The Supreme Court has referred to the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) a dispute between a former director of an Irish-registered equities firm and an insurance company over whether he should fight his case in Ireland or Norway.
Arne Vigeland, who was removed as director of Dalkey-registered SJI Equities Ltd in January 2023, is claiming damages for tortious interference in his business affairs arising out of a €1 million legal costs order made against him by the Norwegian courts on December 9th, 2022.
That order arose out of unsuccessful proceedings in Norway by SJI against a number of former board members of Norwegian household renovations company, RenoNorden ASA.
It was claimed that RenoNorden provided SJI’s parent, the Belize-registered investment vehicle SJI Investments Ltd, with incorrect information when it (SJI) bought €5 million in shares in RenoNorden in 2017.
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Mr Vigeland, who lives in Nesoya in the Asker Municipality of Norway, said that following the share acquisition, SJI discovered the financial position of RenoNorden was much worse than had been revealed beforehand. RenoNorden went bankrupt in September 2017, he said.
His proceedings against RenoNorden in Norway were ultimately unsuccessful.
However, Mr Vigeland was then sued in Norway by Zurich for the recovery of the €1 million it had paid for legal costs in the RenoNorden case. Zurich had indemnified that firm’s shareholders and directors for that purpose.
Zurich also got a €1 million freezing order on Mr Vigeland’s assets on the basis that he had wrongfully transferred the RenoNorden action from SJI Investments to SJI Equities in order to evade any costs order that might be made in favour of the insurer.
Mr Vigeland said SJI Investments decided not to fund the RenoNorden lawsuit any further after the costs of the claim overran expectations.
In 2023, Zurich got an order in the Norwegian courts freezing Mr Vigeland’s assets and placing a €1 million charge over his home in Asker.
He then brought proceedings in Ireland against Zurich. He also got a stay in Norway on further proceedings by Zurich for an order requiring him to pay the €1 million.
The stay was to remain in place pending a decision in Ireland over which of the two jurisdictions should deal with his tortious interference case.
Zurich asked the High Court to rule that Norway and not Ireland was the proper jurisdiction for the case.
In November 2023, the High Court ruled that Norway was the correct jurisdiction for him to bring his case. He appealed and the Court of Appeal (CoA) which, in February 2025, upheld the High Court decision.
The Supreme Court granted a further appeal.
On Monday, the Supreme Court decided to refer the question of jurisdiction to the CJEU.
Mr Justice Gerard Hogan, on behalf of the five-judge court, said the parties in the case agreed that the resolution of the dispute between them on appeal remained dependent on the interpretation and application a the Lugano Convention treaty on the recognition and enforcement of civil and commercial court judgments between the EU states and the non-EU European Free Trade countries of Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland.
The judge said he was inclined to disagree with the CoA.
The separate proceedings concerning the potential liability of a third party, such as Mr Vigeland, for non-party costs were not “proceedings concerned with the enforcement of a judgment” for the purposes of Article 22(5) of Lugano, such that the Norwegian courts would otherwise have had exclusive jurisdiction in the matter, he said.
If this was correct, it follows that the Irish courts have jurisdiction to entertain the present proceedings for a negative declaration in respect of liability for a sum equivalent to those costs, by reason of the fact that Zurich is domiciled here.
However, he said, the matter has not been authoritatively decided by the CJEU and he was therefore referring it to that court for determination.
He also said the present appeal should be stayed pending the outcome of that reference.
