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England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Decisions |
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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Decisions >> Financial Services Authority v Martin & Anor [2005] EWCA Civ 1422 (25 November 2005) URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2005/1422.html Cite as: [2005] EWCA Civ 1422 |
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COURT OF APPEAL (CIVIL DIVISION)
ON APPEAL FROM CHANCERY DIVISION
HER HONOUR JUDGE ALTON QC
SITTING AS A HIGH COURT JUDGE
HC03C02126
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL |
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B e f o r e :
LORD JUSTICE LONGMORE
and
LORD JUSTICE LLOYD
____________________
THE FINANCIAL SERVICES AUTHORITY (A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE) |
Claimant/ Respondent |
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- and - |
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(1) JOHN MARTIN (2) ADRIAN SAM & CO. (a Firm) |
Defendants/Appellants |
____________________
Mr Charles H. Joseph (instructed by James S Barnett) for the 1st Defendant/Appellant
Mr Carl Fain (instructed by Richard Rooney & Co.) for the 2nd Defendant/Appellant
Hearing dates : 13th October 2005
____________________
Crown Copyright ©
The Chancellor :
"(2) If on the application of the Authority or the Secretary of State the court is satisfied-
(a) that any person has contravened a relevant requirement, and(b) that there are steps which could be taken for remedying the contravention,
the court may make an order requiring that person, and any other person who appears to have been knowingly concerned in the contravention, to take such steps as the court may direct to remedy it."
The authority referred to is the Financial Services Authority ("FSA"), the claimant in this action and respondent to the appeal.
(1) by way of final order the sum of £101,391 for distribution to the investors identified in Part A of the Schedule to the order, and
(2) by way of interim order the sum of £258,000 for distribution to the investors identified in Part B of the Schedule.
The investors identified in Part A were those individuals who paid for shares but never received the certificates. The sum of £101,391 represents the balance due to them after the money remaining in the Firm's client account had been distributed among them. The investors identified in Part B received the shares they paid for. The sum of £258,000 represents the excess purchase price paid by them over what Mr Wilkinson had paid for the same shares.
"For the purposes of this Act a person carries on investment business in the United Kingdom if he –
[(a)..]
(b) engages in the United Kingdom in one or more of the activities which fall within the paragraphs in Part II of that Schedule and are not excluded by Part III or IV of that Schedule and his so doing constitutes the carrying on by him of a business in the United Kingdom."
The first activity specified in Part II of the Schedule is
"12. Buying, selling, subscribing for or underwriting investments or offering or agreeing to do so, either as principal or as an agent."
S.3 provided:
"No person shall carry on, or purport to carry on, investment business in the United Kingdom unless he is an authorised person under Chapter III or an exempted person under Chapter IV of this Part of this Act."
S.4 provided that any such contravention constituted an offence. S.5 provided that the agreements to which it applied should be unenforceable and entitled the innocent party to any such transaction to recover any money or property paid or transferred by him under such a transaction. S.6(1) conferred jurisdiction on the court to grant an injunction restraining the contravention of s.3.
"If, on the application of the Secretary of State, the court is satisfied that a person has entered into a transaction in contravention of section 3 above the court may order that person and any other person who appears to the court to have been knowingly concerned in the contravention to take such steps as the court may direct for restoring the parties to the position in which they were before the transaction was entered into."
Subsections (3) to (7) conferred further powers enabling the court to require a person who had contravened s.3 to pay into court such sums as might represent the profit to that person or loss to others from such contraventions.
"If on the application of the Secretary of State the court is satisfied –
[(a) and (b)]
(c) that any person has contravened [ss. 47 or 57] and that there are steps that could be taken for remedying the contravention,
The court may....make an order requiring that person and any other person who appears to the court to have been knowingly concerned in the contravention to take such steps as the court may direct to remedy it."
"In subsection (2) references to remedying a contravention include mitigating its effect."
In subsection (6) "Relevant requirement" is defined in relation to an application by FSA as
"a requirement –
(i) which is imposed by or under this Act; or
(ii) which is imposed by or under any other Act and whose contravention constitutes an offence which the Authority has power to prosecute under this Act;"
"if it is satisfied that a person has contravened a relevant requirement, or been knowingly concerned in the contravention of such a requirement, and –
(a) that profits have accrued to him as a result of the contravention; or
(b) that one or more persons have suffered loss or been otherwise adversely affected as a result of the contravention."
Subsection (2) enables the court to make orders directing "the person concerned" to pay to the FSA "such sum as appears to the court to be just having regard to "the profits appearing to the court to have accrued", "the extent of the loss or other adverse effect" or to both as the case may be.
