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England and Wales High Court (Chancery Division) Decisions |
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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales High Court (Chancery Division) Decisions >> Red River UK Ltd & Anor v Sheikh & Anor [2009] EWHC 3257 (Ch) (24 November 2009) URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2009/3257.html Cite as: [2009] EWHC 3257 (Ch) |
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CHANCERY DIVISION
Strand London WC2A 2LL |
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B e f o r e :
BETWEEN:
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(1) RED RIVER UK LIMITED | ||
(2) ISMAIL DOGAN | Claimants | |
-v- | ||
(1) ANAL SHEIKH | ||
(2) RABIA SHEIKH | Defendants |
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101 Finsbury Pavement London EC2A 1ER
Tel No: 020 7422 6131 Fax No: 020 7422 6134
Web: www.merrillcorp.com/mls Email: [email protected]
(Official Shorthand Writers to the Court)
The First Defendant appeared in person.
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Crown Copyright ©
"The First Defendant alleges that Henderson J has behaved in a racially discriminating manner in this case with the purpose and intention of causing the First Defendant and her mother hardship and suffering. Without limiting the generality of the allegations against Henderson J:
(1) He has concealed or caused two 'white' firms to conceal that they were going to complete what the First Defendant has termed 'the Fraudulent Transaction' (in effect a phoenix mortgage or sale to a phoenix entity).
(2) He has encouraged a 'white' firm to proceed with a sham and fraudulent claim against the First and Second Defendants whereby they have lost everything they own.
(3) He has refused to acknowledge trite Court of Appeal authority and Rimer LJ's findings in this case.
(4) He has taken advantage of the fact that the First and Second Defendants are litigants in person.
The First Defendant seeks directions such as an order that Henderson J responds to a Flannery v Halifax questionnaire, and that evidence be adduced that Henderson J has discriminated against other Muslim persons."
(I should say that I have incorporated a few minor corrections and clarifications in the above quote.)
"I am preparing my application for the recusal application. I may have the statement ready by the end of the week, but my circumstances are such, dealing as I am with a multiplicity of applications which no person could deal with, a situation I say on good grounds, your Lordship has deliberately engineered, that I doubt I will be able to finalise the statement until the end of the week. It will be ready on Monday.
So that no one can say they are prejudiced, I set out my grounds:
(1) In 2007 Briggs J conducted a series of the most extraordinary interim applications in legal history in which my mother and I lost everything we possess at one without notice application. He breached five CA authorities and departed from the case he argued as a silk, the Daybells case.
(2) In order to cover it up he set me up with a damaging judgment based on a finding on paper that I, an experienced commercial conveyancing practitioner, 'sabotaged' a settlement agreement which was highly beneficial to me in that I would today be receiving £7,500 per month, within a few weeks of having agreed it.
(3) I say what was happening was that my opponents were carrying out a 'phoenix mortgage' or 'sale to a nominee company' which is commonly undertaken by practitioners. I say that any reasonable person would see that my account is the right one. The emotive language used in the Briggs J judgment e.g. "sabotage" "she persists in objecting to the deed of priority" immediately discredits Briggs J and undermines his judgment.
(4) The Chancery Division is extremely embarrassed that I, a person the judicial system has historically regarded as 'an educated wog', is challenging the notion that the 'whites' have a monopoly on intelligence, expertise, integrity, truth and decency.
(5) Your Lordship knows that this case is difficult. It requires an enormous investment of time to read and understand it. It is obvious that you have not read the file. Isadore Goldman, Counsel for them, and the parties acting in the fraud case - Withers, WCHH, Beale, etc have not read it. They don't need to. They know they can come into court with a skeleton a few pages long with some defamatory material about me, and people lie [?about] me and win. They know the judge also can't be bothered to read the file, but has worked out that he can simply give a bad judgment against 'the black man' and send him on the appeal route. They being 'white' know that a 'white' judge will protect them.
(6) The strategy in the Chancery Division again, so stupidly obvious, is to (1) not bother to read the file, (2) make irrational judgment, (3) send people like me on the scenic appeal route, (4) wait for them to go bankrupt, (5) in my case wait for my mother to die."
"2. At the heart of this case is a routine conveyancing transaction whereby a creditor for £1.2 million was to be given a second legal charge subject to a first legal charge limited to £1.75 million.
3. The settlement agreement of 29th June 2007 recording the above also records that my mother and I were to receive £300,000 rising to £7,500 per month in May 2008 until December 2009. We have not received a penny piece.
4. I refer to my fraud synopsis which sets out how the fraud, in this case a phoenix mortgage, was going to be conducted and not the 'composite transaction' as Briggs J assumed."
She then said in paragraph 5:
"The fraud is so obvious to a commercial conveyancing practitioner it beggars belief that Henderson J cannot see the fraud. It is known as phoenix lending and is commonly used to emasculate the interests of secondary lenders."
"The question is whether the fair-minded and informed observer, having considered the facts, would conclude that there was a real possibility that the tribunal was biased."
In using this language Lord Hope emphasised that the relevant test was whether there was, in the eyes of a fair-minded and informed observer, a real possibility of bias. He said that the alternative formulation in terms of a real danger of bias served no useful purpose and should therefore be discarded. Lord Hope went on in paragraph 104 to make two points which, in my view, bear repetition First, he said that assertions by the judge that he was unbiased are unlikely to be helpful in the context of the question whether the test of appearance of bias is satisfied. Secondly, he endorsed the view of the European Court of Human Rights in one of the leading cases "that what is decisive is whether any fears expressed by the complainer are objectively justified." I emphasise, therefore, that the test is one of objective justification.
"Although it is important that justice must be seen to be done, it is equally important that judicial officers discharge their duty to sit and do not, by acceding too readily to suggestions of appearance of bias, encourage parties to believe that by seeking the disqualification of a judge, they will have their case tried by someone thought to be more likely to decide the case in their favour."
Secondly, in what they refer to as the Clenae case [1999] VSCA 35, Callaway JA observed at paragraph 89(e):
"As a general rule, it is the duty of a judicial officer to hear and determine the cases allocated to him or her by his or her head of jurisdiction. Subject to certain limited exceptions, a judge or magistrate should not accede to an unfounded disqualification application."
"In terms of time, cost and listing it might well be more efficient and convenient to proceed with the trial, but efficiency and convenience are not the determinative legal values: the paramount concern of the legal system is to administer justice, which must be, and must be seen by the litigants and fair-minded members of the public to be fair, and impartial. Anything less is not worth having."
"I very much hope that it will not be necessary for me to take that step, but in my judgment the remedy lies in Miss Sheikh's own hands."