Following the legal precedent created in early 2009 by our firm in the field of interim orders in aid of foreign proceedings, our litigation team recently succeeded in obtaining an interim freezing order and a discovery order under the International Commercial Arbitration Law of 1987 and EC Regulation 44/2001 pursuant to which the respondent company was ordered not to alienate any of its assets, and to disclose all its assets by means of an affidavit.
Our application was made to the District Court of Nicosia on behalf of a major Russian bank against a Cyprus-based corporate debtor.
The application, which was filed in aid of foreign arbitration proceedings, was made without notice to the respondent due to the risk of alienation of the assets and the urgent need to protect them.
A striking feature of this case was that the rights of the bank as lender were assigned to it by virtue of an assignment entered into by the bank and the initial lenders.
The above case illustrates the willingness of the Cyprus courts to make interim orders where appropriate to preserve assets in aid of foreign or local arbitration and court proceedings. Our litigation specialists have pioneered the use of these orders to protect clients’ interests pending the resolution of disputes. A detailed analysis of the use of interim orders can be found here.
For further information contact Panayiotis Neocleous or Costas Stamatiou. |
