Natasha Dzameh represented the successful Claimant in Lloyd v Hayward & Another [2024] EWHC 2033 (Ch), defending against an application to strike out the claimant’s claim for abuse of process on the basis of allegations of warehousing the litigation. This was a hotly contested application involving numerous authorities, the judgment referring to somewhere in the region of 25 authorities (including a plethora of Court of Appeal decisions as well as those of the House of Lords and the Privy Council (Bahamas)).
This decision demonstrates the difficulty involved in establishing that litigation has been warehoused and that warehousing constitutes abuse in the circumstances of a particular case. It also casts doubt on the analysis of Richards J in Watford Control in relation to the supposed “compelling reasons” test and asserts that Board of Governors of the National Heart and Chest Hospital v Chettle (1998) 30 HLR 618 cannot constitute a binding precedent as to the correct response to Grovit abuse under the CPR.
This case also serves as a reminder to solicitors that conduct is important in litigation. They would be wise to note the comments of HHJ Keyser KC at [10] and [28] of this decision in which he refers to being “frankly unimpressed” by the “misleading selectivity” of a paragraph in a solicitor’s witness statement as well as the decision not to respond to some pre-action correspondence and refers to the tone of a response letter during the litigation as being “hardly appropriate”.
A summary of the case can be found here and the full judgment can be found here.
Natasha is a commercial and chancery barrister and mediator who particularly enjoys tactical applications and is frequently instructed on complicated, high value matters. Details of Natasha’s practice can be found here with more in depth information available on each sub-area.
Natasha is described in Chambers UK as follows: “Natasha’s technical expertise is phenomenal”, “A really tenacious and sharp barrister”, “really clear in terms of her advocacy, good on her feet and can be really forceful when needed”, “very thorough and quick on her feet in court. Her submissions are excellent, and she is able to respond to comments by the judge and opponents in excellent time”.
If you would like to instruct Natasha please contact her clerks on: c[email protected]