15 February 2021
Stephen Lacey
Corporate Governance - Crisis Management - Dispute Resolution - Environment and Climate Change - ESG - Business and human rights - Environmental issues - Risk and governance - Collective redress - Collective action - Collective redress - Group action - Group litigation - Group litigation order - Mass claims - Representative action
UK: UKSC decides mass tort claim against UK parent arising from subsidiary’s activity is arguable
In Okpabi v Royal Dutch Shell [2021] UKSC 3, the UK Supreme Court allowed an appeal against a Court of Appeal ruling that a tort claim against a parent company for environmental damage allegedly caused by one of its subsidiaries was not arguable. The Court of Appeal made significant procedural errors in assessing this.
Coupled with the UKSC’s earlier decision in Vedanta, the case may further increase the litigation risk that UK domiciled parent companies face before domestic courts as, at the jurisdiction stage, arguability will largely be assessed on the claimants' pleaded case.
We take a closer look at the ruling in Okpabi in a briefing note that you can access via the link below.
