Factual findings
22 On 30 March 2023 and 26 July 2023, orders were made by Justice Lee of this Court, who was case managing the Greensill Proceedings, that the Greensill Proceedings be case managed together.
23 The Greensill Proceedings have been subject to numerous Case Management Hearings. The scope of discovery has been a central issue at the hearings.
24 On 30 March 2023, Justice Lee made the following orders in the Greensill Proceedings (excluding the Delta Proceeding which was filed at a later date) which relate to the sharing, production and use of documents disclosed in those proceedings.
Sharing of documents
14. All parties provide copies of any pleadings, requests for further and better particulars (including requests for documents referred to in pleadings) and responses to such requests to the parties to each of the Proceedings at the time that the other parties to the proceeding are served.
15. Documents produced in any Proceeding, whether by any party or by any third party under compulsion, may also be:
(a) used by any party in this proceeding in any of the other Proceedings; and/or
(b) produced, or provided, by any party to the Proceeding, to any party to any of the other Proceedings who is not a party to the Proceeding, for their use in any Proceeding.
16. Each party produce to the parties in each Proceeding all documents produced by that party in a Proceeding:
(a) in the case of documents so produced prior to the making of these Orders but not provided to a party, within 10 business days after the making of these Orders; and
(b) for any documents so produced after the making of these Orders, concurrently with production by that party of those documents in a Proceeding.
25 On 5 September 2023, GBAG, Dr Frege, Marsh Ltd and Marsh Pty Ltd entered into a confidential Standstill Deed to toll limitation periods in respect of certain claims that GBAG and Dr Frege may have against Marsh, including claims relating to the GBAG Proceedings (the Standstill Deed).
26 On 30 October 2023, Justice Lee ordered that the parties to the Greensill Proceedings (excluding GCUK and GCPL) provide standard discovery in the Greensill Proceedings in tranches on dates to be fixed at the "Discovery Conference".
27 On 7 November 2023, Credit Suisse filed Amended Statements of Claim, joining Marsh Ltd to each of the Credit Suisse Proceedings.
28 On 21 December 2023, at the Discovery Conference, Justice Lee ordered that the 30 October orders be amended so that certain parties to the Greensill Proceedings (including GBAG and Marsh Ltd) would be required to provide standard discovery by way of tranches on specific dates.
29 At the same Discovery Conference, Justice Lee directed the parties as follows:
... people just discover documents in accordance with the usual course. If they want a suppression or confidentiality order when the documents are admitted into evidence, they can seek it. And, prior to that, to the extent documents are given to people, it's subject to the Hearne v Street undertaking.
(Emphasis added.)
30 At the same Discovery Conference, Mr Braham SC, appearing on behalf of BCC and Tokio Marine, drew the Court's attention to orders 14 to 16 made on 30 March 2023 (set out above). Mr Braham SC submitted that it was necessary for the 30 March 2023 orders to be varied to include the Delta Proceeding (which was filed after 30 March 2023). Mr Braham SC reminded the Court that the purpose of these orders was "Just to deal with a Harman - release from a Harman undertaking" (see Harman v Secretary of State for the Home Department [1983] 1 AC 280). Justice Lee then made orders to bring the Delta Proceeding under the same regime as set out in orders 14 to 16 made on 30 March 2023.
31 Paragraph 6 of the Orders made by Justice Lee on 21 December 2023 required discovery to be provided in an electronic format in accordance with the electronic discovery protocol appended to the Orders at Annexure A. Clause 7.1 of the electronic discovery protocol (at Annexure A to the 21 December Orders) provided:
every page of every Hard Copy and Standard File electronic document is to be visibly numbered on the top right-hand corner of the page in one of the following number formats: PPP.BBB.FFF.DDD or PPP.BBBB.FFFF.DDDD_NNNN Where: PPP is a Party code which identifies the Party which has produced the document to the Court. See Schedule 1 for a list of Valid Party codes.
32 Schedule 1 to the electronic discovery protocol listed "GBA" as a party source code for GBAG.
33 Prior to Marsh filing the Anti-suit Application, GBAG provided discovery of documents to each of the parties in the Greensill Proceedings, including to Marsh Ltd, in the following tranches:
(a) Tranche 1 on 1 March 2024;
(b) Tranche 2 on 28 March 2024;
(c) Tranche 3 on 2 May 2024;
(d) Tranche 4 on 3 June 2024; and
(e) Tranche 5 on 1 July 2024.
