In the case of Ayhan Sezer v Agroinvest [2024] EWHC 479 (Comm), HHJ Pearce, sitting as a judge of the High Court in the London Circuit Commercial Court, had to grapple with the apparent tension between an obiter dictum of Lord Sumption in Bunge SA v Nidera [2015] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 469 and earlier decisions of the Courts setting out the approach to the identification of the date of default for the purposes of the GAFTA standard form default clause in the context of a claim for damages based on an anticipatory (and not actual) repudiatory breach of contract.

In an extensive Judgment of over 200 pages, Mr Justice Henshaw rejected jurisdiction challenges brought by the Defendant international reinsurers on the basis of Russian exclusive jurisdiction clauses (EJCs). Finding that the mostly western owners and lessors of over 200 aircraft were very unlikely to receive a fair trial in Russia, he refused to order a stay of the English proceedings.

In an extensive Judgment in a case named as one of The Lawyer's Top 20 Cases of 2024, Mr Justice Henshaw rejected jurisdiction challenges brought by the Defendant international reinsurers on the basis of Russian exclusive jurisdiction clauses. Finding that the mostly western owners and lessors of over 200 aircraft were very unlikely to receive a fair trial in Russia, he refused to order a stay of the English proceedings.