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Bank of New York Mellon v Essar Steel: Service of claim form on process agent who is no longer authorised to act
In the contract entered into between the parties, there was a clause which provided that the defendant irrevocably appointed a certain process agent to receive service of any claim form on its behalf. When the claimant subsequently served its claim form on that process agent, it was informed by it that its appointment by the defendant had been terminated over 10 years ago. The issue therefore arose whether the defendant had been validly served.
The judge held that it had. The clause in the agreement constituted an irrevocable promise as between the claimant and the defendant that service on the process agent was good service for the purpose of proceedings in England. Service in accordance with this clause was therefore good service, and it made no difference that the defendant had withdrawn its authority from the process agent to accept service on its behalf.
COMMENT: This case therefore serves as a reminder that parties will need to amend contracts containing a process agent service clause where the relationship between a party and its process agent has been terminated. There has been conflicting caselaw on the issue of whether the CPR still applies where a contract contain provisions regarding how a claim form is to be served in the event of a claim under the contract.
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