34 Between 1 March and 1 July 2024, GBAG produced a total of 221,027 documents to all the parties, including Marsh Ltd.
35 On 2 July 2024, Ms Fox (of QE Australia) wrote to Mr Foster (of HFW England) communicating GBAG and Dr Frege's intention to join Marsh Ltd to the GBAG Proceedings. The letter included:
For Marsh's awareness, it is not the intention of GBAG and Dr Frege to bring claims against Marsh Ltd which contradict their primary claim against Insurers. It is intended that the claims against Marsh Ltd will be brought strictly in the alternative and will be based on IAL's pleadings (against Marsh Ltd) in the GBAG Proceedings.
36 The letter enclosed a termination notice dated 2 July 2024 issued under the Standstill Deed, terminating the Standstill Period in respect of claims against Marsh Ltd arising in connection with the GBAG Proceedings. Under the Standstill Deed and the termination notice, the final day of the Standstill Period in respect of the relevant claims would be 30 days later, namely 1 August 2024. It is now common ground between the parties that the termination notice should be treated as also terminating the Standstill Deed against Marsh Pty Ltd in respect of relevant claims.
37 Mr Foster gives evidence in the First Foster Affidavit that an issue that immediately arose in relation to any attempt to join Marsh to the GBAG Proceedings was whether such an attempt would be inconsistent with the English exclusive jurisdiction clause in Marsh Ltd's standard terms of engagement. Mr Foster states that he was well aware of that clause. He also states that he was aware that Marsh Ltd had a direct letter of engagement with GBAG for the 2018-2019 year, which incorporated the terms of engagement; he was also aware that Marsh Ltd had other letters of engagements directly with GCUK, which incorporated the terms of engagement; the terms of engagement contained an "affiliates" clause that he considered extended to GBAG. Mr Foster gives the following evidence in the First Foster Affidavit:
20 In light of the matters referred to in the previous two paragraphs, following receipt of the Standstill Notice and covering letter from QE on 2 July 2024 as described above, I formed the view on the same day that Marsh would need to apply for an anti-suit injunction from the English Court.
21 By the next day (3 July 2024), I had determined, and had sought and obtained instructions, to proceed with an ex parte application (commonly referred to in England as a "without notice" application) for an anti-suit injunction, to be filed with the English Court, to restrain GBAG and Dr Frege from taking steps to join Marsh to the GBAG Proceedings in Australia (as GBAG and Dr Frege had threatened to do in the Standstill Notice and accompanying letter, as set out above). Those instructions were obtained without the review of any documents discovered by GBAG in the Greensill Proceedings. At the time of my determination, and of seeking and obtaining instructions, to bring an ex parte application, I had not reviewed any documents discovered by GBAG in the Greensill Proceedings for the purposes of the application and nor had anyone else, to my knowledge.
22 I understood from my experience as an English legal practitioner that Marsh, as a party bringing an ex parte application, owed a duty of full and frank disclosure to the English court in connection with the application. I further understood from my experience as a legal practitioner that, in order to comply with that duty, Marsh was required to disclose all material facts, whether adverse or favourable, in respect of that application to the Court, and to make enquiries before making the application in order to identify material facts that would need to be disclosed.
23 In order to satisfy that duty to the English Court, I had to consider what issues might be raised by GBAG in response to the application. It seemed to me that one potential issue was whether or not GCUK had actual (or another species of) authority to bind GBAG to the Letters of Engagement with Marsh - although, at that stage, GBAG had not denied that such authority existed. That view proved correct, as GBAG did indeed subsequently deny the existence of GCUK authority.