"No order may be made under section 380(2) in relation to a contravention of a requirement imposed by section 3 of the Financial Services Act unless the court is satisfied that the person concerned contravened that requirement by entering into a transaction."
(1) s.380(2) does not confer jurisdiction on the court to make restitutionary rather than corrective orders;
(2) the payment orders made by the judge were not authorised by the subsection as they were not directed to requiring Mr Martin or the Firm to take steps to remedy the contravention of s.3 by Mr Wilkinson;
(3) the payment orders were precluded by Regulation 2(4) of the Transitional Provisions Order because there is no allegation or finding that either Mr Martin or the Firm contravened the requirement of s.3 by entering into a transaction.
"Buying, selling, subscribing for or underwriting investments or offering or agreeing to do so, either as principal or as an agent."
Further the facts alleged and proved to the satisfaction of the judge demonstrated a number of such transactions. Thus the contraventions included those transactions. The order of the judge for payment of £101,391 was made for the purpose of reimbursing those who had paid for shares they had not received. As such it was, in my view, a step directed to the remedying of the contravention. Similarly the order for payment of the sum of £258,000 was designed to mitigate the effect of the contravention on those who received their shares by repaying to them the excess over the true market price which they had paid into the Firm's client account.
"the powers of the court against those knowingly concerned where section 3 contraventions were concerned, previously to be found in s.6(2) would be totally removed."
She found that the power remained as a consequence of the combined effect of section 380(2) and the regulations.
"in relation to a contravention of [s.3] solely on the ground that a person has been knowingly concerned in such a contravention by another".
If there can be no such liability under s.382 I can see no reason why there should be one under s.380(2). Accordingly the point which appealed to the judge appeared to me to have the opposite effect.
"If, as I have concluded, it is appropriate to make an order against the first defendant, it must be equally appropriate to make such an order against the second defendant, even if it means that Mr Sam, as the only other partner must take personal liability."
Lord Justice Longmore
Lord Justice Lloyd
i) Section 6(1) enabled the court to grant injunctions to restrain future contraventions of the section, of any kind. Such orders, necessarily, were against a person who had contravened or was likely to contravene the section.ii) Section 6(2) applied only if there had been a contravention which comprised or included entering into a transaction. It enabled the court to make orders requiring persons to take steps for restoring the parties to the position in which they were before the transaction was entered into. Such orders might be made against the contravener or against a person knowingly concerned in the contravention.
iii) Section 6(3) to (7) applied if a person had carried on investment business in contravention of section 3 and either that person had accrued profits, or investors had suffered loss or been otherwise adversely affected, as a result of the contraventions. They enabled various orders to be made, but only against the contravener, not against persons knowingly concerned. The orders might provide for the person in question to be ordered to pay a sum which appears to be just having regard to the profits, the losses or other adverse effects, or both. I do not need, for present purposes, to go into the consequential provisions made in the later sub-sections.
i) Under section 61(1) the court might grant an injunction restraining apprehended future contraventions.ii) Under the same sub-section, if a contravention had occurred and there were steps that could be taken for remedying it, the court might make an order requiring the contravener and any person knowingly concerned in the contravention to take such steps.
iii) Under sub-sections (3) to (7), if profits had accrued to a person, or if investors had suffered loss or other adverse effects, as a result of his contravention, the court might make an order requiring him to pay sums by reference to the profits, the loss or other adverse effect or both.
"make provision about the effect of requirements imposed, liabilities incurred and any other things done before commencement, including provision for and about investigations, penalties and the taking or continuing of any other action in respect of contraventions"
"No order may be made under section 380(2) in relation to a contravention of a requirement imposed by section 3 of the Financial Services Act unless the court is satisfied that the person concerned contravened that requirement by entering into a transaction."
i) First, it seems to me that it is a legitimate, fair and natural reading of paragraph (4) to construe it as providing that no person may be subject to an order under section 380(2) by reason of pre-commencement conduct in breach of section 3 unless that breach involved entry into a transaction, regardless of whether the person against whom the order is sought himself entered into the transaction.ii) Secondly, for the reasons set out above, at some length, I consider that the inference to be drawn from the other uses of the words "the person concerned" elsewhere in article 2 favours the judge's reading, insofar as they are at all analogous in context.
iii) Thirdly, there was no need to limit the application of section 382 by reference to entry into a transaction because section 6(3), unlike section 6(2), was not limited to cases of contraventions of section 3 involving entry into a transaction.
iv) Fourthly, the point of paragraph (8) is that section 6(3) and section 61(3), to which section 382 is equivalent, were not available against a person knowingly concerned, whereas section 382 is available against such a person. Paragraph 2(8) was therefore necessary to preserve that limitation.