Judgment handed down in Salinas Pliego v Astor Asset Management 3 Ltd [2025] EWHC 2968 (Comm)

On 13 November 2025 the Commercial Court struck out an application for summary judgment on a US$315m fraud claim due to Cs’ abuse of process: Salinas Pliego v Astor Asset Management 3 Ltd [2025] EWHC 2968 (Comm).

The proceedings relate to a US $315m fraud claim. Cs attempted to obtain information from Ds’ former solicitor, referred to as ‘X’. Cs instructed private investigators, who deceived X by pretending to be a potential new client. The meetings between X and the investigator were secretly filmed; Cs obtained information from X about the proceedings including Ds’ litigation strategy and perceived merits of the claim. Cs then deployed the information obtained from X as part of their summary judgment application.

The Judge (Stephen Houseman KC) considered that Cs’ conduct was abusive and amounted to “cheating the system with a view to undermining the level playing field”. As a result, the Judge struck out Cs’ summary judgment application and indicated that Cs ought to pay Ds’ costs on the indemnity basis.

Simon Davenport KC and Daniel Khoo acted for the successful defendants in resisting summary judgment, instructed by PCB Byrne LLP.

The full judgment is available here.