Court of Appeal confirms decision of the Irish High Court to dismiss Russian insurer’s challenge to aviation insurance claim being litigated in Ireland

Speed Read

In a judgment delivered on 6 December 2023, the Irish Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal of a decision of the Irish High Court in respect of a motion brought by one of the defendants in aviation insurance legal proceedings, seeking to have service of proceedings set aside for lack of jurisdiction. The proceedings concern a claim by an Irish aircraft lessor for payment under insurance policies covering two aircraft that were leased to a Russian airline. The lessor has been unable to recover the aircraft since the invasion of Ukraine and the insurers have not paid out under the insurance policies. A&L Goodbody is acting for the Irish aircraft lessor in this case.

The Court of Appeal decision confirms the ex tempore decision of McDonald J in the commercial division of the High Court to dismiss the Russian insurer’s motion on the grounds that Irish Courts have jurisdiction to determine the Irish lessor’s claim against both the European and Russian insurers.

Decision

The Court of Appeal confirmed that in order to be successful in its appeal, the appellant had to discharge the “heavy burden of demonstrating that the High Court judge had fallen into error such that the decision was untenable.” This is in contrast to the burden of proof in the High Court which lay with the plaintiffs to establish a basis for Irish jurisdiction.

The judgment of the Court of Appeal includes an analysis of the grounds upon which Irish jurisdiction had been established in the High Court and the Court of Appeal concluded that the Russian insurer had failed to identify any analytical error in the judgment of the High Court. On that basis, the conclusion of the Court of Appeal was that there was no substance to the appeal and it was dismissed.

The judgment of the Court of Appeal paves the way for the Irish lessor to continue its proceedings against all of the insurers under the relevant policy.

Further details of the decision of the High Court can be found in our previous article, including analysis of the requisite elements for a successful application for service out of the jurisdiction.

For further information, please contact Enda Hurley, Partner, Cecelia Joyce, Senior Associate, Hannah Shaw, Senior Associate, or your usual ALG Disputes & Investigations team contact.

Date published: 7 December 2023