.
The case is the first time that lawful act duress has come before the Supreme Court. The Court will be considering what the ingredients of economic duress are and if it can arise where lawful threats support a demand that a party genuinely believes it is entitled to make.
Ned Beale commented:
“Times Travel will be a landmark judgment, both because it is the first time lawful act duress has come before the Supreme Court, and also because the court will hear from the parties in Law Debenture Trust v Ukraine UKSC 2018/0192, which considers unlawful act duress in the context of the state of Ukraine being compelled to enter banking contracts by allegedly unlawful threats made by the Russian Federation. This means the Times Travel judgment will address all aspects of the duress doctrine.”
