Sucden Financial Limited v TMT Metals AG & Ors

Facts

Sucden Financial Limited brought proceedings in the Commercial Court against TMT Metals AG, Mr Prateek Gupta and Mine Craft Limited, arising from events some four years earlier and involving allegations of dishonesty. The claim was commenced three years before this decision, but had not progressed beyond the jurisdictional stage so far as Mr Gupta was concerned: he declined to authorise the solicitors acting for TMT to accept service on his behalf, service took time to effect, and his challenge to jurisdiction then had to be resolved. Mr Justice Robin Knowles dismissed Mr Gupta's application to set aside the order granting Sucden permission to serve the proceedings on him out of the jurisdiction, and made consequential directions extending time for an acknowledgment of service and defence by reference to the various outcomes of any application for permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal. Mr Gupta appealed; on 31 July 2026 the Court of Appeal dismissed that appeal. This judgment deals with the consequential question raised by Mr Gupta: whether the timetable should be further varied to accommodate the possibility of an application for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court, so that time for a further acknowledgment of service and defence would run only from the final resolution of any such application or appeal.