Landmark judgment from Hong Kong Court of Appeal on the effect of exclusive jurisdiction clauses in insolvency proceedings
The Hong Kong commercial and insolvency disputes team acted for the successful appellant in Guy Kwok-Hung Lam -v- Tor Asia Credit Master Fund LP CACV 393/2021 [2022] HKCA 1297.
On 30 August 2022, the Court of Appeal delivered a judgment dismissing a bankruptcy petition against the bankrupt debtor (the appellant) on the basis there was a ‘dispute’ between the petitioning creditor and the bankrupt debtor which should be first determined in accordance with the parties’ agreement in an exclusive jurisdiction clause in the related loan agreement, which provided that the agreement would be governed by New York law and conferred exclusive jurisdiction on the New York and US courts for the purpose of ‘all legal proceedings arising out of or relating to the [agreement] …or the transaction contemplated hereby’.