24 Having formed such view, and in order to comply with the duty of full and frank disclosure to the English court, I then considered (and coordinated others acting for Marsh Limited to consider) whether documents that Marsh Limited had received from GBAG through discovery given in the Greensill Proceedings were material to this issue. In this regard, and before any steps were taken to review such documents, I read the observations of Mason CJ in Esso Australia Resources Limited v Plowman (1995) 183 CLR 10. I had also read other Australian cases, being:
(a) Patrick v Capital Finance Pty Ltd (No 4) [2004] FCA 436;
(b) Hearne v Street (2008) 235 CLR 125;
(c) Cadbury Schweppes Pty Ltd v Amcor Ltd [2008] FCA 398;
(d) Deputy Commissioner of Taxation v Rennie Produce (Aust) Pty Ltd (In Liq) (2018) 260 FCR 272; and
(e) Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd v DFD Rhodes Pty Ltd (No 2) [2023] WASCA 108.
I understood that the Harman obligation did not extend to prevent the use or disclosure of documents where that was required by the process of another court.
(Emphasis added.)
38 I accept the evidence of Mr Foster in the First Foster Affidavit as set out above. Mr Foster was not required to attend for cross-examination and there does not appear to be any contrary evidence.
39 It appears from a later document that Marsh conducted searches of thousands of documents that had been discovered by GBAG and Dr Frege to Marsh Ltd in the Greensill Proceedings before commencing the Anti-suit Application. In a letter to the English Court dated 27 August 2024 (First Fox Affidavit, Exhibit MXW-1, p 3165), HFW England referred to the duty to make full and frank disclosure on a without notice application, and stated at paragraph 18:
As noted above, in accordance with that duty, searches were conducted of thousands of documents produced on disclosure in the Australian proceedings. Of those thousands, a small number of documents were assessed as requiring to be disclosed in accordance with Marsh's obligation to make full and frank disclosure. These consisted of a number of service level agreements which might be considered adverse to Marsh's position that GCUK had actual authority to bind GBAG to broking agreements and other documents which might be considered by the Court to indicate that GBAG was so bound.
(Emphasis added.)
40 Marsh did not seek or obtain a release from the Hearne v Street obligation before reviewing the discovered documents in the way described above.
41 On 29 July 2024, Marsh commenced the Anti-suit Application in the English Court. The evidence before this Court on the present application includes a copy of the First Witness Statement of Mr Foster dated 26 July 2024 (filed in support of the Anti-suit Application) (Foster Witness Statement) and Marsh's Skeleton Argument (provided to the English Court on 29 July 2024) (the Skeleton Argument).
42 On 30 July 2024, the Anti-suit Application was heard by the Honourable Mrs Justice Cockerill DBE of the English Court. The hearing commenced at 10.30 am. Approximately two hours before the commencement (i.e. at about 8.30 am London time), Mr Foster contacted Ms Fox (of QE Australia) by telephone and email to give informal notice of the application. GBAG and Dr Frege did not appear at the hearing and the application proceeded on a without notice basis. The transcript of the hearing on 30 July 2024 is in evidence before this Court on the present application.
43 The essential basis of the application was an English exclusive jurisdiction clause contained in Marsh's terms of engagement. As indicated above, for one relevant year (the 2018-2019 year), there was a letter of engagement (apparently incorporating the terms of engagement) between Marsh Ltd and GBAG itself. However, for the other relevant years, the letters of engagement (apparently incorporating the terms of engagement) were between Marsh Ltd and GCUK. In respect of those years, Marsh contended, in summary, that GBAG was bound by the terms of engagement as an "affiliate" of GCUK.
44 In the course of seeking anti-suit relief on 30 July 2024, Marsh relied on the Foster Witness Statement and the Skeleton Argument. The Foster Witness Statement and the Skeleton Argument, and the oral submissions themselves, referred to and relied on documents that had been discovered by GBAG and Dr Frege to Marsh Ltd in the Greensill Proceedings. There is no evidence to suggest that these documents were otherwise in the possession of Marsh, and I find that they were not. Marsh did not seek or obtain a release from the Hearne v Street obligation before relying on the documents in this way. Marsh did not disclose to the English Court that the source of these documents was discovery in the Greensill Proceedings.
45 It should be noted that Marsh contends that its reliance on the discovered documents was (a) to satisfy its obligation of full and frank disclosure to the English Court on a without notice application; and (b) accordingly, not subject to the Hearne v Street obligation. I will discuss these contentions later in these reasons.
