Liverpool saga back in court to block Texas injunction
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The battle for Liverpool Football Club will hit the High Court again this morning with the club’s board calling on Mr Justice Floyd to grant an anti-suit injunction.
The battle for Liverpool Football Club will hit the High Court again this morning with the club’s board calling on Mr Justice Floyd to grant an anti-suit injunction.
Overnight, the club’s current owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett were awarded a temporary restraining order (TRO) by a Texan court, preventing the sale.
An anti-suit injunction granted in London would prevent the US owners from taking any further action to make the TRO permanent. If they were to
continue proceedings were an anti-suit injunction granted, it would mean that the owners would be in breach of a High Court injunction.
This is the latest twist in the ongoing battle for ownership of the club. It is due to repay the Royal Bank of Scotland £237m tomorrow (15 October) or face administration.
Yesterday the High Court granted RBS a mandatory relief injunction forcing Hicks and Gillett to reconstitute the club’s board and allow it to be sold to US bidders New England Sport Ventures (NESV) (13 October 2010).
Erskine Chambers’ Richard Snowden QC was instructed by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer partner Patrick Swain to act for the bank.
It is understood the pair will be back in court this morning along with One Essex court’s Lord Grabiner QC, representing the club’s board, in a bid to block the US TRO. If successful the injunction will be served to the Texan court this morning and the TRO dismissed.
Baker & McKenzie partner Graham Blair, who heads the firm’s litigation practice in Houston, is advising the Liverpool FC board in Texas.
It is understood that the owners secured the Texan injunction while lawyers convened to discuss the club’s sale to New England Sports Ventures (NESV), owners of the US Red Sox.
Slaughter and May is acting for Liverpool on the sale, fielding a team led by corporate rainmaker Nigel Boardman and also featuring corporate partner Mark Zerdin (6 October 2010).
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Readers' comments (11)
mark | 14-Oct-2010 11:42 am
i believe the americans are being selfish they obviously didnt care about are clubs future there only concerned about loosing money, i hope they lose today!
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Anonymous | 14-Oct-2010 11:50 am
I am praying that God will help Liverpool fc to overcome this injunction from Texas. So that the team will not go administration.
God bless Liverpool FC
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Mr Snuffleupagus | 14-Oct-2010 12:03 pm
And Americans wonder why the world hates them...
Can you imagine a Liverpool court granting an injunction over a dispute over the ownership of the Houston Oilers (as they were once known)?
This presumption that US courts have jurisdiction over almost everything that goes on in the world really is repellent.
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Fingers Crossed | 14-Oct-2010 12:08 pm
9-point deduction. Come on!
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Blue Nose | 14-Oct-2010 4:20 pm
LOL "Fingers Crossed" re:deduction.
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John | 14-Oct-2010 4:38 pm
Good old British subservience (I could use another word, but shall remain polite) to Uncle Sam. I am sick of the USA exercising jurisdiction over all the world.
Why are Hicks and Gillett entitled to make a profit? They wrecked the club on a speculative venture, and thoroughly deserve to lose money.
Hoping this doesn't get me extradited to Guantanamo Bay - my hope is that as we don't have a Labour government any more, Britain may be a little more respectful of its own citizens' interests!
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Anonymous | 14-Oct-2010 5:26 pm
Are the owners being required to sell their shares in the club? If so, aren't the shares personal property and therefore subject to the local laws of wherever the owners are resident?
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teddyp | 14-Oct-2010 5:42 pm
why are these idiots so jealous we wont go down, maybe because we are still the most successful team in England.
End our special friendship with america, its run from israel anyway.
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Anonymous | 15-Oct-2010 3:41 am
US States vary widely in the matters they'll take jurisdiction over. Texas has a notoriously broadly worded statute that allows it to take jurisdiction over suits which have little or no connection to the State. But blaming 'America' for this is as silly as using the Italian courts as an example of the speed and efficiency of 'European' justice.
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Russell's Teapot | 15-Oct-2010 4:50 am
Tom Hicks and George Gillet are partners in a company that owns a US based holding company that owns a British holding company that owns Liverpool Football Club and Athletics Grounds. It is the British holding company that is being required to sell Liverpool FC because the Bank it borrowed the money from want's it's money back.
I think.
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