Med Marine v Castillo

A party to an exclusive jurisdiction agreement is ordinarily entitled to enforcement of that agreement by an anti-suit injunction. The court should grant relief unless strong reasons justify refusing to enforce the contractual choice of forum. The injunction operates in personam against the contracting party. It does not purport to interfere with the proceedings or authority of the foreign court.

The claimant, a tugboat-services company, applied for an anti-suit injunction to restrain the defendants from pursuing proceedings and an appeal in Turkey, contrary to an exclusive English jurisdiction clause in a booking note. The underlying dispute arose from an incident involving the manoeuvring of a vessel in a Turkish port.

The English Commercial Court had already dismissed a challenge to English jurisdiction, and permission to appeal had been refused. The Istanbul Commercial Court had also accepted the validity of the English jurisdiction agreement, but that decision was appealed. The defendants did not attend the hearing of the injunction application. The central issue was whether the timing and progress of the Turkish proceedings justified refusing relief.

1. Application granted. The defendants were restrained by anti-suit injunction from continuing to pursue proceedings in Turkey in breach of the exclusive English jurisdiction clause.
2. A party has a contractual right to have an exclusive jurisdiction clause enforced. In the absence of strong reasons, the court is entitled to enforce that clause by injunction. The defendants had advanced no sufficient reason for disregarding the agreement.
3. The fact that the application was heard after the Turkish appeal had been allowed did not prevent relief. The delay was unfortunate, but it was not attributable to the claimant, and the defendants had continued pursuing the Turkish proceedings despite the contractual choice of English jurisdiction.
4. The injunction was directed against the defendants personally. It did not interfere with the process of the Turkish courts; its effect was to require the defendants to comply with their contractual obligations.