46 Marsh relied on the discovered documents both specifically and generally. I will address each in turn.
47 Marsh relied on 12 specific discovered documents. These are itemised in the table in paragraph 23 of the Statement of Particulars. I find that these documents were specifically relied on by Marsh in the course of making the application for anti-suit relief on 30 July 2024. The places where these documents appear in the Foster Witness Statement and/or the Skeleton Argument are identified in the table in paragraph 28 of the Statement of Particulars. The documents were relied on in two ways. In some cases (the documents numbered 1, 2, 3 and 12 in the table), the documents were referred to on the basis that they could be considered to be adverse to Marsh's application for anti-suit relief. In other cases (the balance of the 12 documents), the documents were relied on in response to arguments that may have been raised by GBAG and Dr Frege had they had notice of the application; in particular, the documents were relied on to rebut a potential contention by GBAG and Dr Frege that GCUK lacked authority to bind GBAG to the terms of engagement.
48 For example, paragraphs 65 and 66 of the Foster Witness Statement stated in part:
65. It follows that, on each occasion when GCUK entered into an "Engagement" with [Marsh Ltd] for brokerage services, it also entered into that Engagement as agent for [GBAG], with the actual and/or apparent authority of [GBAG], and [GBAG] was bound by the relevant Terms of Engagement, including their Exclusive Jurisdiction Clause. The legal analysis in terms of actual/apparent authority, and ratification if necessary, will be further explained in [Marsh's] skeleton argument.
66. The existence of a broker-client relationship between [Marsh Ltd] and [GBAG] has been consistently acknowledged by [GBAG], and is expected to provide the basis of the action which [GBAG] has recently threatened against [Marsh Ltd] in Australia. For example:
a. In June 2020, [GBAG] filed with the ECB an "Application for eligibility of Supply Chain Finance Assets under ECB Programmes", which stated in a section entitled "4. Credit Risk & Rating" [CDF1/334-375, 347]:
"In order to obtain insurance, GB's insurance broker, Marsh Ltd., arranges credit enhancement on the payment obligation of the obligor in the form of comprehensive nonpayment insurance from insurers (rated single-A or better) which covers 100% of any shortfall in all non-payment scenarios (other than shortfalls arising expressly from nuclear disaster or war)."
(Emphasis added)
b. Following receipt of a letter from insurer BCC dated 4 August 2020, it appears that [GBAG] started preparing an internal Memorandum, the first iteration of which is dated 10 August 2020 (but unsigned), and contains the statement (translated from the German) [CDF1/376-377.3, 377.1]:
"Due to its brokerage activities, Marsh is liable to GCUK up to a maximum of GBP 10 million (Terms of Engagement, clause 7.1)."
c. On 26 October 2020, Marta Hierro Seco (Head of Credit Insurance / Collaterals, [GBAG]), emailed Lorna Croft (GCUK) in terms which acknowledged both (i) GCUK's central role in liaising with [Marsh Ltd], and (ii) GBAG's contractual relationship with [Marsh Ltd] [CDF1/378-379]: …
49 Each of the documents referred to in the above extract was discovered by GBAG in the Greensill Proceedings. Paragraph 66 of the Foster Witness Statement is lengthy and continues for several pages. In the balance of para 66, several other discovered documents are specifically relied on.
50 I now turn to how Marsh relied on the discovered documents generally. In some instances, Marsh advanced general propositions about the effect of the body of documents that were in its possession or emanated from GBAG. These included the discovered documents (although the fact that they had been discovered by GBAG in the Greensill Proceedings was not disclosed). For example, at para 19.4 of the Skeleton Argument, Marsh submitted:
The documents in [Marsh's] possession mostly suggest that [GBAG] acknowledges that it had a broker-client relationship with [Marsh Ltd] and/or that it is bound by the GCUK Letters of Engagement. …
(Emphasis added.)
51 Further, at para 73.2 of the Skeleton Argument, Marsh submitted:
Secondly, while [Marsh Ltd and Marsh Pty Ltd] have sought to anticipate the way in which a "no authority" argument could be run, as part of their duty of full and frank disclosure, the reality is that [GBAG and Dr Frege] have never actually articulated any such argument. On the contrary, the preponderance of the documents emanating from [GBAG and Dr Frege], whether internal or external, suggests that [GBAG and Dr Frege] do regard themselves as bound by the GCUK Letters of Engagement. Mr. Foster quotes a number of documents to this effect at Foster, [66].
