Inner Mongolia King Deer Cashmere Company Limited v Haian Ma

Facts

The claimant, Inner Mongolia King Deer Cashmere Company Limited ("IMKD"), manufactures cashmere products in China. The defendant, Mr Haian Ma, became its UK agent in 2004 for sales of cashmere products to Marks & Spencer. On Mr Ma's case that agency rested on a written Exclusive Agency Agreement running until at least 2020, under which his remuneration was the difference between IMKD's price and the price he negotiated with M&S; IMKD says the agreement never applied, though it accepts some form of agency existed. Payment routes changed over the years, latterly running through Mr Ma's companies Kingdeer Cashmere Limited and Toplink. IMKD purported to terminate in September 2014, when Kingdeer Cashmere Limited held some $9.4 million of M&S money which Mr Ma admits he caused it to withhold, asserting a far larger claim for repudiatory breach. IMKD sued in China in 2015 and obtained a default judgment in 2019, then issued these Commercial Court proceedings in August 2020. Mr Ma's application to stay for arbitration was dismissed and struck out, directions were given for a defence, none was served, and default judgment and freezing relief followed. Mr Ma applied to set the judgment aside.