The High Court has dismissed a claim by the assignee of an investment fund against a financial advisory firm (and associated parties) for losses arising out of alleged fraudulent misrepresentations made in relation to the financial position and prospects of a business which had induced the investment fund to subscribe for £11 million in loan notes in 2011 and to later make a follow-on investment of £4.25 million: European Real Estate Debt Fund v Treon [2021] EWHC 2866 (Ch).
The decision highlights the difficulties for claimants in pursuing fraudulent misrepresentation claims where they do not satisfy the requirements of section 32(1) Limitation Act 1980 (LA 1980), especially where it is clear that the claimant discovered the fraud or could with reasonable diligence have discovered it before the expiry of the statutory limitation period.
In the present case, the court found that the claim was statute-barred. The court highlighted that although it is well known that fraudsters cannot avoid liability for fraud by pleading that their victim failed to take reasonable care to detect the fraud, this did not necessarily mean that claims based on fraud brought outside the primary limitation period were entitled to invoke the special statutory postponement of the limitation period. If a claimant could reasonably have discovered the fraud by virtue of events and circumstances occurring before it actually suffered a loss, there was no principled rationale for allowing it the indulgence of more than the normal six years’ period to bring its claim.
For more information see this post on our Banking Litigation Notes blog.
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