(Emphasis added.)
52 At the conclusion of the hearing on 30 July 2024, the English Court made an interim anti-suit injunction restraining GBAG and Dr Frege from joining Marsh Ltd to the GBAG Proceedings. However, the English Court did not make an anti-suit injunction restraining GBAG and Dr Frege from joining Marsh Pty Ltd to the GBAG Proceedings.
53 Insofar as the Anti-suit Application was brought by Marsh Pty Ltd, which was not a party to any of the Greensill Proceedings at that time, Mr Foster gives the following evidence in para 28 of the First Foster Affidavit:
I understand that GBAG and Dr Frege allege that Marsh Limited allowed Marsh Pty Ltd to "access" documents from GBAG's discovery in the Greensill Proceedings for the purposes of the application. While Marsh Pty Ltd was included as a claimant in the application for the [Anti-suit Application], at no stage in the application were any employees of Marsh Pty Ltd given access to documents (or information derived) from GBAG's discovery in the Greensill Proceedings, nor have any such employees been provided with documents which refer to those discovery documents. My instructions as regards Marsh Pty Ltd were provided by Katherine Brennan, the General Counsel of the entire Marsh McLennan Group.
I accept the evidence of Mr Foster in the First Foster Affidavit as set out above.
54 On 1 August 2024, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan (in London), on behalf of GBAG and Dr Frege, wrote to HFW England communicating their concerns with the Anti-suit Application and the basis on which interim relief was granted to Marsh Ltd, including the apparent breach of the implied undertaking and non-compliance with Marsh's duty of full and frank disclosure. The letter also asked that HFW England take immediate steps to inform the English Court that the Anti-suit Application contained documents subject to the implied undertaking, and that the documents should be marked as confidential on the Court file.
55 On 2 August 2024, HFW England responded to the above letter.
56 During August and September 2024, there was correspondence between the parties, and between the parties and the English Court. The Return Date for the Anti-suit Application was initially 13 September 2024. Following submissions made by the parties, the English Court determined that that date should be vacated and the matter re-fixed for hearing. The hearing has now been re-listed on 20 and 21 November 2024 (with 18 and 19 November 2024 allocated for judicial pre-reading).
57 On 10 October 2024, this Court heard an ex parte application by GBAG and Dr Frege for interim anti-anti-suit relief against Marsh. The application was made by interlocutory application dated 3 October 2024 (the original form of the Amended Interlocutory Application). The Court determined that an interim anti-anti-suit injunction should be made in respect of Marsh Pty Ltd but not Marsh Ltd: Credit Suisse Virtuoso SICAV-SIF v Insurance Australia Limited [2024] FCA 1193.
58 On 18 October 2024, GBAG and Dr Frege's interlocutory application dated 3 October 2024 returned to the Court on an inter partes basis. On that occasion, Marsh Pty Ltd did not oppose the continuation of the anti-anti-suit injunction until the determination of the final orders sought by GBAG and Dr Frege in the interlocutory application. Accordingly, the anti-anti-suit injunction in respect of Marsh Pty Ltd was continued.
59 As indicated above, on 4 November 2024, this Court granted GBAG and Dr Frege leave to join Marsh Pty Ltd as a respondent to the GBAG Proceedings. Subsequently, GBAG and Dr Frege filed and served amended documents joining Marsh Pty Ltd to the GBAG Proceedings.
60 At the end of the First Foster Affidavit, Mr Foster states:
E. Apology to Federal Court of Australia
39 If this Court were to find that Marsh or I have breached the Harman undertaking, then I would wish to extend a sincere apology to the Court. At all times, I considered that Marsh's obligations under the Harman undertaking yielded to Marsh's obligations to comply with the duty of full and frank disclosure that Marsh owed to the English Court in making an ex parte application for the anti-suit injunction. Accordingly, any breach of the Harman undertaking to this Court was not a deliberate breach. If I was wrong about the legal position, then I sincerely apologise to the Court on my own behalf and on behalf of Marsh.
61 I accept that this apology is genuinely given. Insofar as the above paragraph contains evidence about Mr Foster's state of mind, I accept that evidence.