Dooley & ors (claimants/appellants) v Castle Trust & Management Services Ltd (defendant/respondent)

Tuesday 18 October 2022

By Appellant’s Notice filed on 19 November 2021, the Claimants/Appellants appeal the Order of HHJ Russen QC dated 13th October 2021 in which he declared that the Court had no jurisdiction over the claim and made consequential Orders.

Background
Castle is a company registered in Gibraltar which operated as a professional trustee company and is the trustee of two Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pensions Schemes, (QROPS), established by Declarations of Trust. Each of the 61 Claimants joined the QROPS as members and transferred existing UK pension fund interests to the relevant scheme. Upon transfer Castle, as trustee and administrator of the QROPS held the resulting sub-finds upon trust for the member.
The Claimants brought claims against Castle under three broad headings “Joint Tortfeasorship Claims” by which it is alleged that third parties committed the tort of common law negligence or breach of regulatory or statutory rules giving rise to a statutory action pursuant to s150/138D of the Financial Services & Markets Act (FSMA) 2000 and the Defendant knew or ought to have known that the conduct was negligent, and/or in breach of the regulatory/statutory rules; “Section 27 Claims”, by which it is alleged that there is a statutory cause of action pursuant to s27 of the FSMA 2000; and “Personal Claims”, premised on the primary liability of Castle as opposed to any secondary wrongdoing.
By application dated 18 May 2021 the Defendants successfully challenged the court’s jurisdiction to entertain the claims and the Claimants now appeal that decision.

View hearing:

Part 1

Part 2