The Royal Court agreed at the end of last year that Elia Anneli Black had a case to answer in her own right.
But in a judgment issued this week Commissioner Howard Page concludes that ‘it would not be fair and just’ for Mrs Black to be asked to defend her actions, partly because of the length of time since the events took place (13 years), but also because a settlement agreed in 2004 by the Jersey Financial Services Commission (JFSC) draws a line under two of the parties to the original case – Cater Allen Trust Company (Jersey) Ltd and one of its former directors, Peter Stuart Langton.
The long-running case has already cost the JFSC in excess of a million pounds and the question now is whether they should continue to pursue the case in the interest of investors, or whether the costs outweigh the potential returns.
The essence of the case concerns a currency investment scheme, the Delta Scheme, in which investors lost an estimated £30 million in the early 1990s.
The JFSC has been pursuing the respondents for over five years, on the basis of alleged misconduct, including reckless statements and forecasts that were ‘misleading, false and deceptive’.
In 2002 the Bailiff, Sir Philip Bailhache, ruled that the action had run out of time, but the Commission subsequently referred it to the Court of Appeal, who reversed that decision.
Then in January last year the Commission announced that it had concluded ‘a full and final settlement’ with Mr Langton and Abbey National – the firm that had acquired Cater Allen Trust – which brought to an end all legal proceedings with those two parties.
The terms of the settlement were never made public.
However, that decision continues to affect the other parties in the case, namely Mrs Black, her husband Alistair Pollock Pedersen Black, and A P Black in Jersey and in London.
In this latest judgment, issued several months after the last Royal Court hearing, Commissioner Page concludes: ‘We are compelled in the end to conclude that it would be an abuse of process – or, as we would prefer to put it, that it would not be fair and just – for Mrs Black to be retained as a respondent to these proceedings.
‘We reach this conclusion on the basis of a combination of considerations: the late stage at which she has been joined; the difficulty of being able to discern with confidence the extent of her involvement and the strength of the case against her; and the bar on any possibility of joining Cater Allen Trust (Jersey) or Mr Langton as third parties to the claim against her.
JFSC director general David Carse said no decision would be made about any future action by the Commission until they had consulted their legal advisers, law firm Carey Olsen.
